Clean Up Your Eating Habits | AFC Chamblee - AFC Urgent Care Chamblee's Blog

National Nutrition Month is this month, and our team at AFC Chamblee wants to help you start feeling better by cleaning up your eating habits!

The How-Tos of Clean Eating

As in everything, moderation is key when it comes to your eating habits. By now, you might have heard about the 80:20 rule, which basically means you eat healthy 80 percent of the time while you get to indulge in your favorite foods for 20 percent of the time. However, this only works if you actually choose healthy foods 80 percent of the time.

Let’s take a look at some other ways you can start building healthy eating habits.

First, when it comes to getting enough fruits and vegetables into our diet, we tend to be slacking. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, only one in 10 people living in the United States actually eats enough fruits and vegetables in their diet.

Fruits and vegetables are extremely important to your overall diet. For starters, they can help lower your risk of developing a number of medical conditions, including:

Cancer
Heart disease
High blood pressure
Obesity
Type 2 diabetes

As a bonus, fruits and veggies can also help improve your mood! So, perhaps, maybe an apple a day is what keeps the moodiness away?

Second, whole grains are the cleanest ones, as they have been touched the least by processing. Whole grains such as quinoa, wild rice and oats can help you to get more fiber, antioxidants and inflammation-fighting nutrients into your diet.

Aiming to lose weight this year? Good news—by eating more whole grains, you can have an easier time losing weight and keeping it off!

Finally, you want to try and eat less meat, particularly red meat. By cutting back on meat, you can help to reduce your risk of high blood pressure and heart disease, while also helping to maintain a healthy weight.

Wondering where to get your protein if you can’t eat as much meat? No worries! Protein can be found in many other foods like eggs, dairy, beans and nuts. However, you can still eat meat—just choose lean protein sources like turkey or chicken.

Thinking of changing up your diet? Visit AFC Urgent Care Chamblee today to speak to one of our physicians who can help you establish better eating habits for your health.