The evenings at home are chaotic. My partner and I have two year old twins, and that gap between pick up at preschool and bedtime can be the hardest part of the day.
We’re both very busy and always doing too many things at the same time – cooking, trying to remember if someone fed the dog, and negotiating with young children at the diplomatic level, to name a few.
In the midst of it all, we should eat healthy, exercise, get enough sleep, and take care of ourselves. Who has time for that?
My biggest challenge in eating healthy these days is finding the time and energy to plan balanced meals for myself and our family. Increasingly, we can make it together in ways that we couldn’t when the twins were babies (to be honest, I’m not even sure what we ate in the first 2 years of their lives). They like to go grocery shopping and eat the groceries they see us eat. I am looking forward to continuing in this direction together.
But that doesn’t mean it’s easy. Young children’s eating habits change daily, and sometimes they just don’t want to eat. Evenings usually end the same way for me – with two kids on the counter or one in my arms, spending time together and “helping” me cook dinner.
This is our healthy eating reality. Which one is yours
I am not a figurehead for healthy eating. I’ll say that as an adult I leaned better in this direction, but I stuck to a poorly planned vegetarian diet that I now understand.
I was a vegetarian from childhood to my mid-twenties and lived mainly on fruit, yogurt, cheese, bread, and pasta. My partner still likes to tease me because I’m a “dairy man”.
What I didn’t understand at the time is that any diet, especially one that omits certain foods, requires planning and balance. When I moved to Iceland in 2015, I started planning more balanced meals that included a variety of food groups. I also started eating fish, which is fresh and abundant here. For me, this was a life changing decision and I enjoyed exploring the culinary options that a more flexible diet offers.
These are my preferences, and a mostly Pescatarian diet is what works for me.
However, that doesn’t make it the right diet or form of eating for you. Eating healthy is a journey – one that changes over time – and you have the power to determine which foods and eating habits make you feel best.
We know that eating healthy can be a challenge. Knowing where to start can be difficult and grappling with incorrect nutritional information can be confusing. Also, healthy foods can be expensive or difficult to find.
Nevertheless, healthy eating is an important wellness goal for many people.
In a study conducted by Healthline Media, 72% of respondents said that “eating healthy and nutritious foods” was their most important health or wellness goal.
In another study we conducted, 66% of participants said they were interested in nutritional content. However, only 32% stated that they eat “very or extremely healthy”. The other 68% said they ate meals and snacks that were either no, little, or reasonably healthy.
This really caught our eye as the majority of these people wanted to eat well, but less than a third did.
So what’s in the way?
Change is hard and life is busy. People want more than information and need actionable steps to get started and support along the way. Recommendations need to be accessible and affordable. Community and connectedness are also important.
In addition, inequalities and food biases contribute to health inequalities. Cultural competence is also required. In this area, we have a responsibility to question our definition of healthy eating and to make more appropriate and relevant recommendations to better help people achieve their health and wellness goals. We’re busy, starting with articles on food deserts, cultural literacy in dietetics, nutrition and racism, honoring black culture through food, black-owned farms and CSAs, and more.
Our goal is to bridge the gap between intentions and actions by providing realistic nutritional information coupled with actionable insights that you can apply in your life today.
Welcome to Healthline Nutrition, the newest brand from Healthline.
Our approach is all about eating healthy in the context of your real life. We know that healthy eating has to be realistic in order to be feasible and sustainable. You are at the center of your healthy diet and we are here to help you find a long-term, healthy eating pattern that suits your needs, preferences and culture.
For us, a healthy diet is not about every dietary decision you make, but rather the general trends in your choices – how your habits are most of the time. Plus, you won’t find us recommending quick fixes or promoting fashion diets.
All of our nutritional information is based on studies that you will find cited in numbered, clickable references in our content. Our articles are written and medically reviewed by registered nutritionists – who are experts in their fields but also real people. They have their own journeys on healthy eating and are happy to share these perspectives with you.
Our goal is to meet you where you are on your journey to healthy eating, whether you are learning about nutritional supplements, delving into meal preparation, focusing on weight management, discovering diets, or something about eating in specific Want to learn about health conditions. We want to help you implement feasible, sustainable changes that you can put into action today with our “one thing” tips.
We know that eating well is difficult and that you are not alone in this. We’re in it together.
Before eating in Iceland we say “gjörðu svo vel”. It means ‘here you go’ and invites everyone to dive in and start eating. I would like to welcome you to Healthline Nutrition.
I have been working with our nutritional content for 6 years and I take great pride in who we were and where we are going. It was amazing to see this cohort become the main nutritional information resource on the internet, evolve and reach many millions of people every month.
I’m more than excited about our new direction, and I hope you are too.
I would also like to pay tribute to our team and all of the people who work on nutritional content at Healthline, both past and present. Without you we wouldn’t be where or who we are.
Thank you everyone and cheers for our next chapter!
Aubrey Wood
Editor in Chief, Nutrition and Fitness
source https://dailyhealthynews.ca/a-letter-from-the-editor/
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