Healthy diet tips: 10 valuable advice

1. The old saying goes for a reason: “you are what you eat”. By far the most complaints that occur most in Western society arise from a poor diet.

2. The old saying goes: “you are what you eat” for a reason. By far the most complaints that occur most in Western society arise from a poor diet.

1. To give you a few examples; obesity, diabetes, gout, high cholesterol and cardiovascular disease are all conditions that affect us in modern society much more than, for example, the people on islands such as Crete and Okinawa.

2. To give you a few examples; obesity, diabetes, gout, high cholesterol and cardiovascular disease are all conditions that affect us in modern society much more than, say, people on islands such as Crete and Okinawa.

1. The reason for this is simple, the population of these islands has a completely different diet. The usual diet on these islands is one with lots of fresh fish and a lot more vegetables.

1. So no processed food and therefore much less artificial sugars, trans fats and saturated fats.

1. The big difference is mainly the large amount of unsaturated fats on the daily menu and the absence of fast carbohydrates that determines whether a population suffers from the typical Western disorders just mentioned.

Tip 1: Western diet is low in nutrients

1. The bad thing about our modern society is that we are getting richer but our diet is getting poorer! The sad confirmation that our diet is nowhere near as healthy as we think is the fact that the youth in Okinawa, for example, do have to contend with the typical Western disorders, in contrast to the older ones.

1. The reason? After the Second World War, the United States has a large military base on the island. With the arrival of the American soldiers, the new generation of Okinawans took over the diet of supermarket food, fast food and soft drinks.

1. Despite the fact that we are very prosperous and our refrigerators are well stocked, we still suffer from a kind of food shortage! All that food that we buy in the supermarket consists to a very large extent of the same three or four ingredients. We eat less and less fresh food and we have started eating more and more.

2. Despite the fact that we are very prosperous and our fridges are well stocked, we still suffer from a kind of food shortage! All that food that we buy in the supermarket consists to a very large extent of the same three or four ingredients. We eat less and less fresh food and we have started eating more and more.

1. Even the meat or fish we buy at the supermarket today is nine times out of ten from either a floppy chicken or farmed fish. These animals are brought to weight in large numbers on small surfaces as quickly and as cheaply as possible and then end up on the shelves of the store.

2. Even the meat or fish we buy in the supermarket today is nine times out of ten from either a floppy chicken or farmed fish. These animals are brought to weight in large numbers on small surfaces as quickly and as cheaply as possible and then end up on the shelves of the store.

1. The result of this method is that the animals themselves also have a monotonous and little varied diet and that they are stuffed with antibiotics. So even our food gets unhealthy food itself, so to speak.

1. This is largely due to the food industry, the word itself says it all, industry! Large factories where on the one hand mainly cheap ingredients are supplied, think of cheap vegetable oil, grain and corn.

1. A load of artificial flavors, colors and fragrances is added to these three main ingredients, the product is heated and made to last for a long time and on the other side comes a can, jar or in plastic packaged good out must go for nutrition.

1. Nowhere to be found any trace of minerals, vitamins or antioxidants, it has become a pure fuel, but a fuel of very low quality!

Tip 2: The result of cheap

1. But it is our wallet that dictates what we eat. Think of it like this: There used to be a baker, a butcher, a grocer and a greengrocer in every village. The supermarket has only been added in the last forty years or so.

1. This supermarket was the shop where you could buy the so-called convenience goods. The core of convenience goods is that it is firstly cheap and secondly requires little effort to purchase. Exactly what sweets and soft drinks and ready meals are, cheap products that you can eat right away. Healthy or high-quality are therefore not properties that belong to convenience goods, these products compete on price.

2. This supermarket was the store where you could buy the so-called convenience goods. The core of convenience goods is that it is firstly cheap and secondly requires little effort to purchase. Exactly what sweets and soft drinks and ready meals are, cheap products that you can eat right away. Healthy or high-quality are therefore not properties that belong to convenience goods, these products compete on price.

1. For a healthy piece of meat or vegetables you went to the butcher or the greengrocer. However, over time, the supermarket has become the main supplier of all our food. In the past, the cheap products were compensated with the quality products of the baker, butcher, grocer and greengrocer. Now you should be happy if there is even a baker or a greengrocer next to a supermarket.

