Food plays a crucial role when it comes to maintaining a healthy BMI. It will also influence your body goals. Therefore, knowing what to eat and what not to eat will make the journey of sustaining a healthy BMI easier.
Include more vegetables
Whether you are trying to increase or lower your BMI, vegetables will play a crucial role in helping you do so in a healthy manner. How you choose to prepare your veggies also affects how many nutrients stay locked on. Therefore, focus on either blending, roasting, or steaming your vegetables rather than boiling or juicing. Boiling or juicing can result in the fibre and some of the nutrients being stripped away.
Eat the rainbow
Portion control and how consistent you are in including different fruits and vegetables in your diet every day are vital. The good news is that there are various ways in which you can prepare these to make your eating plan interesting. Ideally, you should have five portions of vegetables included in your diet that consist of rainbow colours, for example:
Red. Red vegetables such as tomatoes, red peppers, beetroot or red cabbage are known to have anti-inflammatory properties and antioxidants that are good when it comes to lowering your risk for cancer and improving your health.
Yellow or orange. Carrots, pumpkins, sweet potatoes, corn, and yellow peppers are just some of the vegetable groups that are rich in fibre and great sources of vitamins that can help you lower your chances of heart disease.
Green. Try not to skip on the wide range of leafy green vegetables that come in all textures and colours and pack a wide range of nutrients beneficial to your diet.
Blue and purple. It can be in the form of purple carrots, black olives, purple cabbage, eggplant and sweet potatoes. Not only do they make any dish pop with colour, but they can be used in versatile ways to help improve your BMI.
Proteins
Proteins do not only mean sticking to white or lean meats. You can also find these in soy products, nuts, legumes, and beans. This can work, especially if you are trying to cut down on your meat intake. Avoid choosing processed foods when it comes to this segment or foods that are high in trans fats which can slow down your progress and have a major effect on your health.
Oils
There are good fats and then there are bad fats that can affect your health. Knowing ways in which you can level out your fat intake to healthy proportions such as consuming monounsaturated such as avocados, almonds, cashews, peanuts and cooking oils that are made from plants. Polyunsaturated fats (omega-3 and 6) such as fish, linseed, soybeans, canola and sunflower oil. The total fat you consume in a day needs to be between 20% to 30% of your daily calories.
Glorious brown carbs
Include brown carbs that are rich in fibre to improve your diet like whole grain rice, quinoa, beans, legumes and whole wheat foods. This food group also adds to keeping you fuller for longer. Spacing your protein heavy meals can also help you avoid becoming hungry during the day, which usually results in us binging on junk food to make up for it.
Staying sufficiently hydrated
It is all about portion control, so make sure that you are adequately hydrated by drinking water and eating fruits that are rich in liquids.