Dartmouth-Hitchcock’s Weight and Wellness Center’s lead clinical dietitian Tara Efstathiou, MS, RD, LD, offers these healthy eating tips:
Tip 1: Start a food journal to track eating patterns, food choices and amounts.
Review the journal to find small areas to make change (for example, reduce your soda intake, pack lunch instead of getting take-out, plan for a healthy 3 pm snack to avoid the vending machine).
Tip 2: Choose whole fruits and vegetables to increase overall nutrition.
One way to reach this goal is to aim for half your dinner plate to be full of vegetables.
Tip 3: Choose water instead of sweetened beverages.
Limit and avoid sweetened drinks and choose water more often.
Tip 4: Begin healthier cooking practices.
Roast or steam vegetables, grill or bake meat, choose lean proteins and avoid the skin of poultry, cook with olive and canola oil in place of butter.
Tip 5: Choose sweet treats in moderation.
Aim for no more than 10 percent of your daily intake to be non-nutritive calories.
Learn more about Dartmouth-Hitchcock's Weight and Wellness Center.
And to find healthy recipes that follow Tara's tips, visit the Cooking Up Health section of the D-H Health and Wellness newsletter.
Tara Efstathiou, MS, RD, LD, is the lead clinical dietitation for Dartmouth-Hitchcock's Weight and Wellness Center.