1. The reason we are at the mercy of the products the supermarket has to offer is that we don't want to spend enough money on good healthy food. Whether healthy food is too expensive, it just depends on how you look at it. But that's really weird, isn't it?

Tip 3: The new health triangle

1. In the past, the general idea was that fats were the cause of obesity, high cholesterol and cardiovascular disease. Partly because the fats are labeled as unhealthy, many people have a diet that consists largely of simple carbohydrates.

1. Those simple carbohydrates are actually all products that are white, so white bread, pasta, white rice and of course the potatoes. However, studies (call research) show that it is the sugars and not the fats that cause health problems.

1. To ensure that you start following a diet that is not overloaded with sugars, you will have to make a switch in how you think about food.

Tip 4: Stop skimping on nutrition

1. At a time when we have no shortages of anything and we are willing to spend fifty euros a month on a fitness subscription to train away that excess energy from all those sugary products, but fifty spend extra euros on good quality nutrition with minerals and vitamins and fiber so that you do not have to go to the gym, that is not possible.

1. So the first step to a healthier diet and therefore a healthier life is to recognize that you have to decide what you want to eat again, not the supermarket! When the sauerkraut is on sale at the local supermarket around the corner, the whole street eats sauerkraut. So we step away from that. From now on you will appreciate food differently.

1. First of all, you are going to look at the value the product has to you because it is full of healthy nutrients. Carbohydrates and saturated fats, often in combination with trans fats, are cheap in terms of how many grams you can get for a euro, but when you look at how many nutrients there are in such a product, such a product is actually very expensive.

1. To reach your recommended daily allowance of healthy nutrients, you would need to eat an enormous amount of these products, if the nutrients were already there. Not that it would be healthy because you would take in way too much fuel if you tried.

Tip 5: Supplement shortages

1. The fact that you are in the Netherlands means that you almost certainly have way too many sugars in your diet. The consequence of too much of one is that you are very likely to be deficient in the other. The first step to a healthy diet is to get rid of these deficiencies.

1. This may sound a bit exaggerated, but it is difficult to get rid of a shortage with nutrition alone. A great shortage of one of the important vitamins or minerals can best be supplemented with supplements. That is why my advice is that you have a blood test taken first.

1. This is possible with your GP, but not all GPs in the Netherlands want or are allowed to do this because they are in the stranglehold of health insurers. You can also just request a blood test yourself, if you search on google you will find enough providers.

1. If it turns out that you have deficiencies, you can of course go back to the doctor to get rid of these deficiencies. I know, it sounds strange, but Dutch healthcare is not what it should be. So take good care of yourself and don't let a doctor who doesn't prevent you from doing so!

Tip 6: Stop sugars

1. The next step is to stop all those added sugars. In essence, added sugars are the biggest threat to our health when it comes to nutrition. The sugars that we find in the vast majority of supermarket products are the so-called glucose syrups.

1. These are sugars that are extracted from starch and then converted into a liquid form by chemical processing. The problem with these sugars is that your body has no limits when it comes to sugar intake, that is, you are not getting the signal from the brain that you have had enough energy.

1. In addition, these artificial sugars are very unhealthy, they cause higher levels of inflammation in your body. This is because sugar is a very reactive molecule. That is to say, sugar has a very tendency to bind to other molecules. The moment the sugar binds to any molecule other than sugar, you get inflammation.

1. So if you consume more sugar than you burn, this energy is stored in the form of fat. So besides the fact that you have a greater risk of cardiovascular disease due to the higher inflammation values, you also run a high risk of developing diabetes and obesity in the long run.

1. Stopping sugars completely is very difficult because sugars are really all over the place, but for better health you will really have to lower that sugar consumption.

1. You can recognize artificial sugars by the terms:

1. All these ingredients, whether or not in syrup, syrup or a combination, such as maltodextrin are by definition unhealthy and again you should not take these sugars!

