5 Tips for a Healthy New Year's Eating
No matter what your New Year's resolutions are, a healthy and balanced diet will bring you many benefits in 2019 and beyond. What we eat and drink will affect our body’s ability to fight infections, as well as the possibility of our future health problems, including obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and various cancers.
The specific components of a healthy diet depend on different factors such as our age and level of physical activity, as well as the type of food served in the community in which we live. But even in different cultures, some common diet tips can help us live healthier and longer lives.
Important tips
Eat different foods
Salt reduction
Reduce the use of certain fats and oils
Limit sugar intake
Avoid the harmful use of alcohol
Eat different foods
Balanced diet
Our bodies are extremely complex, and (except for the breast milk needed by babies) no single food contains all the nutrients we need to keep our bodies in their best condition. Therefore, our diet should include a variety of nutritious fresh foods in order to maintain good health.
Tips to ensure a balanced diet:
The daily diet should try to contain a variety of staple foods such as wheat, corn, rice and potatoes, plus legumes such as lentils and pods, plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables, and foods of animal origin (such as meat, fish, eggs, and milk).
Choose unprocessed whole grain foods as much as possible, such as corn, millet, oats, wheat, and brown rice; these foods are rich in valuable fiber, which can increase satiety.
Choose lean meat as much as possible, or remove fat meat.
When cooking, try to steam or boil instead of frying food.
The snacks you choose should be raw vegetables, unsalted nuts, and fresh fruits, rather than high-sugar, high-fat, and high-salt foods.
Salt reduction
salt
Eating too much salt raises blood pressure, and high blood pressure is a major risk factor for heart disease and stroke. Most people in the world eat too much salt: on average, our daily salt intake is twice the WHO recommended limit (5 grams, equivalent to one teaspoon).
We should understand that even if we do not add additional salt to food, processed foods and beverages often contain a lot of salt.
Tips for reducing salt intake:
Use less salt when cooking and processing food, and reduce the use of salty sauces and condiments (such as soy sauce, stock or fish sauce).
Avoid high-salt snacks and try to choose fresh healthy snacks instead of processed foods.
When using canned or dried vegetables, nuts, and fruits, choose varieties that do not add salt and sugar.
There are no salt shakers and salt-containing condiments on the table, try to avoid the habit of adding such condiments; human taste buds can quickly make adjustments, and once adjusted, you can enjoy low-salt but more delicious food!
Check food labels and choose low-sodium products.
Reduce the use of certain fats and oils
Trans fat
We all need a certain amount of fat in our diet, but excessive intake, especially bad fat, will increase the risk of obesity, heart disease and stroke.
Industrially produced trans fats are the most harmful to health. If the diet contains a lot of trans fats, it can increase the risk of heart disease by nearly 30%.
Tips to reduce fat consumption:
Replace butter, lard, and ghee with healthier oils such as soybean oil, rapeseed oil, corn oil, safflower oil, and sunflower oil.
Choose white meats such as poultry and fish, whose fat content is usually lower than that of red meats; at the same time limit the consumption of processed meat products.
Check food labels, and be sure to avoid all kinds of processed foods, fast foods, and fried foods that contain industrially produced trans fats. Trans fats are often found in margarine and ghee, prepackaged snacks, fast food, baked and fried foods.
Limit sugar intake
sugar
Eating too much sugar is not only harmful to teeth, but also increases the risk of overweight and obesity, which can lead to serious chronic health problems.
As with salt, you must pay attention to the sugar "hidden" in processed foods and beverages. For example, a can of soda can contain up to 10 teaspoons of added sugar!
Tips to reduce sugar intake:
Limit the intake of sweets and sugary beverages, such as carbonated drinks, fruit juices and juice drinks, fruit juice concentrates or powders, flavored water, energy and sports drinks, ready-to-drink tea and coffee, and flavored milk beverages.
Choose healthy and fresh snacks instead of processed foods.
Avoid giving children sugary foods. Salt and sugar should not be added to the complementary food for children under 2 years old, and the amount of sugar and salt should also be restricted in the food of children over 2 years old.
Avoid the harmful use of alcohol
Alcohol
Alcohol is not part of a healthy diet, but in many cultures, celebrating the New Year is associated with heavy drinking. In general, drinking too much or too frequently can increase the direct risk of injury and can also bring long-term effects such as liver damage, cancer, heart disease, and mental illness.
The WHO advises: There is no safe threshold for drinking; for many people, even a small amount of alcohol can bring serious health risks.
Remember: reducing alcohol consumption is good for your health, and there is no problem at all if you don't drink alcohol.
You should not drink alcohol at all if you are pregnant or breastfeeding; driving, operating machinery, or engaging in other activities with related risks; suffering from diseases that can aggravate the condition of alcohol; taking drugs that have a direct effect on alcohol; or Drinking lacks self-control.
If you or someone you love may have problems with the abuse of alcohol or other psychoactive substances, don't be afraid to ask health workers or drug and alcohol professional services for help. WHO has also compiled a "Self-Help Guide" to provide guidance for those who wish to reduce or stop using it.