Choosing the right healthy foods to eat should encompass many factors. Three important healthy food to eat factors are as follows:
1. Does it promote increased health and not weight gain? This may seem obvious, but it can be tricky. People sometimes make pizza and claim that it is a healthy food to eat, just by adding some vegetables. But most likely, the pizza has a large number of calories, contains white flour and cheese. Even though you get nutrition from the greens, the overall effect is skewed to the negative due to the other fat-increasing ingredients.
2. Is it organic? Fruits and vegetables are always better to source organically, but this is mostly focused on meat products. Claiming that a lean chicken breast is a healthy food to eat due to its high protein content and minimal fat content is fine, but what is the actual quality of the meat? With the horrible conditions of factory farming and the potential for disease, one really should qualify most meat products as a healthy food to eat only if it falls under the umbrella of organic.
3. What is the sodium content? I’m including this because it’s an overlooked aspect of today’s healthy food decision-making process. The high sodium content has many negative health benefits. Too often, you’ll think you’re choosing a healthy food to eat without realizing that the sodium content is truly through the roof. An example of this can be bread. Many breads on the market that are promoted as a healthy food to eat actually contain high levels of sodium. There is a brand called Ezekial that is one of the lowest sodium breads available. Also canned fruits and vegetables that you may think are a healthy food to eat are often loaded with sodium from the solution needed to preserve the product. Fresh fruits and vegetables are always the best.
One additional note that any generic sauce you put on your food will likely add huge amounts of sodium to your food, making it an unhealthy food to eat.
Here are three important factors to help you on your quest for healthy foods to eat.
