Health & Nutrition

10 ways to improve nutrition

Advice from experts across the country on how to eat better and improve your health.

Updated:: 2009-10-18 17:59

Published:: 2003-07-30 00:00

By: Anjali Kapoor

10 ways to improve nutrition

The new year is a perfect time to get a better handle on your eating habits and improve your overall health. To help give you a jump-start, we asked experts across the country for their best (read fun, practical and easy-to-follow) diet, nutrition and lifestyle tips. Here are the top 10 ways to treat your body better.

1. Make small changes that pay big dividends
By switching to 1% milk instead of 2% in your morning cereal, for example, you'll save more than 800 grams of fat in one year.

2. Leave the kids at home
Studies have shown that women spend 29 per cent more money on food when shopping with their kids, and men spend a whopping 66 per cent more. And, they're more likely to buy food with kid-appeal (or high-calorie) say Greta and Janet Podleski, authors of the best-selling low-fat cookbook Looneyspoons (Granet Publishing Inc., 1996).

3. Become label savvy
Take time to read food labels for fat, sugar, sodium and fibre content, says Judy Fraser Arsenault, who teaches a nutrition and lifestyle course at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax. As a general rule, the less processed the ingredients, the more nutritious the product.

4. Colour your plate
The easiest way to get loads of nutrients and disease-fighting anti-oxidants into your diet is to fill your plate with a variety of different coloured foods -- especially dark green vegetables, and orange and red fruits -- says Leslie Beck, host of Discovery's Foodstuff.

5. Don't forget to rehydrate
Remember to drink water with your meals, says Jean Armstrong, director at the National Institute of Nutrition in Ottawa. "Water acts as a lubricant and helps you digest your food."

6. Ease into exercise
Exercise doesn't have to be intense to be beneficial. Brisk walking is ideal if you're beginning an exercise program. It's inexpensive, easy on the joints, and enjoyable.

7. Try some variety
Nutritious food needn't be boring. Instead of an apple a day, try mangoes, papayas or passion fruit. If you've had your fill of green peas, experiment with kale or Swiss chard. Give rice a rest and try quinoa or couscous.

8. Power-pack your snack
Andrea Miller, a community and family practice dietitian at Women's College Hospital in Toronto, recommends a quarter cup of trail mix (with more fruit than nuts) combined with low-fat yogurt. "It provides protein, iron, fibre and calcium, all in one."

9. Lighten up on spreads
Instead of using two teaspoons of high-fat mayonnaise on your sandwich, use one teaspoon. Better yet, switch to Dijon or honey-mustard. You'll save 7.5 grams of fat per sandwich. Other healthy spreads to try include herb pestos, low-fat ricotta and savoury marmalades.

10. Go easy on the alcohol
If you drink two glasses of beer or wine a day, you're consuming an extra 1,400 calories a week, or 73,000 a year - enough to add 20 pounds of excess weight.

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