Tips For a Healthy Diet

'You are what you eat.' Nothing could be truer. Your eating practices are directly related to your health and over eating or eating in an uncontrolled manner can have adverse effects on your health. Do you blame your diet for this? It is not your diet but your habits that are responsible for the state of your health. The good news is that dietary habits can be modified at any time. Here is how you can acquire healthy eating habits. Follow these tips:

Don't skip breakfast: The body's metabolism slows down if there is a long gap between the last meal that you have at night and breakfast the next morning. Lower metabolic rate means lower rate of burning of calories and hence accumulation of calories. That is why breakfast is a must and will result in a faster burning of calories. Also remaining hungry for a very long time can result in overeating during other meals.

Stay away from the television: Don't eat while watching TV. You will not only enjoy your food more but also will be able to keep a check on your total intake and avoid overeating.

Have water: Drinking a glass or two of water along with meals will give you a feeling of fullness and help you in eating moderately. Besides, you will remain full for a longer time and not eat after seconds.

Start with soup: This is a good way to avoid overeating. Soups in themselves are great meals as they are quite filling and hence you eat less. But always take care to prepare soup at home and avoid packaged soups. Packaged soups are a very high source of sodium, which is bad for health and has been associated with heart problem.

Avoid starving: Never skip meals. You should always have some kind of nourishment that helps you keep going. Otherwise your body's defense mechanism comes into action and lowers the overall metabolism. To cope with this, the body starts depositing fat, which again is harmful for the body.

Do not overeat: You may think that because you are eating low fat, low calorie food you can overeat. But whether low fat or low calorie, all food has calories and all these total calories add on. If these are not burnt off, they accumulate in the body, adding to your weight.

Eat at a slow pace. This gives time to your brain to gauge that your stomach has received food. When you eat fast, you do not realise, how much you have already eaten and hence you tend to eat more. Eating slow will also help you enjoy your food.

Eat vegetables first: Always eat vegetables first as this will give you a feeling of fullness and help you eat moderately.

Besides these points, always remember to keep a check on the total fat intake and have at least six glasses of water. These dietary habits can help you stay healthy and fit and in good shape.