1. In addition, you also have the E numbers by which you can recognize the added sugars.

1. E420Â Â Sorbitol (syrup) E421Â Â Mannitol E422Â Â Â Glycerol

1. The rest of the added sweeteners are classified under E950 to E969.

1. E950, Acesulfame-K E951Â Â Aspartame, E952Â Â Cyclamic acid, sodium cyclamate and calcium cyclamate E953Â Â Isomaltitol E954Â Â Saccharin E955Â Â Sucralose E957Â Â Thaumatin E959Â Â Neohesperidine DC E960Â Â Steviol glycosides E961Â Â Neotame E962Â Â Acesulfame E964Â Â Polyglycitol syrup E965Â Â Maltitol (syrup) E966Â Â Lactitol E967Â Â Xylitol E968Â Â Erythritol E969Â Â Advantame

Tip 7: Stop gluten

1. Gluten is also called a composition that is formed from different proteins. Gluten is mainly found in grains such as barley, oats and of course rye.

1. Because of this, this ingredient is used in a wide variety of other foods as a binder, thickener, flavor enhancer and protein supplement. Some people develop intolerance to these proteins.

1. Just as our early ancestors did not have access to large amounts of sugars, gluten has also been introduced into our diet for a relatively short time.

1. Just think of it, human beings have evolved over the past hundred thousand years into what we are today. In that period of one hundred thousand years, the diet consisted mainly of what man collected in fruits, nuts, edible parts of plants and of course the animals that were hunted.

1. Over the last ten thousand years, man has slowly switched from hunting and gathering to growing food. A relatively new phenomenon is that all of our foods consist of only a few ingredients.

1. Still, we should know better, because with the large-scale introduction of maize it soon became apparent that a monotonous diet consisting of only maize quickly led to all kinds of shortages and serious diseases.

1. In addition to shortages, a one-sided diet can also lead to you simply consuming too much of a specific substance. It is not without reason that more and more people are becoming allergic to gluten to a greater or lesser extent. It is estimated that about 10% of the population has a gluten intolerance.

1. So in addition to the large amount of sugars that the current Western diet has, it is also full of gluten.

1. Eating much less gluten could mean a big improvement for your health. It also matches nicely with the reduction of all those sugars.

Tip 8: Much more vegetables

1. You probably grew up with the disk of five. In that slice of five, one of the slices is vegetable. I think vegetables should make up a much larger part of your diet than just a fifth. Vegetables are the healthiest food there is.

1. This is because all vegetables are packed with fiber, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. Vegetables contain almost everything a person needs, with the great advantage that there are actually no disadvantages to vegetables. You don't even have to eat fresh vegetables to enjoy all those benefits, frozen vegetables contain almost the same amount of nutrients as fresh vegetables!

1. Of course you have to take into account the fact that most non-organic vegetables contain residues of pesticides. That is why I always advise to wash the vegetables well and if possible switch to organic vegetables of which you are sure that there are no pesticides.

1. The health benefits you get from eating vegetables include a much lower and more stable blood sugar level. In addition, all those vitamins, minerals and antioxidants ensure that the aging process is much slower, the vegetable ensures that all damage in the body can be properly repaired.

1. This not only applies to your skin, the organ where you see aging first, also all other organs such as your blood vessels and your brain age much less quickly.

1. The question is of course how many vegetables are healthy, I always try to have half of my meals consist of vegetables, the other half I divide into fish or meat and a little wholemeal rice or a sweet potato when I really feel like some extra texture. But I notice that simply omitting the fast carbohydrates from your diet and replacing them with vegetables is also a very easy transition from the potato / vegetable / meat diet. You still eat the same portions, you just change the ratio.

Tip 9: More good fats

1. Nowadays it is recommended that 20 to 40% of the nutritional intake according to the nutrition center consist of fats and oils. I believe that 20% is nowhere near enough for a healthy and varied diet.

1. This is because a restriction of fats will always be replaced by other macronutrients, and in our Western diet the replacement of fats is almost always sugar. Just look at yogurt that is low in fat, it contains more sugars.

1. The reasoning that fats cause bad cholesterol is not true. At least when we talk about natural fats. Trans fats are by definition unhealthy and you shouldn't eat these anyway.

