Eating well is difficult these days, mainly because the average western diet is packed full of processed food with high sugar and salt content. Convenience foods are everywhere and our eating habits are based on the patterns that we pick up from our food culture. However, every country has a different food culture and there are a lot of places where they do it better than us.
Looking at different countries and regions with a healthier diet than ours can help you improve your own eating habits and boost your overall health. There are places around the world that have high concentrations of people that live to the age of 100 or older, and it is thought that this is mainly due to their diet. So, what are the healthiest diets in the world – and how can we adopt those habits? Here are several:
The Mediterranean Diet
The Mediterranean diet is widely considered to be one of the healthiest diets in the world. It’s also much easier to stick to because it’s not a particularly restrictive diet. People struggle to manage their weight when they follow fad diets and try to cut out lots of the things they love, but keeping a mediterranean diet is sustainable in the long term because you can still have most of the things you normally enjoy, just in moderation. Whole grains, fruits, and vegetables make up the bulk of the diet, with oily fish, chicken, and eggs being consumed in moderation. You can still eat meat and sugary foods on this diet, but only very rarely, and meat is consumed in smaller portions.
The French Diet
The French have a very different approach to eating, and people are often surprised that their diet is healthy. It is based around a lot of bread, cheese, rich sauces, and wine. None of these things sounds particularly healthy, but there is a focus on eating small portions. It’s all about quality over quantity so even though the food isn’t the healthiest, by eating smaller portions, you can manage your weight. French people also tend to eat slower than people in other countries, which contributes to a healthy weight too.
Okinawa Diet
The Okinawa diet is all about low calories and high nutrition. Cutting back on calories is essential if you want to lose weight, but people often make the mistake of eating less without thinking about the nutrients that their body needs. If you just eat less without changing what you eat, it’s likely that you will have nutritional deficiencies. It’s important that you incorporate more nutrition-rich foods into your diet, and that’s what the Okinawa diet is all about. It is built around small portions of vegetables and superfoods and small amounts of seafood and lean meat. It is also a big part of the culture that people only eat until they are around 80% full instead of stuffing themselves.
If you want to improve your health, you should try out some of these diets from around the world. But remember that you don’t have to stick to them rigidly, you just need to understand how different approaches to food can help you to eat better.
And remember, if you are looking for a plan tailored more specifically to YOU, I am here to help! Simply contact me and we can get started!
