Senior Health Making Healthier Eating Choices 2/9/2024 | By Howard LeWine, M.D. Q: My New Year’s resolution was to eat healthier. But I’ve been struggling to make it happen. Any suggestions on how to make healthier eating choices? A: I’m sure you know the recipe: more fruits and vegetables, less salt and added sugars, and cutting down on processed foods. It sounds simple enough. Yet, like you, so many people struggle to follow a healthy diet. So, if we know how to eat healthy, why doesn’t everyone do it? Part of the problem lies in people’s misguided assumptions. Many still view healthy eating as being too restrictive — low fat, low carb, low calorie, low sugar. Then there are the perceptions that healthy foods are expensive, not tasty and the recipes too complex. How can you overcome these misconceptions about healthy eating? First, review your usual dietary habits. For a week, write down what you eat for every meal and snack, including the amount and the timing. Next, adopt some small changes that can help fill in the gaps and expand your current good eating habits. Here are some suggestions. 7 tips for healthier eating choices 1. Don’t be too ambitious. You don’t have to make multiple significant dietary changes at the same time to reap health benefits. Change one thing in your diet for three to four weeks. Once it becomes a staple of your diet, move on to another area and repeat the process. 2. Adopt a vegetarian day. Once a week, go vegetarian for the entire day and eat nothing but fruits, vegetables, and whole grains (with perhaps a touch of dairy or eggs), and no processed foods. You may discover that vegetarian options are more appetizing than you expected. As you get more comfortable, increase it to twice a week, or even more often. 3. Expand good habits. For instance, if you eat a daily serving of whole grains, add another one to an everyday meal by substituting it for something less healthy. This helps choosing healthy foods feel more automatic and less like a chore. 4. Cook something new. If dealing with recipes, ingredients, and cooking feels intimidating, focus on creating just one new meal per week, which can help make preparing meals less daunting. 5. Enlist your friends and family. Everyone has a favorite dish, so ask around for suggestions. 6. Try new foods. During your next grocery store trip, buy something you rarely, if ever, eat. When at a restaurant, order a dish made with a new-to-you food. 7. And don’t forget to always approach healthy eating with an adventurous spirit. Healthy eating is not a one-day thing. Make it an exciting part of your life, where you are open to trying new foods, ingredients, and dishes, all of which can make healthier eating choices fun. Howard LeWine, M.D., is an internist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and assistant professor at Harvard Medical School. For additional consumer health information, please visit www.health.harvard.edu. ©2024 Harvard University. For terms of use, please see https://www.health.harvard.edu/terms-of-use. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Keep up those healthy eating habits on Seniors Guide: 5 All-Star Foods That are High in Healthy Fats Read More Howard LeWine, M.D. Howard LeWine, M.D., is an internist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and assistant professor at Harvard Medical School. For additional consumer health information, please visit www.health.harvard.edu.