How to Make Your Diet Healthier

Making major changes to your diet can often feel overwhelming, and while the internet offers plenty of tips and tricks – some good, some bad – on how to start eating a little healthier, finding the right advice can feel equally exhausting.We thought we’d give you a helping hand by putting some of our finest, nutritionist-approved advice all in one place.These articles will take you on every step of your healthy eating journey, from clearing up some naughty nutrition myths you might have picked up all the way to the kitchen.

Building your nutritional knowledge

The key to eating healthier really is understanding what your body needs, so let’s put some nutritional foundations in place.Kick things off with a nutritional myth buster.

Common Nutrition Myths (and Why They’re Wrong)

In a world flooded with nutrition advice, it’s easy to be misled by myths and misconceptions. Enter our nutrition team, here to debunk 10 common nutrition myths and explain why they don’t stand up to scrutiny.

Nutrition is inherently complex, and this complexity is often exploited to promote ideas that simply aren’t true. Unqualified advice can be harmful and riddled with misinformation – especially on social media. Read on to sort fact from fiction when it comes to eating before sleeping, seed oils, fat-free foods and more.

Myth 1: Carbs are bad for you

Many people still demonise entire food groups, especially carbohydrates. Whilst cutting sugary and refined carbohydrate foods may help with weight loss, it’s only part of the picture. Fibrous, starchy carbohydrate foods are important contributors to a wholesome diet. Consumed regularly, these foods help satiety and will help prevent over-eating. Remember, dietary guidelines recommend that approximately half of our calories come from carbs. Whilst it’s important to moderate portion sizes if you want to lose weight, there’s no need to eliminate carbs entirely.

Myth 2: Seed oils are bad for your health

There’s been a lot of negative press about seed oils recently, which has understandably raised concerns. However, it’s important to look beyond broad statements like “seed oils are inflammatory” or “seed oils cause obesity” and dig into the evidence. The correlation between seed oils and poor health are just that, i.e. correlation, without the evidence to back them up. For example, a review of human trials found that linoleic acid (a major fat found in seed oils) did not increase any inflammatory markers, while another study found that omega-6 fats had no effect on health.

Myth 3: All ‘Ultra- Processed’ Foods should be avoided

Firstly, highly processed foods aren’t inherently bad. The term ‘ultra-processed food’ is a label designed to describe foods that have undergone processing that typically couldn’t take place in a home kitchen. Many nutritious staples we eat are ‘processed’, including yogurt, high-fibre cereal, bread, and even canned and frozen vegetables. In fact, processing can actually enhance nutritional value, freezing vegetables, for example, helps preserve their nutrients. UPFs can also provide essential micronutrients and fibre through fortification. Much of the criticism comes from a lack of a clear, universally accepted definition of the term ultra-processed.

Myth 4: Skipping meals will help you lose weight quicker

Actually, the opposite may be true. What often happens when we skip meals is we just eat them later, because we’re so hungry – and think we’ve earned them. Even if you manage not to overeat, skipping meals can still work against you.

When you skip meals, your body enters ‘fasting mode’ which can slow down your metabolism to conserve energy. A slower metabolism means that you’re not burning energy as efficiently, making it easier to store energy as fat, rather than burning it. To support weight loss, it’s better to eat three to four small, balanced meals a day (depending on how active you are), including protein and fibrous carbohydrates to keep your metabolism active and your hunger in check.

Myth 5: ‘Low-fat’ or ‘fat-free’ foods are better for you

From as far back as the 1970s, we’ve been led to believe that fat is ‘bad’ for health and there have been campaigns targeted around getting us to consume less fat. Moreover, this is still happening and archaic food labelling often focuses on fat as a bad nutrient. However, not all fat is bad! We need fat, especially the right types, such as monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. Including a sensible amount of these healthy fats in each meal is essential for a nutritious diet. Furthermore, be careful of snack foods labelled as ‘low-fat’, as they are often higher in sugar than their equivalents. 

Myth 6: Eating before bed will make you gain weight

Eating late at night won’t automatically lead to weight gain, it depends on your overall calorie balance. However, it’s not a good idea to eat too much before bed because your digestion may struggle if you lie down with a full stomach. Also as our metabolic rate is typically faster in the morning and slower in the evening – related to the secretion of hormones involved with the metabolism like insulin – ideally, spread food intake throughout the day.

Myth 7: You need to eat protein immediately after a workout

Contrary to old beliefs, you don’t need to gulp down a protein shake immediately after your session. If you’re exercising hard, you may need to increase your overall food intake to meet your additional energy requirements (if you’re not looking to lose weight, of course). The idea of a strict ‘anabolic window’ – the best time for muscle repair and nutrient absorption – is outdated. Research shows this window can last for up to six hours post-exercise. If you focus on proper recovery, you’ll bounce back faster and be able to train harder in your next session. 

