4 Common Underrated Eating Habits That Will Damage Your Health
And what you can do against it without radical diet shifts.
Eating healthy can extend your lifespan by about ten years. It also makes you feel more energized, improves your brain health, and brings you into a better mood.
Yet, choosing the proper nutrition is a more challenging decision if you don’t know the potential health effects of your diet.
It’s crazy how common and self-evident it has become to follow patterns harmful to our bodies that might even shorten our lives. And most people aren’t even conscious of the impact of their decisions.
To increase your lifespan and enjoy all the other benefits of a healthy diet, you should first look at how these everyday eating habits damage your health. As a second step, you can consider changing some.
#1. Excess Meat
You probably don’t want to hear this, but we’re eating too much meat on average.
Way more than it would be necessary.
My parents eat red meat multiple times a day, and when I mention the potential risks of their diet, they don’t listen. They’ve always been eating this way. Therefore, they won’t change anything.
A study claims that most Americans eat more than 1.5 times the average daily protein requirement.
And evidence shows that overeating red meat and processed meat highly increases the risk of developing cancer. Meat consumption is also strongly linked to coronary heart disease.
Eating too much meat is bad for you.
For the record, reducing your meat intake would also be highly beneficial for the planet.
What you can do:
Introduce plant-based protein sources to your diet and reduce your meat intake. No, you don’t have to skip meat entirely. Just reduce it to the minimum acceptable amount you can imagine living with.
As a starting point, you can look at the planetary-health diet.
You can also browse through yummy vegetarian recipes. My favorite app for that is KptnCook — you can set the recommendations to vegetarian.
#2. Everybody does this
What’s better than binge-eating a bar of chocolate when your brain needs sugar during an average working day? I love the instant effect of sugar on my brain: I can look at my tasks with a fresh and energized mind.
But in the long run, sugar sucks.
It has been linked to many unhealthy things, including obesity, developing diabetes, damaging your brain health, or increasing the risk of certain cancer. It also drains your energy, among others.
Yet, somehow sugar has become an essential part of our diets. Every product seems to be boosted with sugar. Sweets are our number one thought when it comes to giving a gift to someone.
Sugar is really everywhere.
What you can do:
Replace sugary drinks. I completely cut beverages out of my life. I mostly drink water, tea, and coffee. Always without sugar.
Yet, what helped me the most was not storing snacks at home. It’s way easier to resist the temptation of buying something with a full-stomach while grocery shopping.
If I have some sweets at home, they’ll disappear. If I don’t have them, I won’t go to the store because that would be too much effort.
I instead go for a healthy snack, like an apple. And that brings me to my next point.
#3. Lack of plants
It’s what we’ve always heard from our parents. We even have that cliché saying that “an apple a day keeps the doctor away.”
Yet, 90% of Americans still ignore this advice. They don’t eat enough fruits and vegetables, even though the benefits are clear and straightforward.
Multiple studies confirm that a plant-based diet with no or a small amount of meat brings countless health benefits. It significantly reduces the risk of developing heart disease, cognitive decline, certain types of cancer, and type 2 diabetes and reduces the symptoms of some chronic diseases.
Fruits and vegetables are full of vitamins. They boost both your energy and your immune system.
Plants are really, really good for you.
And they’re also delicious.
What you can do:
Next time you go to the store, replace buying snacks with fruits. So next time, when you’re starving between two meals, you can go for a fruit.
You can also add some fruits to your breakfast.
#4. Too Much of Everything
Most Americans consume way more food than the USDA Protein Foods group recommends to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Such behavior may promote excess body fat.
Obesity has become a serious public health issue. The following health risks are linked to obesity:
- Heart disease and stroke.
- High blood pressure.
- Diabetes.
- Some cancers.
- Gallbladder disease and gallstones.
- Osteoarthritis.
- Gout.
- Breathing problems
Disclaimer: I’m not talking about fat disorders and lipidemia. In many cases, it’s not only about eating, and overweight people aren’t lazy. Also, fatphobia isn’t acceptable: Your weight doesn’t determine your self-worth.
But I’m generally talking now. And the average person in western countries regularly overeats.
It means people eat until they’re uncomfortably full.
What you can do:
Pay attention to your body. If you feel full, stop eating.
Don’t go for a second or even third portion. Eat slower and enjoy every bite you take.
Be aware of the recommended calorie intake, and try not to overstep it overly.
Before You Go
If you’d like to live a longer life in a better mood, taking a look at your diet is the best place to start.
What is more, food production contributes to around 37% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Climate change is the biggest issue of the 21st century, and if you can contribute while increasing your lifespan and your health, then why not?
So what are the things you could do to boost your health?
- Eat less meat
- Reduce your sugar intake
- Go for the fruits and veggies
- Don’t overconsume
A diet shift can be overwhelming at first, so don’t worry if you can’t do it all at once. Cherry-pick a few and experiment with new recipes. Try out new things and be open-minded.
But most importantly, be kind to yourself. Change won’t happen overnight, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
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