Are You Eating These Foods Too Often?
By Sara Butler
Health goals can be a bit of a moving target, sometimes. It's easy to find the desire to eat healthily and make small changes that add up to an improvement in your overall health, but following through can sometimes be a challenge. This is especially true when you're confronted each day by popular foods that may seem healthy at first, but aren't so healthy when you're eating too much of them.
Here are a few foods you might be eating too often for your health so you can make sure to keep your enjoyment of them in check.
Refined Carbohydrates
Most people eat way too many refined carbohydrates -- probably because they are in so many foods available that are high in them. Things such as bagels, rolls, crackers, and bread are usually made from very refined flour which has little to no fiber or nutrients. If you're trying to be healthy and looking for healthier options, then you must seek out complex carbohydrates and bread from whole grains.
Sugary Drinks
Sure, you may limit your soda intake because you know how harmful all that sugar can be, but what about other sugary beverages? Aside from soda, there is a lot of sugar to be found in drinks such as fancy coffee drinks, tea, smoothies, and energy drinks.
Eating too much sugar puts you at high risk for chronic diseases such as heart disease and diabetes, so it's a good idea to reduce the number of sugary drinks in your life. It's easy to go overboard on sugar by drinking it each day. Try drinks sweetened with things besides sugar such as monk fruit or stevia. If you're a smoothie person, try making your own at home so you can control what's in it. You may find if you cut down on the sugar that you'll have more energy throughout the day.
Foods High in Salt
Another issue you need to watch out for when it comes to popular foods is the salt content. Any sort of prepackaged food, even some frozen foods, is going to be high in salt.
Remember, you're only supposed to have about 2,300 milligrams of salt per day, which is about a tablespoon. A lot of food has 1,000 or more milligrams of sodium in just one serving, making it incredibly easy to go over your daily allowance.
Pay special attention to the salt content in the foods you eat.
Food is not your enemy, but you do need to make sure you're eating foods that are healthy for you and keeping the consumption of unhealthy foods in check.
To learn more about your health, wellness, and fitness, see your local chiropractor at The Joint Chiropractic in River Edge, N.J.