Eating Healthy Without Being Deprived

January 15, 2013 - By Nautilus Plus

Temps de lecture 2 minutes

Often, we make the mistake of classifying foods in two different categories: good and bad. In fact, there are only foods that should be eaten every day, and foods that should be eaten on occasion¹. Foods that are part of Canada’s Food Guide should make up most of our nutrition. Thus, the more nutritious a food is, the more often it should be eaten. Inversely, the more sweet, fat or salty a product is, the less often we should eat it.

With this in mind, no foods are forbidden! Only the frequency at which we eat them is important:

	Consumption frequency	Examples of foods
Daily foods	Every day	Fruit, vegetables, fruit and vegetables juices, whole grain cereal products, skimmed or partly skimmed milk, low-fat yogurt and cheese, lean meats, poultry, fish, seafoods, eggs, legumes, nuts, seeds, vegetable oils, etc.
Occasional foods	1-2 times a week	Less nutritious breakfast cereals (Froot Loops, Honey Comb, Rice Krispies, etc.), refined cereal products, deli meats, store-bought muffins, fat dairy products, fat or salty soups and sauces, butter, cream, cream cheese, etc.
Exceptional foods	2-3 times a month	Chocolate bars, cookies, candies, chips, nachos, pastries, pizza, hot-dogs, poutine, soft drinks, ice cream, etc.

The size of the serving we eat is also important. Even if chocolate is one of the foods that we should eat less often, a small square a day is a reasonable serving. Of course, it depends on what others foods we have also eaten on that same day! Inversely, even if you eat cake only once a month, eat only one slice… not the whole cake! Finally, you have to keep you objective in mind. If you wish to lose weight, don’t forget that creating an energy deficit is essential (spending more energy than we eat; for more details, see the article The mathematical explanation of weight loss). Choosing the right foods is therefore very important!

By Vanessa Martin

References

1. Gouvernement du Québec. 2011. Une vision élargie et inclusive. Internet. http://www.saineshabitudesdevie.gouv.qc.ca/visionsainealimentation/vision.php#les-continuums-de-valeur-nutritive. Page consultée le 21 septembre 2012.

Eating Healthy Without Being Deprived is a post from Nautilus Plus. The Nautilus Plus blog aims to help people in their journey to fitness through articles on training, nutrition, motivation, exercise and healthy recipes.
Copyright © Nautilus Plus 2013