Most of us could stand to be a little healthier - but don’t think this means you have to overhaul your entire life! The best place to start on the path to a healthier ‘you’ is to make some simple swaps in your lifestyle. This could be changing snacks - something pretty easy - all the way to getting in some exercise, which can be a challenge for many reasons.
The important thing to remember here is that a lot of little changes add up to a big difference, so don’t dismiss the value of maintaining a small change!
ADD IN A DAILY WALK
Exercise is an important activity, but it’s good to know that you don’t have to cut an hour out of your day to make an impact. A study investigating the effect of a short bout of exercise and meditation found that a 10 minute brisk walk, coupled with meditation, improved mood in young adults, compared to a control group.
So how can we adjust our daily life to include more (regular) exercise?
So how can we adjust our daily life to include more (regular) exercise?
If you live local to a park, stealing away for a 10 minute brisk walk in that environment should be easy to achieve. If you stop to enjoy the scenery, you may find yourself out for longer than 10 minutes - and this shows the biggest hurdle for starting exercise is just getting out the door! If you don’t have a nice place to walk on your doorstep, then going somewhere nice to walk is an idea, though if you have to drive or hop on a bus it will be more time consuming. If all else fails, a 5 minute walk away from your home means it will take you 5 minutes to walk back, so don’t be afraid to prowl the mean streets of your home town!
Perhaps you can persuade yourself to walk to your local shop when you need to buy something. I know the local shops tend to be more expensive than the superstores, but if you are driving to the local superstore, what you save at the store you are likely to spend on fuel - depending on the cost of your shop, of course. If you are buying just a few small bits, the trade off for paying slightly more is the health benefits from walking, and they are well worth the few extra pennies!
TAKING THE STAIRS INSTEAD OF THE LIFT
This one is easy! When faced with the choice of taking the stairs or a lift, always opt for the stairs! One study found that, in addition to being linked with lower body weight and blood pressure, daily stair climbing reduced the risk of ‘the metabolic syndrome’ - a condition that is defined using five measures relating to lipid fractions, blood glucose level, blood pressure and abdominal obesity.
Save using the lift for those times you genuinely feel you can’t manage the stairs - and be honest about when you can actually justify it!
HOMECOOKED MEALS OVER EATING OUT
There is a lot of focus on the gut biome and its effect on our health in the spotlight these days. People are tackling their autoimmune issues with particular diets because the gut biome has been linked to the onset of chronic diseases, and neurological issues. So - it turns out there is a price you pay for eating rubbish all day, everyday!
Taking more control over the food you put in your body may have a positive effect for you. The problem with eating out is that you never really know the quality of the ingredients that are put into the meal, and a quick look ‘behind the curtain’ - so to speak - often doesn’t inspire trust. Cooking at home gives you the chance to choose healthier foods, increasing the nutritional benefit of the meal. You also have control over the cooking process, ensuring vegetables aren’t overdone, retaining all the goodness found inside.
Making choices like cooking with olive oil for its anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties is a great go-to if you must fry something. Leafy greens like kale and spinach are low calorie and high in fibre, helping you feel full without eating a monstrous amount of food - great for a weight loss regime.
SWAP MEAT-BASED MEALS FOR VEGETARIAN PROTEIN A FEW TIMES PER WEEK
Many of us like to have a nice chunk of meat with our meals; your favourite could be a big slab of steak, a burger in a bun, or a rack of ribs - but whatever your favourite, it is worth considering easing off the pedal if you are eating red meat every day. Red meat contains saturated fats - these are solid at room temperature - and these have a negative impact on the circulatory system as they can build up in blood vessels to form plaques, leading to increased blood pressure.
Plant based protein should be considered as a healthier alternative for a few meals every week. The protein found in plant sources often has an essential amino acid missing, so for those only eating plant based protein, you should be aware of the missing essential amino acids from your meals and take steps to compensate where necessary. The great thing about plant based protein is that it is more nutrient dense, so packs more good stuff into fewer calories, and that includes fibre, which can’t be found in red meat!
For meat-eaters, switching meat portions for plant protein a couple of times a week could lead to reduced risk of cancer, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease - as well as being less environmentally costly!
SWAP SUGARY CEREALS FOR OATMEAL OR A HEALTHY BREAKFAST BOWL
Unless you are specifically on a low-carb diet, whole grains are a great snack, and a good way to start your day; look for wholegrain or whole wheat cereal! A study reviewed evidence on the effectiveness of whole grain as a therapeutic agent in type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and obesity, and found there is some evidence that wholegrains contribute to the prevention of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and a number of gastric cancers.
Vegans may choose to have their morning cereal with one of many dairy milk alternatives - so for those who haven’t, try switching that full fat milk for oat milk - and you may find you feel fuller for longer as it contains soluble fibre, and helps control blood sugar levels. Almond milk is another consideration, though it is low in protein, it is also low-carb so would be a great option for someone on a low-carb diet.
HEALTHY SNACKING
Some of us find it hard to go through the day without snacking. It’s so easy to pick up snacks that claim to be healthy but in reality are not - this is the case with a lot of packaged food found in shops. A quick look at the sugar content often reveals how healthy the snack really is! So what food swaps can we enact to move toward a healthier diet?
