What is a great way to eat healthy when your schedule is hectic, easily cut calories to lose weight and maintain more of a flexitarian diet (a mainly meatless diet for better health)? It is easy! Have breakfast for lunch or dinner, because healthy breakfast choices, are also great ideas for a healthy lunch or a dinner.

Healthy breakfast food like whole grain cereal with fat free organic milk ideally, and some fruit, makes a terrific and quick healthy lunch, or even a healthy dinner. Whole grain cereals are an easy to fix, healthy choice. Plus, there are so many varieties of great, healthy cereals on the market–if you buy from the natural foods store, or natural foods section of your local, enlightened supermarket.

Eating healthy breakfast food is especially helpful when you have eaten extra during the day and need a lighter meal alternative. Or you know you want something for dinner, but worked late, don’t know what to have, and don’t want a heavy meal sitting in your stomach before going to bed. Plus, if you live in place that has sweltering Summer temperatures like I do, a light, easy meal that does not involve turning the stove on is always welcome.

As a flexitarian, I often have healthy breakfast food for a second meal during the day. It’s also a great way to cut back on some calories if done correctly when you are looking to lose weight since using healthy breakfast foods are generally low in calories, low in fat and are filling because of high fiber and/or protein.

Love typical breakfast food like bacon and sausage but want to do it healthier I hope? This is an easy healthy food makeover. Go with turkey-based versions, or a soy or veggie-based option (like those available from Boca or Morningstar Farms).

Love eggs or egg and cheese omelets like I do? Use any of the brands of egg substitutes or use traditional eggs with extra Omega-3 and DHA sourced from free-range chickens who have had a vegetarian diet, and use double the egg whites, and half the yolk. The cheese in your omelet should be fat-free or at least reduced fat. Don’t be afraid to add high antioxidant vegetables like spinach or broccoli to your creation either.

Why does eating healthy versions of breakfast foods work so well as a quick and healthy lunch or dinner? Whole grain cereals have heart-healthy fiber that keeps you full, and the fat-free organic milk has protein that also lets that meal last longer without that stuffed feeling. If you pick a cereal with healthy nuts like almonds or walnuts, you’ll get additional protein and good fats your body needs. The fruit adds additional nutrition, fiber and some natural energy to keep you going.

If you choose the higher protein choices like eggs, cheese, bacon and sausage made over to their healthiest forms as noted above, you’ll have filling, but low-fat protein that will also keep you full without feeling like a balloon!

Either way, you’ll find that healthy breakfast food for

Copyright 2008 SunLover Publishing LLC

Melanie R. Jordan is a Health Coach, Food Makeover Specialist and Author of “Have Your Cheeseburger And Keep Your Health Too!” which advocates healthy eating achieved with favorite comfort foods as being deliciously possible. She is passionate about helping others achieve healthy eating habits and maintain a healthy lifestyle. More of her down-to-earth healthy eating articles are available at http://www.healthyeatingcoach.com

Melanie R. Jordan regularly publishes fun, tell it like it is healthy food reviews, as well as fitness tips, health and nutrition news and her own unique commentary on her popular blog “The Healthy Food Review” at http://www.TheHealthyFoodReview.com

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Do you know ‘What is healthy eating?’ Does it mean that you are following the current government nutritional recommendations.

That sounds to be right. But, let’s take a closer look at our options. The advertisers’ mandate is to sell their products. Representing those products in the best possible light is beneficial to sales. And today, the best possible light seems to be to align their products with healthy eating. This is where consumer confusion can occur by just trying to sort through all the hype.

Let me give you an example…

Take a drink promoted as “made with 100% fruit juice”. At first glance you may consider that this is 100% juice. Yet that is not what is said. Being ‘made from 100% juice’ is not the same as a product that ‘is 100% juice’. No, this statement only says that 100% juice is in it. So, if it had one tablespoon of 100% pure fruit juice for every serving, would the statement still be true?

Yes. Even though the remaining ingredients could be water, sugar and artificial coloring and flavoring.

This product would accurately be a ‘drink’ and not a ‘juice’. A product that is 100% pure fruit juice would be the healthier choice.

Now, what about the trend towards putting vitamins into bottled water? Is this healthy eating?

Pure filtered, clean water is the water you should be drinking. The addition of other ingredients is unnecessary and something you should avoid.

The vitamins used are not a natural source vitamin. Natural source vitamins are in the form that your body can use and does use everyday from the foods you eat. Vitamins that are not natural source may appear to be the same thing, but they are man-made chemical copies of what is in nature. Do you think that the cells of your body can tell the difference between what is real and what is copied?

