Mariah Wittenberg: Adding Nutrition to Your Diet

Whatever your goal – improving various health conditions, weight management, or simply feeling better overall – the idea of ​​incorporating healthier nutritional habits into your daily life can often feel overwhelming and trigger a spiral of restrictive thinking. Thoughts often automatically categorize foods into “good” and “bad” categories to better determine which foods you should limit right now. Have you experienced this before? How does it usually make you feel?

In psychology, it’s called the forbidden fruit theory or scarcity principle, but it’s a well-known human behavior: when we feel restricted, we often crave more of something. This is one of the biggest problems with most mainstream “diets.” They usually promise great short-term results by partially or completely restricting various food and nutrient groups. Typically, this leads to unsustainable behaviors, a poor relationship with food, and, frankly, just plain misery.

Of course, it’s a well-known fact that energy balance is important if your goal is to lose weight. This means that to lose weight, you need to have a consistent calorie deficit, that is, ingest fewer calories than your body burns most of the time. To achieve this, it may be wise to evaluate the frequency and amount of certain foods you consume. But to be more balanced, you need to work towards your goal in a more sustainable way and nourish your body in a less strict way. What if you focused on the foods you can incorporate more of into your daily diet, rather than the foods you think you should reduce?

This is a concept often referred to as “nutrition by addition,” which focuses not on which foods are “bad” or need to be restricted, but on how to add more nutritious foods, such as lean proteins, fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, to your diet. This can help promote a better relationship with food, the ability to feel more balanced and in control over a variety of foods, and more long-term sustainability through healthier nutrition behaviors.

What are the main elements you would like to incorporate more of into your regular meals and snacks?

1. Lean Protein. Low-fat dairy (Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, milk), chicken, turkey, fish, lean beef, eggs, tofu, etc. Protein-based foods require more energy and are harder for the body to break down. Therefore, they take longer to digest and keep you feeling fuller for longer. Not only does this help improve hunger and portion control throughout the day, it also supports lean body tissue and provides a variety of nutrients.

2. Fiber is found primarily in vegetables, fruits, and whole grains (such as brown rice, whole wheat, and oatmeal). Fiber is another nutrient that slows down the breakdown process in your body, makes you feel full between meals, and helps with blood sugar management and bowel regularity.

The next time you want to improve your nutrition habits, start by asking yourself at meal or snack time: “Am I getting both quality protein and fiber?” If not, consider how you can better nourish your body with these things, promote a more balanced intake, and better manage hunger and fullness.

Remember, it doesn’t hurt to keep it simple. Some great things to have on hand that can easily add a ton of protein to any meal or snack are low-fat cottage cheese, low-fat Greek yogurt, canned or packaged tuna in water, or shredded chicken. Preparing a batch of shredded chicken in your crockpot at the beginning of the week or purchasing a rotisserie chicken in a pinch will set you up for success and make it easy to add a quality source of protein to your meals throughout the week.

Fresh, frozen, and canned fruits and vegetables are also ways to get plenty of fiber into your diet. If you choose canned foods, look for “sugar-free” or “low-sodium” on the label.