5 Keys to a Healthy Diet

Share f
We asked nutrition experts for their best tips on how .
An illustration of several foods on a green background, including salmon, blueberries, almonds, an egg, a banana, olive oil and a bottle of water with an him.

Sign up for the Well newsletter, for Times subscribers only. Essential news and guidance to live your healthiest life. Try it for 4 weeks.
Ask any reputable dietitian or nutrition scientist about how to eat healthfully, and they will probably tell you to avoid dieting.

Many diets emphasize restriction, whether it’s of calories, carbohydrates, fats or something else. And that’s not a healthy strategy, said Alison Brown, a nutrition researcher at the National Institutes of Health. Diets like these can cause you to miss out on the range of nutrients your body requires, she said.

A much better way to maintain healthy eating habits, she added, is to focus on foods that are not only nourishing, but also bring you joy.

That can be challenging when nutrition fads are coming and going with seemingly increasing speed, and often conflicting advice. Is saturated fat the enemy or not? Are we all deficient in protein? Turns out, the best ways to foster healthy eating are also the simplest. Here’s how.

1. Prioritize whole foods.
   Not all processed foods are unhealthy, but they’re often stripped of beneficial nutrients like fiber and certain vitamins and minerals, Dr. Brown said. And they may contain high levels of ingredients that can be harmful to health, like added sugars and sodium.

2. Eat more healthy fats.
   During the 1980s, the dominant nutrition advice was to eat less fat. Yet researchers have since found that not all fats are bad. In fact, eating more unsaturated fats, which are found in foods like nuts, avocados, fish and olive oil, can lower levels of low-density lipoprotein (or “bad”) cholesterol in the blood, helping to prevent heart attacks and strokes.

3. Watch out for added sugars.
   While the experts focused on certain foods to eat more of, they did agree that you should limit added sugars.

4. Try to cook more.
   According to recent government data, U.S. consumers spend a greater share of their income on meals outside of the home than on groceries for home cooking.

5. Find joy, and flavor, in healthy eating.
   Learning to love healthy food often takes patience and experimentation.

“One of my biggest pet peeves as a dietitian is when people think healthy food can’t taste good,” Ms. Schreiber said. “It absolutely can.”

To find joy in a healthy diet, Dr. Gardner said, try adding flavorful herbs and spices to your food. Jazz up nuts or vegetables with a homemade “flavor dust” made from garlic, onion and Worcestershire powders, for instance.