EATING HABITS
Are you eating healthy? Find out if you need to improve your eating habits in three easy steps.
Step 1: Find Out What You’re Eating
Choose a day, and write down everything you eat that day, including the number of servings in the food group to which the food belongs. If something belongs in more than one food group, put the number of servings of that food in the food group. For example, a grilled chicken sandwich would count in the meat and grain food groups. If you add cheese, vegetables, or mayo, you’d also make an entry in the milk, vegetable, or oil food groups.
In addition to associating a food to its food groups, also be sure to write down if what you ate had sugar or fats, so you can determine if you’re eating too much of those foods.
Don’t leave anything out. No one besides you has to see this, so be honest with yourself.
Write down what you ate right after you eat it, so you don’t forget and leave something out.
Step 2: Compare with the USDA Food Pyramid
Use the information from Step 1 to count the number of servings of each type of food you ate.
Visit www.foodpyramid.gov to find out how many servings in each food group you should be eating each day—this will depend on your age, gender, and activity level. Compare those numbers to the foods you ate.
Once you’ve compared the numbers, you will see how many more or fewer servings of certain foods you need to eat. For example, if you usually eat three servings of vegetables a day, but should be eating five, then you need to add two servings of vegetables to your daily diet.
Step 3: Make Changes
If you’ve determined that you need to change your eating habits, start small. With some time and patience, you will find a way to make the changes you want to make so you can eat healthy.
Here are some tips to get started:
- Substitute one serving of a food that you should eat more of with one service of a food you should eat less of. For example, if you’re eating too many grains and not enough fruit, snack on an apple instead of pretzels. Try it for five days. If that works, keep making substitutions until you get to where you need to be.
- Too many sweets? Are you still drinking soda? Substitute a glass of water, milk, juice, or club soda—which has no sugar and no calories—for each can of soda. If water is too plain, try squeezing lime or lemon juice into the water.
- Need to add a type of food (dairy, vegetable, fruit) that you’ve never liked? Do a little research to find out which nutrients you’re missing out on by not eating that type of food. Then find something else that gives you the same nutrients. For example, if you don’t like dairy foods, find out what types of foods give you the same amount of calcium, iron, and vitamin D, and eat them instead.
- Need to cut back on the amount you’re eating? Try slowing down, or not watching TV while you eat. Eating slower and paying attention to what you’re eating keeps your from overeating.
- Need to add more food? Try adding one serving of one type of food to one meal, or add one snack. See how it goes for five days. If you want to, you can keep adding until you are eating the amount of food you’d like to be eating.