Today you can buy ready made meals or frozen meals for those of us with busy schedules.

These may contain meat and vegetables or noodles and they look so good. I have bought them too.

The first thing to look at is the price. Yes, we all want to save money, but when you can buy these foods much cheaper than you could make them there is cause for concern.

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Let me explain...

In an effort to keep the costs of the products down, manufacturers use low cost ingredients. None of these ingredients or food additives are healthy.

One such ingredient is hydrogenated vegetable oil or partially hydrogenated. These are man-made and linked to high cholesterol and heart disease. This can be found in many prepared or processed foods and should be avoided.

Avoid the man made sweeteners. Aspartame has toxic effects on your body. High fructose corn syrup causes cravings and weight gain.

Many of the prepared foods contain MSG. This additive is called a flavor enhancer, yet good food with fresh ingredients doesn't need the flavor enhanced. Highly processed foods stripped of taste and nutrients need something to fix the taste. Further, MSG obesity is directly related to the intake of MSG.

Heavily processed flour is another common ingredient. The heavy processing strips the natural nutrients from the flour, which then has to be replaced with man-made copies of nature's own nutrients. The end product is enriched flour.

Another point worth mentioning is that it is estimated that 70% of processed foods contain genetically altered ingredients. An exact figure is impossible to determine since the labeling of GE food is voluntary.

So 'what is healthy eating?' could be summed up to say that you eat the foods that contribute to good health. Simple. Eliminate the empty calories. These would be foods that contribute little to nutrition, yet have calories. Eliminate the foods with made-made chemicals in them. Eat foods with wholesome ingredients including fresh fruits and vegetables. And make these organic whenever you can. By taking a sensible look at products, you can sort through the hype and eat healthy.

Doris Temple created http://www.mom-going-organic-sensibly.com to fill the need for unbiased information. The Website provides information about organic food, products and healthy nutrition. Sign up for a free monthly email newsletter (ezine) to get the answers you need and keep updated: http://www.mom-going-organic-sensibly.com/ezine-signup.html

(c) Copyright 2008 Doris Temple - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED WORLDWIDE

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Take a look at many weight loss plans or healthy living advice, many of them will insist that we eat only a limited choice of certain healthy foods in order to lose weight, or even to have a long active life. We must abstain from the foods that many people find delicious if we want to slim down, or enjoy a very active retirement. Eat only organic foods or eat only those foods, otherwise you’ll suffer all sorts of health problems.

Obviously, eating a balanced diet consisting of foods that have the full range of essential nutrients is a key component of good health. Decades of research bear this out and new scientific research confirms the importance of a balanced diet. That is not what is in question. The question is, is it really necessary to eat like this 100% of the time in order to have a long, active life free of health complications? If you listen to the proponents, they claim absolutely yes. There are those who truly enjoy eating like this, and that is fine if that is what they desire. People who advocate this idea come from many different walks of life. Some are enthusiasts of organic foods, others simply believe strongly in eating only the healthy foods. Others are personal trainers, fitness coaches, or otherwise involved in fitness. So, are these people correct? Do we have to give up, forever, ice cream, desserts, soda, candy, burgers, pizza, or anything else that tastes good but is fattening, just to lose weight or to be healthy?


The answer would seem to be no, not entirely. The magic is, as many would suspect, the oft-used word; moderation. In my own experience, I have personally seen two relatives reach very old age, still in good health, still active. My own great-grandmother lived to 104. My grandmother is an active 96, having survived two bouts of cancer, a stroke, and other health issues. Neither one engaged in completely Spartan eating. My great-grandmother loved Coca Cola, greasy pork sausages, pies, and ice cream. She did not eat these all the time, but enjoyed them as occasional treats. My grandmother loves her cookies, beer, also greasy pork, potato chips, and Coke as well. Naturally, personal experience is insufficient to come to a conclusion, so I looked into longevity to see what I could find out about people who had long lifespans.

The case of most interest was that of Jeanne Calment, the Frenchwoman who live to 122; she was reported to be alert all her years and physically active until 120. Yet, she not only did nothing special to live so long, she also did many things that these health advocates insist we cannot do. Calment would eat 2 pounds of chocolate per week, and even smoked until she was 119! Two points of observation were made about her lifestyle; she kept herself physically active (riding her bike until she was 110), and she handled stress supremely well. Both of these were observations recurrent among others who lived to the 100s or 110s. Their lifestyle consisted of some form of exercise or physical activity and they knew how to deal with stress. There were few overweight centenarians and the very few who were had a much lower quality of life. However, a rigid, Spartan diet was not prevalent among the extreme centenarians, though for the most part they ate what was considered healthy foods - but only most of the time. No of them claimed they reached their age by eating only alfalfa sprouts, tofu, bean curd, and raw vegetables, 7 days a week 365 days a year. Many had their “dietary secrets”, but universally their “secret” to long life was simply to avoid letting stress get to them; Shigechiyo Izumi, the disputed oldest man to ever live put it best; “the secret to long life is not to worry about it”.