1. On the other hand, you should of course not immediately change your diet and only eat more saturated fats from now on. The intention is that you fill the gap in your daily diet because you cut down on simple carbohydrates with unsaturated fats and a little more dietary fiber and protein.

1. Fats are essential for good health, fats ensure that damage to cells can be repaired and fat is also needed for the production of new cells. In our current diet, we get more than enough saturated fats, but not enough unsaturated fats.

1. These unsaturated fats ensure that the build-up of plaques (cholesterol) in your veins is prevented, your heart and your entire cardiovascular system is protected by increasing the intake of unsaturated fatty acids. The unsaturated fats also protect your brain, there are studies in which a shortage of unsaturated fatty acids is linked to aggression, schizophrenia and, for example, Alzheimer's.

1. What is very important to know is that you have to have the right unsaturated fatty acids. You have two types of unsaturated fatty acids, the monounsaturated fatty acids and the polyunsaturated fatty acids.

1. In general, we get too much monounsaturated fatty acids and too little polyunsaturated fatty acids, so you should focus on the so-called omega 3 fatty acids, these are the polyunsaturated ones that have such great health benefits .

1. Increasing the amount of polyunsaturated fatty acids in your diet is best achieved by eating much more fish instead of meat. This is again a relatively easy adjustment. In addition to increasing the amount of vegetables, replace the meat with fish two to three times a week.

1. Polyunsaturated fatty acids are mainly found in fatty fish such as:

1. But also a plaice, sole, cod, tuna or bass contain reasonable amounts of omega 3.

1. With oily fish it is especially important that you vary enough, in the fat of these fish the toxins that we release in nature also accumulate, especially high concentrations of mercury can be a problem to be.

1. An ideal way to avoid this problem is to catch your own trout in a special trout pond. These ponds have been specially constructed for trout fishing and these trout will contain much less mercury and other toxins than the trout from rivers. And the added benefit is that you spend a day in the fresh air and in the sun.

1. There are people who say that such a day of fishing is actually sad, but if you just catch that fish to eat, I even dare to say that there is less animal suffering in a trout pond than that chicken fillet at your supermarket!

Tip 10: More proteins

1. Proteins also belong to the list of healthy food. Most importantly, you must learn to cut out all those unhealthy artificial sugars from your diet.

1. That is of course only possible if you get the energy from other types of food. The great advantages of proteins include that proteins are easily absorbed by your body, for example your muscles use proteins to stay healthy and strong. That's why you always see avid athletes drinking protein shakes.

1. You have two types of proteins, the animal proteins and the vegetable proteins.

1. The best animal proteins are found in poultry and fish, preferably organic of course. Examples of good animal protein sources are in particular chicken and turkey. The big advantage of animal proteins is that they are more easily absorbed by the body.

1. On the other hand, it is of course good to vary and not eat meat or fish every day. So you will also have to get some of the protein from vegetable sources. Personally, my big favorite is the avocado. Most fruits contain mainly carbohydrates, avocado is the exception to the rule so to speak. Avocados are incredibly high in protein but are just as healthy as any other fruit.

1. Specific substances in the avocado are extra good for your muscles. For example, an avocado contains a lot of L-carnitine. This is an important substance for your muscles. Almost 98 percent of all L-carnitine in your body is in your muscles. The heart is also a muscle. L-carnitine ensures that more blood enters the muscles and improves neurological communication in the muscles.

1. In addition, L-carnitine has affected the amount of oxygen that the body receives after you have had a heart attack. Of course, they can't perform these kinds of studies on humans, but animal studies have shown that L-carnitine promotes heart recovery and improves oxygen uptake. L-carnitine also affects how low your heart rate is.

1. So you see again that a good balance in the various nutrients ensures the best result for your health, you just need to know which products exactly contain those healthy substances.

Action plan:

1. The action plan mainly consists of becoming aware of the fact that the proportions in your diet have to shift and that the quality of the food you eat must be improved, cheap food is not the best food for your body.

1. Of course you cannot just cut out your diet and then find out that you are eating too little and you end up on energy rations. That is why you are going to replace the unhealthy elements in your diet with healthy nutrients.

1. Broadly speaking, that means:

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