Free Diet Tips

Healthy meal ingredients are not artificial flavours or artificial colours. The bright colours like oranges and vivid greens are coming from Mother Nature herself, and this article will outline some of the worst ingredients to avoid and best ingredients to include in your next healthy meal.

If you have access and can afford organic foods then opt for them. With today’s supermarkets in mass production even the fresh foods that we may think are healthy, have had some sort of pesticide on them or has been grown with growth enhancing substances. None the less, non-organic fresh produce is doable. Also, canned fruits and vegetables do not deserve the really bad rep that they have, as long as they don’t include ingredients other than the fruit and veg, then they’re fine. Watch for added sodium or sugar and in the case of fruits, make sure they are packed in water or their own juice rather than heavy syrup.

Choose lean cuts of meat with little to no visible fat. Purchase packages of boneless, skinless chicken, such as chicken breast or turkey breast will save you time, and in the long run may actually be cheaper. Buy beef cuts such as sirloin which are the leanest cuts and of course any fish, such as salmon, tuna should be staples in your weekly shopping list.

Look for wholegrain breads and grain products, including breakfast, pasta and rice. Read the labels. The word “whole wheat flour” should be listed first, and steer clear of words like “enriched flour” – this is simply white flour with molasses or other coloring to make it appear to be a whole grain product. Plus, on the topic of breads, try and look for all natural varieties without ingredients that you can’t even pronounce.

Extra virgin olive oil should also be included in the ingredients for a healthy meal. It should say extra virgin on the label which means it was made from the first pressing of the olives. Drizzle it on and any salad and if you want to cook just use a little light olive oil. The flavour of extra virgin olive oil is superior to light olive oil, making it very good for dipping and for creating your own healthier salad dressings. Where as light olive oil is perfectly fine for cooking with.

Milk, yogurt and cheese should be low fat, but do not feel that everything has to be no fat. Unless your doctor orders you to drink no fat milk, 1 or 2% milk is fine. Everyone needs some dietary fat in our diets, and some products are just not as good when they are fat free. Cottage cheese is one that comes quickly to mind on this one. Not only is cottage cheese high in protein, but you’ll probably find that the low fat versions include unhealthy ingredients (the one’s you can’t pronounce), so opting for the full fat variety is perfectly fine.

Chocolate is included in this list of ingredients for a healthy meal because who doesn’t love chocolate, and because it actually is healthy. Try and opt for dark chocolate as it has the most antioxidants that are actually more beneficial than a glass of red wine. That’s not to say that you can’t have a glass of red wine with your evening meal, just don’t over do it. Savour a one ounce portion of dark chocolate at the end of your meal and you can declare yourself in healthy heaven.

Finding healthy meal ingredients doesn’t have to be difficult. Generally speaking any natural food, ones that haven’t been produced by a machine and contains only the one ingredient are the best foods to include in your next healthy meal. Make sure you include a variety of them in your diet to avoid getting bored of eating the same foods over and over again.