In conclusion, it seems clear to me that we do not need to adhere to a martinet-eating plan, either for good health or to lose weight. There comes a point were eating well no longer has any additional impact, where instead other factors such as genetics, stress level, and physical activeness are the influencing factors. Make no mistake, most people will have to cut back on junk food, but there is no need to totally give up your favorite foods. In my weight loss plan I built in a “free day”, one day, sometimes two, of the week where I enjoyed my favorite foods, ate out without regard to calories. Looking back, doing so did not impact my weight loss - but did help me keep my sanity. If you are trying to lose weight, you will be able to still enjoy your favorite foods, in moderation. Indeed, I find I can savor and enjoy them more when I only eat them occasionally, as opposed to my previous lifestyle when I ate them daily. Eat healthy most of the time, but occasionally allow yourself to enjoy what you like, if that is your desire.

Most of the weight loss “information” found in the mainstream media and “fitness” magazines is bogus. Find out how the author used real weight loss information and successfully lost 80 pounds in a 4 month period. He has kept the weight off more than a year as of this date, and has now dipped below 10% body fat composition. To learn more about his story click here. For more articles on weight loss click here.

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We all know exercise is essential to being healthy along with a healthy diet. Mastering the second part of that formula is much easier said than done. Most people have some idea of what things they should be minimizing or avoiding when it comes to food. However, actually doing so is very difficult for a number of reasons which include high levels of stress, social pressure and any number of other things in life.

The reality is, you aren’t going to eat perfectly all of the time. Once you acknowledge that fact and give yourself some room for error you are much more likely to develop healthy eating habits. But, in order to develop these habits you have to know some basic guidelines on what healthy eating habits are. Granted some individuals can get by with more than others in the way of cheating or indulging but the majority cannot so you must not form your habits based on those on either extreme ends of the spectrum. You have those who never eat a dessert, or pizza or anything else. Then you have those who constantly splurge and eat those things but appear to have perfect bodies. Ignore those extremes and look to have balanced sustainable habits that you can maintain. This doesn’t mean it will always be comfortable or easy. There will be times when you have to deny yourself some things that you are really dying for. But that’s good, as it will instill some discipline in your eating habits and give you the confidence that you can do without some things and still be ok.

What are the basics of eating beyond avoiding the extremes of crazy restriction or pure gluttony?

Eat primarily things that come directly from a plant or an animal

The first is to always remember it’s better to eat something that came right from a plant or right from an animal than it is to eat something that has been highly processed and is created, packaged and sold as convenience. These convenience products always have a large number of preservatives, chemicals, flavorings and other things in them that aren’t a part of the actual food you think you’re getting.

Eat organic whenever possible

Secondly, it’s always better to buy the higher quality items than the cheaper lower quality items. Organic food is better, it has more nutrients and less chemicals than most non-organic food. Here you have to be careful though because “organic” has become hip and therefore gets easily twisted because companies know people will pay more for it. Natural and organic are not the same, so you have to look and see what the ingredients are. If there is a huge list of ingredients in a food that should have just a few that’s usually a hint that it’s probably not the best choice.

Find the balance of protein, fat and carbs at each meal that gives you consistent energy levels

Third, you want balance in your meals, just as in your exercise. That doesn’t mean you need exactly the same amounts of protein, fat and carbohydrates that everyone else does. It does mean however that you do need all three of those nutrients when you eat. Protein and fat come mainly from animals and carbohydrates come mainly from plants. You have to figure out what balance of these nutrients makes you function best. This may be different at different times of the day so you have to work at it to figure out what works for you.

This just skims the surface when it comes to eating and figuring out what you should eat to be healthy. In summary though, if you eat mainly things that are of high quality (i.e. organic) come directly from an animal or a plant and you do so in a balance that gives you energy throughout the day you’re off to a great start!

About the author: Mark Rogers is a fitness consultant who works with clients in their homes in the San Francisco Bay Area and with clients across the world online. He has been involved in fitness for over 15 years and has a diverse variety of experience training clients of all ages and levels in both health clubs and private homes. He can be contacted through his website http://www.markrogersfitness.com

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