The basics of healthy eating

The basics of healthy eating

If you find yourself constantly rushing out the door in the mornings without a plan for breakfast or even lunch, you’re not alone.

This is a scenario that I often found myself in during my dietetic internship. Short sleep times paired with high stress and little meal planning meant I frequently skipped breakfast without intending to.

In this situation, we can recognize the importance of meal planning and preparation.

Even if you’re not able to change your busy schedule soon, you can become more prepared to nourish your body despite the rush.

Planning your meals will help you become more organized and intentional about having nutritious foods in the morning. It’ll also help you stop skipping meals unintentionally.

Preplanning tips

• Prep the night before. Prepare your breakfast meal and morning snack the night before. For example, overnight oats , pudding are simple to prepare for a quick grab-and-go option. Pack a lunch bag with your meals and a reusable water bottle to stay hydrated.
• Smoothie bags. You can prep bags full of premeasured smoothie ingredients to make one serving of smoothie for a quick drink before you head out.
• Buy or make healthy bars. Protein or energy bars can be a quick bite on the way out the door or on the road until you can sit down and have a meal. Make sure to purchase bars with a lower content of sugar and a higher content of protein, fiber, and other nutrients.
• To eat healthy, you need to get a variety of nutrients from the five food groups — dairy, protein-rich foods, grains, fruits, and vegetables.

Each food group offers a different, main nutritional benefit, so by combining the food groups you can get a spectrum of nutrients that support good health.

Examples of foods from each group are:

Dairy: milk, cheese, yogurt, lactose-free milk, fortified soy milk
Protein-rich foods: seafood, meat, poultry, eggs, peas, beans, nuts, seeds, and soy products
Grains: wheat, rice, oats, cornmeal, barley
Fruits: fresh, canned, frozen, or dried fruits and 100% fruit juice
Vegetables (non-starchy): fresh, canned, frozen, or dried vegetables (raw or cooked) and 100% vegetable juice

MyPlate is a nutritional guide and meal planning tool that helps people eat healthy. The USDA developed it based on the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

It recommends making at least half of your grains whole grains, varying your protein sources, and choosing low fat or fat-free dairy products.

To build a healthy plate — whether it’s for a meal or a snack — try pairing foods from at least two food groups to get a diversity of nutrients.

How to fill your plate for a healthy meal
Fill half of your plate with non-starchy vegetables like spinach or collard greens.
Then, fill one-fourth of your plate with protein-rich foods, such as chicken, fish, or navy beans, depending on your preferences.
Lastly, fill the remaining one-fourth of your plate with grains like rice or quinoa.

Healthy meal example 1: baked garlic butter chicken, stir fry vegetables, and rice

Healthy meal example 2: a cheese sandwich made with whole grain bread, cottage cheese, and sliced tomatoes

Healthy snacks

Pair a grain with a protein-, fat-, or fiber-rich food.

Your body digests mixed meals that include protein, healthy fats, and fiber more slowly than grains alone. This makes you feel full for longer, which can help support a healthy weight and blood sugar management.

Healthy snack example 1: an apple and nut butter

Healthy snack example 2: yogurt with dried fruit and nuts

How skipping meals can backfire

You might wonder what’s so bad about skipping meals.

It’s not unhealthy in itself, but skipping meals can backfire, causing you to be ravenous later so that you overeat at your next meal or load up on unhealthy snacks. We’re often not great at making healthy diet decisions when we’re hungry.

If you find this tends to happen to you, you might find it helpful to have preplanned food ready to grab and go when you’re in a rush.

That said, research has shown that skipping breakfast isn’t necessarily bad for you. If eating breakfast (or food at any particular time of the day) just isn’t part of your eating schedule, that’s OK.

Some people also forego meals intentionally for religious or cultural reasons or when practicing intermittent fasting. However, this is often preplanned and not the same as unintentionally skipping a meal because you’re in a rush.

Here’s how to eat healthy in five common scenarios when you’re on the go.