Eating a diet that can reduce your risk for disease and increase your longevity doesn't have to be difficult.
Primarily, it requires paying attention to what you eat and gradually replacing less healthy foods and eating habits with healthier ones.
Start out by incorporating one or two of the following changes or adjustments into your diet each week for the next six months. By the end of that time, you should be well on your way to better health.
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Add vegetables to (almost) everything you eat. Add pureed carrots or red roasted peppers to pasta sauce. Replace some of the oil in nut breads and cakes with canned pumpkin. Substitute pureed green peas for half the amount of avocado in guacamole and other recipes. Use mashed potatoes to thicken soups. Put in a layer of vegetables instead of ground beef when preparing lasagna.
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Toss beans into salads and soups. Besides providing fiber, beans are a good source of iron, protein and folate, which is especially important for women of childbearing age.
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Eat a variety of foods. Eating the same foods every day supplies your body with the same vitamins and minerals over and over again, to the exclusion of others.
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Reduce the fat and increase the fiber in soups, stews and casseroles by replacing one-quarter to one-half of the meat with cooked brown rice, bulgur or cooked and chopped beans.
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Use low-salt condiments if you're trying to reduce your sodium intake. Ketchup, mustard, salad dressings, bottled and powdered sauces, soy sauce and steak sauce are high in sodium.
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Drink calcium-fortified orange juice instead of the regular kind. You'll consume as much calcium (300 mg) as you would if you drank a glass of milk.
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Eat the right kind of carbohydrates. Eighty percent of your total carbohydrate intake should come from complex carbohydrates, such as fruits, vegetables, legumes, pasta, rice, barley, couscous, oatmeal, bagels, pretzels, potatoes, air-popped popcorn, fig bars, rice cakes and low-fat muffins.
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Eat apples, peaches, potatoes, cucumbers and other fruits and vegetables with their skins and peels on to increase your fiber intake. Wash them well first.
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Choose lean sources of protein. Among the leanest sources of protein are turkey breast, skinless chicken breast, egg whites, lean red meats, low-fat yogurt, skim milk, low-fat cheese, beans, lentils, all seafood and fish, split peas and chickpeas.
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Enliven your salads. Top your lettuce with chopped bell peppers, onions and celery; grated carrots and apple; sliced mushrooms and tomatoes.
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Eat high-potassium foods, such as cantaloupe, oranges, grapefruits and bananas; they help lower your blood pressure.
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Cut the fat and cholesterol from tuna, chicken and pasta salads by using low-fat or no-fat mayonnaise or this substitute for mayonnaise: Mix 1/2 cup plain nonfat yogurt with 1 teaspoon fresh herbs and a dash of soy sauce.
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Bread fish and chicken with wheat germ instead of white flour to add fiber and B vitamins.
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Add soy foods to your recipes. Add soy foods to your recipes. Soy can increase the protein, calcium and iron content of any dish and may reduce your risk for heart disease and cancer.
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Use fruit spreads instead of butter, margarine or sugar-laden jelly.
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When you cook with fat, use the monounsaturated kind. Olive oil, peanut oil, sesame-seed oil and canola oil are high in monounsaturated fat -- the kind that helps lower blood cholesterol.
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Watch your portions. When it comes to food, you can have too much of a good thing. Two servings of a low-fat food can contain as much fat as one portion of a high-fat food.