Myth 8: A vegan diet doesn’t provide enough protein

In the past, it was more challenging for vegans to get enough protein from their diet and they had to carefully plan their meals. Today, it’s much easier. There are plenty of high-protein plant-based products readily available like tofu, hummus, legumes (like beans and lentils), soya-based desserts, vegan protein powders, and plant-based complete food options like Huel. By combining more than one plant-protein source at each meal, you can easily meet the amino acid requirements.

Myth 9: Detox diets are beneficial for your body to reboot you

This myth is both common and very misleading. The term ‘detox’ is often used vaguely, and the idea of “rebooting” is more appropriate for computers than for our bodies. If you have properly functioning kidneys and liver, your body is already equipped to detoxify itself daily. If you see an article about ‘detox diets’, stop reading it!

Myth 10: All calories are created equal

Not all calories are the same, the source of your calories matters. For example, 50 calories of broccoli are not equivalent to 50 calories of chocolate cake. The body uses energy to digest and metabolise the food we eat, and this varies depending on the type of food. Protein, for example, requires more energy to digest than fats or carbs, meaning you burn more calories processing it. So while some people may oversimplify by saying ‘calories in, calories out,’ it’s important to also consider the quality and type of the calories you consume.

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Healthy eating in action

Right, we’re at base camp. Now it’s time to actually climb Everest, and put that knowledge into practice. Start by looking at the psychology behind putting a healthy habit in place, and maintaining it, before reading about how to curb any unhealthy cravings you might be having.Finish off our healthy eating action plan with an explainer on the importance of eating to schedule, and not skipping meals, before a thorough guide to healthy eating on a budget.

How to Make and Maintain a Healthy Habit

We all know that making a healthy habit is good for us, but it’s hard work, and avoiding falling back into bad habits is even tougher. So what can you do?

When you’re trying to switch to a healthier lifestyle, it can be disheartening when you suffer a setback or two. Think of this whole article as a friendly reminder that it’s okay to not be eating okay.

From time to time, many of us try to carry on as if a situation isn’t affecting us, and if not, we might be feeling guilty about not exercising as much as we could or taking the time to cook three substantial, nutritious meals a day.

Create some structure eat around the same time each day – this taps into chrononutrition. Fancy right? What we are saying is that the body has its own internal clock and by eating around the same time each day, it helps to keep this clock ticking correctly, which is important for keeping other areas of our life in check like sleeping.

Everything in moderation

Moderation isn’t a fun word, but hear us out…

If you find that you’re eating a whole share bag to yourself, or you’re checking the food label and it says ‘Serves 4’ and you chuckle, there are easy ways around this. Put a smaller portion onto a plate or bowl so you don’t have to think about stopping eating. When your plate is empty, it’s empty. Bulk buys are likely to be cheaper per serving so try segmenting these large purchases into a more reasonable size. The other portions can then be kept in an airtight container or frozen.

Plan your meals

Who doesn’t love scouring cookbooks for the perfect recipe? It can be exciting to plan a few meals each week, and go through the process of looking for a recipe, however simple that may be. You can do this by yourself, with the people you live with or even friends over video call so you can cook together! Just by cooking instead of picking up a ready meal, you’re probably going to cook something more nutritious by default.

Keep a food diary

Especially for your snacks, because if you’re locked down at home it means you’re probably snacking more. If you want to reduce snacking, try to switch to more nutritious snacks such as dried fruit or nuts which provide more than just calories. A food diary can help with this and can also nudge you towards being more mindful of those subconscious snacking occasions.

Short-term fixes

You can comfort yourself with more than comfort foods – during tough times we can fall back on certain foods, particularly those high in sugar, fat and salt, to make us feel better. We’ve all done it.

This is fine from time to time but it’s only dealing with the symptoms, not the cause. If you can, try exercising. What that looks like is up to you – it can be walking, yoga in front of the telly, a bike ride, or something else you enjoy.

So there you have it. A few ways to start getting into healthier habits, and sticking with them. But, if you do fancy breaking your own rules from time to time, we won’t tell anyone…

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Healthy eating in the kitchen

You got the knowledge, you know how to put it into practice… now let’s get you on your way with some healthy recipes. Let’s start with the most important meal of the day and some healthy breakfasts to set you up the right way. Then take our selection of batch-cooking recipes for a spin, before filling those spaces in between with a handful of healthy snack ideas.

Healthy Snacks for Weight Loss

Comforting, money saving recipes to keep you going all week long.READ MORE