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Everyone knows the old saying 'you are what you eat'. Call it overused, but it's actually some of the best health advice worth repeating. It's not just about maintaining a healthy body weight, either. In fact, your diet affects several aspects of your everyday life, including your sleep, workout energy, and work-related stress.
Chances are, you've tried adopting a healthier diet before. Since you're reading this, you probably didn't achieve the results you wanted or couldn't stick to it in the long run. That's why we're taking a different approach. Rather than focusing only on what to eat, you should also learn how by learning simple hacks that can easily make healthy eating second nature:
Eat 3.5-7 ounces of dark chocolate per day
It's proven time and time again that dark chocolate has several health benefits. Studies also show that frequent, controlled consumption of dark chocolate can improve your ability to focus as well as help ward off dementia - thanks to the antioxidants that are known to improve the oxygen circulation to the brain. It will also help lighten your mood, which is highly useful to those who are constantly under stress at work.
The main reason why eating dark chocolate is number one in this list is because it's one of the easiest diet hacks anyone could do - even for people with diabetes. Just remember to control your consumption to a few pieces per day.
Chew your food slowly
Thoroughly chewing your food makes it easier for your body to digest nutrients and retain more energy, says a study by the Institute of Food Technologists in 2013. It will also help you control your portions since you're giving your brain more time to receive the "full signal" from your stomach, which is normally delayed by around 20 minutes.
As a result, you'd feel much more energized while eating less food and spending less money. And as an added bonus, you'll learn to be more appreciative of all the flavours in your food.
Eat more meat
Did you know that iron deficiency is the most common nutritional disorder nutritional disorder in the world? Despite this, a lot of people don't even know they have iron deficiency because its symptoms are easily mistaken as the effects of work-related stress or fatigue, which includes lightheadedness, drowsiness, and shortness of breath.
Fortunately for meat lovers, the biggest sources of iron include, pork, poultry, seafood, and other red meat. For vegetarians, the best alternatives are beans, and dark leafy vegetables.
Eliminate simple carbs
Despite the fact that complex carbs are already highly accessible today, a lot of people still depend on simple carbs for their daily dose of energy. Some examples are white bread, white sugar, corn syrup, and fruit juice concentrate. While these foods are tasty, they are not at all efficient in supplying your body with energy, nor do they contain sufficient fibre content necessary for better digestion.
To help you make carbs count, cut simple carbs from your diet and replace them with complex carbs such as oats, whole-grain pasta, buckwheat, and whole wheat bread. By mixing up different types of complex carbs in your diet, you can also provide your body with essential vitamins and minerals.
Go nuts
Believe it or not, a bag of nuts may actually save you from a ton of stress at work. They are tasty, affordable, rich in magnesium, and easy to munch on even if your boss or supervisor is still around. Simply chewing them is enough to keep you awake as you drag on through your busy day.
Some of the best kind of nuts to snack on are cashews, almonds, hazelnuts, and pecans. Whatever you do, try to avoid getting hooked on candied or salted nuts as they don't offer as much nutritional value to your body. Salted nuts, in particular, may even lead you to exceed your daily sodium intake limit, which may cause high blood pressure and other cardiovascular diseases.
Conclusion
Having a healthy diet doesn't necessarily mean eating food that can help with weight loss. Instead, you should focus on giving your body an adequate supply of energy and nutrition. With the tips above, it's more than doable to improve your diet in one day. And unlike most other diet plans in existence, these healthy eating habits are very easy to keep in the long term.