It has been said that breakfast is the most important meal of the day.
Usually, breakfast is touted for its ability to improve your morning brain power and get you going full-speed sooner. But did you know eating earlier in the day could actually be good for your weight, too?
Studies have shown you’re likely to have a healthier body weight if you eat breakfast, because it keeps your metabolism up. Eating small meals throughout the day can also help keep your metabolism up so you burn energy at a better rate.
But you shouldn’t just eat anything at all — you have to make sure you are eating food that is good for you.
Just as important as it is for you to consume foods that are good for your body, it’s important to make sure what and how you consume isn’t harming our environment. The Earth produces everything we eat. If we don’t protect it and keep it healthy it’s going to get harder and harder for it to produce things that are healthy for us.
Eating healthy for your body and for the environment doesn’t have to be hard. Once you know just a little bit of inside information, it’s easy to make healthy decisions.
When you hear the word “diet,” you probably think about eating small portions of bland food in order to lose weight. But in reality, whatever you eat — whether it’s carrots or fried chicken — is part of your overall diet.
Rather than thinking of a diet as a temporary change in what you eat, it’s better to take a look at your regular diet and make improvements to actual eating habits.
It’s always healthiest to eat foods that are low in fat and high in nutrients. You should also try to eat a well-balanced diet including vegetables, fruit, protein and carbohydrates.
It’s important to think about quality before quantity when it comes what you put in your body.
Instead of eating half a head of iceberg lettuce, which is mostly water and has essentially no nutritional value, eat a cup of spinach instead. Spinach is good for you because it’s full of all kinds of vitamins, including A, C, K, B2 and B6.
A couple of guidelines for eating environmentally friendly include buying in bulk so there is less packaging to throw away after you are done.
Perhaps instead of buying eight individually packaged cups of yogurt, you could buy the large carton of yogurt and spoon it into a small reusable food container if you need a portable snack.
Another great way to make sure your eating habits are good for the environment is to buy food that is grown or produced locally. The closer to your home your food is made, the less energy it takes to get it to your home and the less carbon is released into the atmosphere.
If you buy your eggs at the grocery store, it’s possible the eggs you buy will have been driven across multiple states. If you buy your eggs at your local farmer’s market, they will have only been transported a short distance.
Buying locally is not always an option, but when it is, you should opt for it because your food will probably be fresher and your conscience about the environment a little cleaner.
Next week, I’ll lay out some specific tips for eating green and healthy for each meal and snack of the day.
