Healthy Foods Can Be Tasty

Image via Wikipedia

What could make us eat healthy? Better self-evaluation, self-awareness and better taste.

Most marketed foods are least healthy, and so are meals served in restaurants and sold as packaged foods. Do we really like all this salt and fat or are we forced to like it?

Although the majority of Americans acknowledges importance of healthy diets, this does not always translate into behavior change. Taste, preferences acquired during childhood and adolescence, friends & family, and media have more influence on what we eat. In 1997, for example, food manufacturers spent 44.4% of their advertising budget on prepared convenience foods, confectionery and snacks, and bakery goods compared with only 2.2% on fruits, vegetables, grains and beans. Besides, busy people prefer prepackaged foods and restaurant meals, which are not the healthiest choices either.Aurametrix, What could make us eat healthy?, Aug 2009

People can't imagine living without their favorite foods. But what makes foods our favorites? It takes a child about 17 attempts tasting a new food before acquiring a preference for it, says Dave Grotto, Registered Dietitian, nutrition expert and author of "101 Foods That Can Save Your Life". His approach to food focuses not on restricting quantity, but on adding healthy foods to a person's diet until he or she acquires a taste for them. Just be a little patient - you will acquire the wright tastes, achieve dietary balance and keep the ice cream, too, as says Mary Francis Hill from Canwest News.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Achieve dietary balance -- and keep the ice cream, too (nationalpost.com)
• New survey shows Canadian eating habits in trouble (newswire.ca)
• A Closer Look at My Personal Eating Habits (naturalbias.com)
• Do You Know How Vital Food Nutrition is? (after50health.com)