Hey there! Ever wondered how to kickstart your journey to a healthier you? Well, you’re in the right place because today we’re diving into the awesome world of “healthy eating basics nutrition.”
In this article, we explore the simple yet powerful principles that can transform the way you eat. We’ll look at what constitutes a healthy diet and how to transform our current eating plan one step at a time.
The principles in this article come directly from over 3 years of nutrition-specific education and a study of nutritional science.
In summary, a healthy diet consists of five food groups: Whole grains, legumes, vegetables and fruit, as well as nuts and seeds. Eggs and low-fat dairy products as well as fish and white meat in moderation are suitable as animal add ons.
Healthy Eating Basics Nutrition
Processed meat such as sausage, red meat and foods high in sugar and white flour should be avoided as good as possible.
After this short summary, lets dive in a little bit deeper.
What is a healthy diet?
When we hear the term “healthy eating”, we usually think of fruit and vegetables. And yes, these foods are definitely healthy. However, if we only ate fruit and vegetables, we would suffer from numerous deficiency diseases in the long term. So there must be more behind a healthy diet.
A healthy diet means consuming a balanced and varied selection of foods in order to obtain all the essential micro- and macronutrients in sufficient quantities. Consequently, a healthy diet always contributes to your own health.
From this definition we can also deduce why fruit and vegetables alone are not sufficient for a healthy diet – they do not contain all the nutrients we need.
Essential nutrients
In the following, I will briefly explain the individual groups of nutrients that are essential for us, but going into detail here would go too far. If you would like to find out more about certain substances, you will find a separate post on my website for each nutrient group explained.
Macronutrients
Macronutrients give us energy. There are three different groups, two of which are essential (we have to get them from our food, our body can’t synthesize them itself).
Proteins are the building blicks for our body. We need to get enough protein from food so that our body can function optimally.
Fats are mainly used in the body to store energy. Especially the long-chainy omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids are essential and really important for us.
Carbohydrates serve as the main source of energy, but they are not essential for our survival because our body can also synthesize the energy source glucose from fats.
Micronutrients
Micronutrients do not provide energy, but are no less important for us. They fulfill a wide variety of functions in the body and are involved in the formation of hormones and enzymes, energy metabolism or specific functions such as the formation of bone mass in the case of calcium.
They are divided into vitamins (organic compounds) and minerals (non-organic compounds).
As mentioned, if you want to learn more about macro- or micronutrients, you can check out the individual posts on this site.
Practice – eat this every day
Now that we know the basic nutrients we need, let’s get more practical and look at which foods we should include more or less of in our diet to get the right amount of the right substances.
Below we take a look at the five food groups that every healthy diet should be based on.
Vegetables
Vegetables are an essential part of any healthy diet, and they should make up a significant portion of your daily food intake. They are packed with vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants that help to protect your body from disease and support optimal health. Some of the best vegetables to include in your diet include leafy greens like spinach and kale, cruciferous vegetables like broccoli and cauliflower and Bulbous plants such as garlic and onions. You can learn more about these vegetables here.
Whole Grain Cereals
Whole grain cereals are an excellent source of complex carbohydrates, fiber, and important nutrients like B vitamins and iron. They provide sustained energy throughout the day, help to regulate blood sugar levels, and support digestive health. Some of the best whole grain cereals to include in your diet include oats, quinoa, millet, and whole wheat bread.
Legumes
Pulses like lentils, chickpeas, and beans are a great source of plant-based protein, fiber, and iron. In addition, they have been shown to reduce the risk of heart disease, diabetes, and certain types of cancer.
Fruit
Fruit is a delicious and nutritious addition to any nutrition plan. It is packed with vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants that help to protect your body from disease and support optimal health. You should especially include as many berries as possible because they contain the most antioxidants and the least sugar
Nuts and seeds
Nuts and seeds are a great source of healthy fats, protein, and important nutrients like vitamin E and magnesium. Some of the best nuts and seeds to include in your diet include almonds, walnuts, chia seeds, and flaxseeds.
Specific foods for specific nutrients
With a diet based on the mentioned foods, you will automatically get most of the nutrients mentioned. However, there are some specific nutrients that can only be found in very specific foods. Lets have a look at them as well.
Omega-3
Omega-3 fatty acids are an essential part of a healthy diet and play a variety of important roles, particularly in brain development and function.
The problem: the long-chain omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA are only found in oily fish such as salmon and some seaweed. So if you don’t eat oily fish on a regular basis (at least once a week), you have two options in order to provide enough EPA and DHA:
First, you provide the body with enough building material, i.e. the short-chain fatty acid alpha-linolenic acid, so that it produces enough EPA and DHA itself. For many people, this self-synthesis capacity will be sufficient to supply them with EPA and DHA, but for a few people the body will not produce enough EPA and DHA due to various factors such as genetics.
