Suppose you want to lose weight this year or you want to build up more resistance through nutrition. Nutritionist and dietician Marijke Berkenpas gives tips and tricks that are effective for everyone. Take advantage of it.
1. Lose weight
Do you want to lose weight? Do not start all kinds of miracle diets, pills and other means if you want to lose weight. It sounds boring, but weight reduction is mainly about creating a negative energy balance. And keep this up. One kilogram roughly equals 8000 kilocalories. So you have to burn these or eat less to lose weight. Ideally, you combine these two; So move more and eat less. If you therefore create a structural deficit of 500 kilocalories per day, you can lose 1.5 to 2 kilos in a month. Don't limit yourself to counting kilocalories, but consciously choose whole foods:vegetables, fruit, legumes, whole grains, nuts and seeds.
2. Less (red) meat People who eat a lot of red meat have an increased risk of colon cancer. Eat a maximum of 500 grams per week. Eating less meat is also good for the environment.
3. More veggies
Recent large-scale research showed that people who daily consumed 5 servings of vegetables (375 grams) and 300 grams of fruit were 42 percent less likely to die prematurely than people who ate less greenery. Only five percent of Dutch people now get the recommended daily amount of fruit and vegetables. But it is true:eating lots of vegetables is simply healthier. So do it.
4. Superfoods I started the food platform Iamafoodie.nl because there are so many fables and marketing talks about nutrition on the internet. Together with a number of fellow dieticians and (food) scientists, I try to find the underpinnings for various nutritional hypes and trends, such as superfoods. Our findings are not surprising. You won't lose weight from açaí berries and a shot of wheatgrass definitely does not contain the same amount of nutrients as two kilograms of vegetables. Yet most superfoods such as berries and seeds are healthy products. But don't be fooled, they are not miracle cures. If your base is unhealthy, you will not benefit much from these products and it will only cost you a lot of money.
5. Less processed products
In processed products – so just about anything that comes from a factory – there is often a lot of bad fat, salt and sugar, and often few good nutrients. Eating too much sugar, salt and bad fat increases the risk of all kinds of conditions such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes. If you choose not to eat these products or eat less, you will certainly achieve health benefits. For example, make your own pasta sauce. This way you get a lot more vegetables and a lot less salt and sugar than sauce from a jar.
6. The best drink
A glass of fruit juice or soft drink quickly contains five sugar cubes. So with one glass you are almost at the maximum daily recommendation of the World Health Organization for sugar. Therefore, opt for coffee, tea, water, vegetable juice, or make your own flavored water with fresh fruit and/or herbs. Saving kilocalories couldn't be easier.
Marijke Berkenpas, dietician and food scientist, Iamafoodie.nl
