Everywhere you look, you find advice on how to eat. Sometimes the advice helps, and sometimes it makes you crazy. It may seem to conflict with other advice, or with your tastes and culture. It may seem healthy eating means giving up everything you like.

But actually, healthy eating is not difficult. Avoiding junk food may be difficult, but finding, preparing, and enjoying tasty, healthy food is quite doable. Here are some strategies. Some you have heard before, but they’re easy to forget in the strain of daily life, the flood of diet books and advice in the media. 

Eat breakfast. Eating a large breakfast with protein will keep your body on track all day. Skipping breakfast or eating too much sugar at breakfast will leave you hungry by mid-morning, and you’ll be snacking all day.

Eat a balanced, varied diet. Make sure you emphasize fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and beans. If you’re giving up something you like, try some new things, maybe something you will like better.

Enjoy eating. Eat slowly. Enjoy your food, chew it, taste it. Pay attention to your food. Don’t bolt it down while watching TV or reading. Breathe or take a drink of water between bites.

Drink more fluids. Also replace unhealthy drinks like sugary soft drinks with a healthier choice like water.

Eat with others. When possible, eat together with your family or friends. You’ll tend to eat less.

Avoid emotional eating. When you’re angry, sad, lonely, or tired, you’re likely to hit the junk food. Have some healthy snacks, or better yet, someone to talk to around for emotional times.

How do you know what to eat?

The fact is that no one diet is right for everyone. Different individuals with different conditions do better with different foods. But most people can eat most foods, so there is usually no need to obsess about everything you eat. 

Many of the problems with our diet come not from foods but from additives, especially in packaged foods. Most of them have nasty things like partially hydrogenated oils (trans-fats), high-fructose corn syrup, sugar, and all kinds of preservatives. The only way to avoid these completely is to stop eating all packaged food. But you can help protect yourself by learning to read food labels. Learn more in the box to the right.

If you're interested in healthier eating, you first want to know what you're eating now. A great way to start is keeping a food diary, where you write down everything you eat for a week or so.  The diary will show you where you are now and will help you keep track of changes as you make them. Your doctor might be interested, too. Information about food diaries can be found at the American Academy of Family Physicians. A diary can also be downloaded from the Meals Matter website.