Alpha-linolenic acid is found in flax, chia and hemp seeds, as well as walnuts and their oils.
Alternatively, you can take a simple dietary supplement. These are based on algae, are available as capsules or as an oil and are an easy way to ensure your own EPA and DHA supply without much effort.
Eggs
You might have noticed that all five food groups mentioned are plant-based. However, this does not mean that a vegan diet is the only healthy diet. There are some animal-based foods that are a valuable addition. Eggs are one of them.
Eggs are a high-quality source of protein, they are rich in numerous vitamins and minerals and, in particular, provide choline, a substance rarely found in plant-based products, which is very important for brain function. If you want to learn more about eggs, there is a full article on this site about their health benefits.
Dairy products
Low-fat dairy products such as yoghurt, low-fat cheese, quark or kefir are also a valuable addition due to the protein, calcium and other ingredients they contain./i
The situation is different with high-fat and, above all, processed dairy products. These often contain numerous undesirable additives and should only be consumed in small quantities.
Meat
There are numerous, very contradictory studies on the health effects of meat and little scientific consensus at the moment. However, it has been proven that processed and red meat is unhealthy.
Processed meat includes all types of sausage and meat products such as ham, burger patties, schnitzel and so on. They increase the risk of bowel cancer, contain numerous unhealthy by-products and are usually made from the “waste parts” of meat.
In contrast, white meat such as chicken is considered relatively harmless to health and can be a useful addition, especially for athletes, due to its protein content.
Fish
Unlike meat, most types of fish are generally considered healthy.
However, due to the pollution of the oceans and the increasingly poor conditions in aquacultures, fish is becoming increasingly contaminated with heavy metals and other undesirable substances such as microplastic.
For this reason, fish should not end up on your plate every day as part of a healthy diet. A consumption of 1-2 times a week is probably a healthy balance in order to get some of the valuable ingredients but not too much of the undesirable ones.
When it comes to fish, but especially meat, it is important to avoid poor quality as much as possible and to choose organic quality in order to reduce the antibiotics it contains. Studies have shown that the better quality feed in organic farming also has a positive influence on meat quality and contains.
By including these top 5 (+ more) food groups in your nutrition plan, you can ensure that you are getting all of the essential nutrients your body needs to thrive.
We can state: A healthy diet is based on whole grains, legumes, nuts and seeds, fruit and of course lots of vegetables, supplemented with eggs and possibly low-fat dairy products. Infrequent consumption of white meat and fish can also be part of a healthy diet.
Integration in daily life
Of course, you can’t turn an unhealthy diet into a healthy one overnight. The transformation is a lengthy process with ups and downs.
To begin with, it helps to reflect on your current diet. What is going well? What could be improved?
In the best case scenario, the weak points are gradually replaced by healthier alternatives.
One example: you notice that your breakfast at the moment mostly consists of unhealthy wheat flour pastry. So you start to think about what an equally tasty but healthier breakfast could look like. Then you start switching to the healthier option one day per week, then two days, and so on.
This way, you can transform your diet bit by bit without too much effort.
The 80-20-rule
When it comes to health, there is not just black and white. A good rule of thumb for limiting dietary sins, but not banning them completely, is the 80-20-rule. This means that your diet is made up of 80% healthy foods (the list mentioned above), the last 20% can then be filled with unhealthier foods like sweets or whatever you desire.
One frozen pizza has never made anyone ill. But neither does one salad make you slim and healthy.
James Clear puts it very aptly in his book “Atomic Habits”:
“Every act in our lifes is a ballot paper for the person we (want to) become.”
James Clear, Atomic Habits
You don’t have to put every ballot in the right box, but in the end more ballots should end up in the correct box in order to win the election.
Conclusion / Our opinion
In addition to physical activity, nutrition is probably the simplest and greatest lever we have to reduce our risk of many diseases and stay fit for a long time.
A healthy diet is much less complex than it is often portrayed.
What are the basic principles of a healthy diet?
A healthy diet means consuming a varied selection of foods in order to cover the nutritional requirements. This includes eating vegetables, fruit, whole grain cereals, legumes as well as nuts and seeds.
What are good sources of protein?
Meat, fish, eggs, dairy products, pulses, whole grain cereals as well as nuts and seeds are good sources of protein.
Which foods contain healthy fats?
Avocado, olive oil, nuts, seeds and fish contain a lot of healthy fats.
What role do vitamins and minerals play in the diet?
Vitamins and minerals are essential for various bodily functions. Their requirements must be covered by the diet.
I hope this article about “healthy eating basics nutrition” has helped you to rethink your own diet and, in the best case scenario, to make lasting positive changes to it. We all owe it to ourselves.
If so, please feel free to leave us a comment. Thank you and see you soon.
