Discover the benefits of healthy eating during Nutrition Month

ALISON NICHOLS
Special to Nunatsiaq News

Eating well and living well can help you look and feel your best, and can make healthy aging a reality. Healthy eating and nutritional well-being not only benefit individuals, but society as a whole.

Healthy eating can help protect you from certain illnesses, such as cancer, coronary heart disease and diabetes. Many studies show that a lower fat diet and high fiber foods such as whole grains and fruits and vegetables have a protective effect against disease.

Healthy eating can be achieved by following these guidelines:

• Eat more whole grains such as bran and whole wheat or enriched cereals;

• Aim for more vegetables and fruits, especially the bright orange and dark, leafy green types like oranges, spinach and broccoli;

• Help strengthen your bones by getting enough calcium. Be sure to have milk, cheese, yogurt or fish with bones every day;

• Eat lower fat foods more often by choosing leaner meats, poultry and fish and lower-fat milk products like 1% or skim.

• When cooking, add as little fat as possible. Soft margarines or vegetable oils are better choices than lard or butter. The “heart-healthiest” types of margarine are made from canola, olive or peanut oils.

• Trim off all visible fat away from meats and take the skin off chicken before cooking;

• Limit your intake of salt, alcohol and caffeine.

We also need to be active to be healthy. Physical inactivity is as dangerous to our health as smoking. Moderate activity such as walking, for 30 minutes at a time, at least three times a week has shown to have benefits, such as better health, improved fitness, weight control, feeling more energetic and better self esteem.

Whether you want to eat healthier or become more active, if you make small changes one step at a time, there’s a better chance that the change will last. Enjoy a variety of foods, and remember that there is no such thing as “bad food.” Just be sure not to overdo it.

Watch this space in the weeks ahead for more healthy lifestyle and nutrition information.

Alison Nichols is regional dietitian with the Baffin Regional Health & Social Services Board. You can contact her for more helpful tips at 979-5306.