5 Wrong eating habits

The older we get, the less balanced and more haphazard our eating habits can become. Sometimes we go to extremes to lose weight; sometimes we become almost addicted to certain foods, especially sweet and fatty ones; sometimes we lose interest in cooking and preparing meals. If any of those things sound familiar, maybe it’s time to tweak your diet.

Here are the five bad food habits to avoid:

1-Eating the same way you did, 20 years ago: Calorie requirements drop as we get older. With a lower calorie requirement, there is less room for extra such as sweets and high-fat foods. Nutrient-dense foods like fruits, vegetables, whole grains and lean protein sources like fish or skinless chicken breast deliver maximum nutritional bang for the buck.

2-Underestimating the nutritional value of frozen foods: Fill your freezer with vegetables, fruits, and a few frozen entrees instead of Haagen-Dazs. Frozen vegetables without sauces and frozen fruits without sweeteners are just as healthy as fresh, and may be more convenient. Frozen meals can be healthy if they are balanced and not too high in sodium – a dinner with a chicken or fish entrée and a vegetable side dish, for example. In fact, frozen food can be a good choice for those times when you don’t feel like cooking and are tempted to reach for cookies or cake because they’re easy as well as tasty. Rounding the meal out with another serving of vegetables or a salad, and some fruit for dessert is a great idea.


3-Fasting or skipping meals:If you do it to lose weight, it can backfire because you’ll be so hungry by
the next mealtime that you’ll consume more calories than you would have if you’d eaten normally.

4-Following fad diets or believing nutrition myths: There’s no good scientific evidence backing nutrition
regimens based on combining foods, omitting certain food groups, or eating only at certain times of the day. Diets like these don’t promote lasting weight loss and won’t improve your health.

5-Not keeping healthy snacks on hand: You don’t have to be a registered dietitian to realize that a freezer full of icecream, combined with an empty vegetable bin and nothing but hot dogs in the meat compartment, is not conducive to healthy eating.

WHAT YOU CAN DO :
■ Rebalance the contents of your freezer: ¾ vegetables and unsweetened fruits, ¼ dessert items.
■ If you’re an ice-cream fiend, try frozen yoghurt or ice-cream sweetened naturally.
■ Try to eat on schedule – breakfast, lunch and dinner, with small, healthy snacks in between. A few         almonds or a carrot makes a good snack. A stack of cookies or a bowl of chips… not so good.
■ Avoid eating late at night – it’s bad for digestion, increases fat and disturbs sleep.
■ If you can, spend mealtimes with others, whether sharing cooking chores or eating out, to avoid binges and ‘lone wolf’ eating habits.