You don't have to choose between eating healthy or eating to lose weight. The best way to lose weight is to make healthful food choices, eat moderate portions and get plenty of exercise. The problem with many fad diets is they focus on consuming particular low-calorie foods to the neglect of a well-rounded, nutritionally balanced diet. Smart food choices minimize calories, provide the nutrition you need, burn fat and minimize food cravings.
Vegetables
The complex carbohydrates in vegetables slow down your digestion and stabilize blood sugar. The high fiber content in vegetables cleans your gut and assists in digestion, creating a feeling of fullness. Brimming with nutrients and minerals, vegetables serve as the perfect low-calorie health food. Vegetables of different colors contain different minerals and nutrients, so mix up the colors to dazzle your eyes, please your palate and fuel your body. Eat them raw, steam them, microwave them or expand your recipe repertoire to include veggie-heavy stews, stir fries, casseroles, soups and curries.
Greens and Other Colors
Salad greens such as spinach, leaf, romaine, Boston, escarole, endive, arugula and iceberg lettuce are sublimely low in calories and high in fiber. All are rich in fiber and, except for iceberg lettuce, greens contain vitamin A and potassium. Greens make a great start to a healthy, calorie-wise, total sensory-pleasing salad. Diversify the nutritional profile of your salad creation with orange, green, red and yellow peppers; onion; cabbage; tomatoes; carrots; cucumbers and celery. These vegetables contain lycopene, phytonutrients and vitamins A and C, in addition to other body-wise nutrients.
Don't feel guilty about loading up on any of these foods. Three cups of shredded romaine lettuce contains a miserly 24 calories. One cup of chopped green peppers surrenders a mere 18 calories, and a large stick of celery contributes only 9 calories to your salad bowl. Once you subtract the calories burned by ingestion and digestion, 3 cups of romaine, 1 cup of green pepper and 1 stick of celery give you more than 4 cups of food and loads of nutrition for the reasonable cost of 42 calories.
Salad Toppers
Top your salad with fruit, seeds and nuts. The protein-packed crunch of pumpkin and sunflower seeds adds snap to your salad and builds muscle. Almonds, pistachios, peanuts and other nuts are likewise high in protein and, like seeds, contain omega-3 fatty acids, which bolster your immune system. Fruit like raisins, grapes, figs, dried cranberries and apples add sweetness and crunch to your salad. Drizzle a bit of low-calorie, olive oil-based dressing on your pièce de résistance, and munch away.
Lean Protein
Lean proteins--such as turkey, chicken and low-fat dairy products--might seem calorie-rich in comparison with greens and other veggie, but protein builds muscles. It also provides necessary building materials for important brain chemicals that enhance your energy and improve your mood. Protein prolongs digestion, stabilizes your blood sugar and reduces later hungers pangs, plus it raises your metabolism, burning off additional calories, according to EcoSalon. While 1 cup of turkey has 238 calories, such foods as turkey and dairy burn as much as 30 percent of the ingested calories to digest the food, lowering the net calories consumed. High-protein dairy products--such as low-fat yogurt and non-fat milk--contain calcium, which helps regulate your appetite, according to Medical News Today.
Fruit
Each fruit has it own nutritional profile, but just about all fruit offers great benefits for your health and diet. Heavy in fiber, fruit also contains vitamins, minerals and other nutrients. For example, the pectin in treetop fruit, berries and citrus fruit limits how much fat is absorbed by cells, according to WSBTV.com. The antioxidants in fruit may defend against the thickening of the waist associated with metabolic syndrome. Citrus fruit, such as grapefruit and oranges, lowers insulin levels and reduces your appetite.
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