Nobody starts out with a taste for healthy food. Chances are that the favorite treats you remember from your childhood are of the cavity inducing sweet or heart stopping salty variety with nary a green leaf or whole grain in sight. There is a reason for that. Recent studies have shown that the human palate naturally gravitates towards the fatty, sweet and salty flavors, while bitter compounds are largely avoided.
As it turns out, the reasons to maintain a healthy diet are less of the speculative variety and more cold hard facts. The truth is that eating poorly can have a disastrous effect on your lifespan, easily cutting up to twenty years in the most extreme cases. It also severely increases your likelihood of developing certain fatal diseases, like cancer, heart disease, and strokes. A poor diet can also cause chronic illnesses that have a huge negative effect on lifestyle, like diabetes, osteoporosis, and high blood pressure.
In a less serious vein, eating poorly can make you feel sluggish and easily fatigued, decreasing productivity. In other words, eating well is more than just a recommendation. In many ways, it is a healthy lifestyle imperative.
At this point, the question shifts from “Why eat healthy?” to “How can I make sure I choose and stick to an appropriately healthy diet?” For the most part, the most integral factor in successfully adopting a nutritious diet is the application of willpower. Without the desire to really make a change, any sort of habit changes are likely to dissolve as soon as attention is completely dedicated to making behavior modification. After all, it’s easy to get lured in by the siren song of convenient and delicious food and to reject something so attractive takes a real will to change.
There are, of course, small things you can do to help your willpower along. The most important element to pay attention to when designing a new healthy diet plan is to make sure that the food in it tastes good to you. An easy way to make foods loaded with fresh vegetables more tempting is by availing yourself of better and more flavorful ingredients.
Try buying produce from a farm stand or farmer’s market as fresh vegetables have specific compounds that make them better tasting. Another way to include more healthy food in your meals is to subscribe to a prepared ingredients service. These companies specialize in assembling all the fresh ingredients you need to make a whole meal and delivering them straight to your door.
It might not be easy to dedicate yourself to eating healthier, but it is a choice that can pay off in spades. Between the promise of better health and a better lifestyle, eating healthy can be a majorly positive component in your life.
