CLEAN UP YOUR PLATE | Healing Habits Week 5

When you hear the word “diet” what comes to mind?

Weight loss? Restriction? Calories? Healthy? Failure? Carrot sticks?

This week’s topic is something I am personally very passionate about. If I did not become a nurse, I think I certainly would have headed into the nutrition field. I find it fascinating that by simply changing what you eat can completely change your body and overall health. Even by removing one bad habit from your diet can cause a cascade of positive changes.

I believe that many of us want to eat healthier for whatever personal reason. But just like exercise and a good 7-8 hours of sleep, it’s hard to come by. Many of us are just too busy to stop and think about what we’re eating. Long work hours, stressful commute, responsibility of family and kids, etc. can make eating healthy difficult. Maybe even too expensive. Or is it?

There is so much I can say about eating better but I’ll try to keep it brief. Before I dive into a few reasons of why you’ll want to switch up the food on your plate, let’s take a look at some numbers:

• “A 2010 report from the National Cancer Institute on the status of the American diet found that three out of four Americans don’t eat a single piece of fruit in a given day
• Nine out of ten don’t reach the minimum recommended daily intake of vegetables. 
• On a weekly basis, 96 percent of Americans don’t reach the minimum for greens or beans (three servings a week for adults)
• 98 percent don’t reach the minimum for orange vegetables (two servings a week)
• 99 percent don’t reach the minimum for whole grains (about three to four ounces a day)”
• All info above from Nutritionfacts.org

So basically, we’re not eating what we should.

If many of us stuck to 4 simple concepts, we could have a huge impact on our personal health such as preventing chronic conditions. These 4 things include: 1) not smoking, 2) maintaining a healthy weight, 3) daily 30 minutes of exercise and 4) eating a healthier diet that consists of more fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and less to zero meat.

NutritionFacts.org states that if we stick to all 4 concepts, we could “wipe out more than 90 percent of our risk of developing diabetes, more than 80 percent of our heart attack risk, halve our risk of stroke, and reduce our overall cancer risk by more than one-third,” (nutritionfacts.org).

I don’t know about you, but I think that’s pretty amazing!

What if we could prevent diabetes simply by changing what we eat? What if you stopped drinking soda and found that you lost 10 lbs. in one month and had a flatter belly? What if you added more vegetables and fruit into your diet and found that you had more energy?

Simple to talk about, right? This week, we’ll dive into how you can make these positive changes and make them stick. We’ll share recipes, tips & encouragement, and more.

If you want to start learning more on your own, I highly suggest watching the following documentaries below (even you have already!):

• Forks Over Knives
• Food Inc.
• What The Health (slightly controversial, but still interesting to watch!)

Let us know what you’ve watched and what you think!