Fresh fruit is easy to find, cheap, and it spoils - that means you’ve gotta eat it before it goes off! The UK government recommends people consume 5 pieces of fruit and veg a day, and that’s because they think that’s all that people can manage! Bananas, apples, pears, grapes and oranges are all conveniently sized and inexpensive - so why not switch out one of those packaged snacks with a healthy piece of fruit?
WHOLEGRAIN FOOD OVER REFINED GRAIN
The options for healthy snacks don’t end with fruit though! As mentioned, whole grains are a healthy, slow burning form of carbohydrate, which is a great option over things like white breads that use processed flour, and one study demonstrated that fresh fruit and whole grains appear to help reduce inflammation by different methods - so adding fruit and wholegrains to your diet is a double helping of good stuff!
Further than this one study, a meta analysis that included 9 randomised trials found evidence to suggest that increased whole grain intake reduced the markers for systemic inflammation, and there is a growing body of evidence showing that chronic inflammation can cause and progress many common diseases - so making sure you get your wholegrains in everyday is a great way to stack the odds in your favour!
There are more options than you think when it comes to whole grain too - try whole grain cereal, whole grain bread, whole grain tortillas, whole grain muffins, and popcorn as some additional snack items! For meals, quinoa and brown rice are favoured choices - and are gluten free, too!
SWAP SODA AND ENERGY DRINKS FOR HEALTHIER BEVERAGES
Have you ever stopped to look at the amount of sugar found in a can of fizzy drink? A typical can of cola has 35 grams of sugar in - that’s about 9 or 10 sugar cubes! For anyone who likes to have a few cans a day, this should be a startling figure, so let me remind you that high intake of refined sugar increases the risk of type 2 diabetes!
Energy drinks are another one to watch - often marketed by celebrities as an extra income stream, they often provide little nutritional value and ineffectual doses of the active ingredients - while this is not true of every brand, it is worth knowing. Excessive consumption of energy drinks can lead to irregular heart beat, elevated blood pressure, headaches and anxiety - with the FDA linking 34 deaths with energy drink consumption between 2004 and 2014.
Having had several friends struggle with what is clearly an addiction to these drinks, I would recommend cutting down by substituting the drinks out for sugar free versions - this reduces the sugar intake, but uses sweetener instead - and excessive consumption of sweetener can still cause a variety of health problems. With that in mind, many fruit juice options contain plenty of natural sugars so taste sweet and will work as a healthier substitute for those fizzy drinks.
Fruit smoothies are a good way of condensing a lot of nutritious food into a single drink, but the danger with smoothies is that blending acts pre-digestion, which means that our body expends less energy digesting a smoothie, increasing the net caloric intake from the contents. For ultimate health benefits: eat - don’t blend - your fruit.
CHOOSE HEALTHIER ALCOHOL
Alcoholic drinks are empty calories - they don’t have any nutritional value, so they are not going to help you if you are trying to lose weight! There is some evidence for the benefits of consuming red wine, due to the antioxidant content, and some other potential protective effects of alcohol when consumed in moderation, but you can always choose a low calorie alcoholic beverage - these include dryer wines, Ultra Brut Champagne, vodka soda, whiskey on the rocks, and the like.
The key here is to be aware that mixers and fruity additions to any alcoholic drinks are going to (at least) double the calories found within, and excessive drinking will be more detrimental to your health than avoiding alcohol altogether - so don’t use the fact you are drinking low calorie drinks to justify consuming more!
SWAP CIGARETTES FOR E-CIGARETTES
There are still 6.9 million smokers here in the UK, so if you are one of them, try making the switch to an e-cigarette today! Public Health England maintains that using e-cigarettes is 95% less harmful than traditional tobacco smoking, and this is in large part due to the fact that ‘e-liquids’ don’t contain the same harmful substances found in tobacco, over 60 of which are known to cause cancer.
E-cigarettes and vaping devices vapourize what is known as ‘e-liquid’ which is then inhaled into the lungs. E-liquids contain a mixture of propylene glycol (PG), vegetable glycerine (VG), flavourings, and the all-important nicotine. As the action of vaping is close to smoking, and e-liquids can contain nicotine, e-cigarettes are proving to be an effective tool for quitting smoking. One study published in the National Institute for Health Research found that e-cigarettes could be almost twice as effective as other forms of Nicotine Replacement Therapy (such as nicotine patches or nicotine gum) when coupled with behavioural support.
It may not be a simple swap, but if you are a smoker, making the switch to e-cigarettes is a huge step towards a healthier you!
SIMPLE SWAPS TO MAKE FOR A HEALTHIER YOU CONCLUSION
There you have it: a few simple swaps, a few not-so-simple swaps, and before you know it, you’re on the road to a new, healthier you! The trick is to pick up momentum slowly, but make sure it is maintained. Track your progress with a spreadsheet, even if it’s just ticking a box for each task - do that on a daily basis, and you can learn a lot about yourself. You can look back on your progress to stay enthusiastic, and look at the weeks you didn’t succeed to work out what was happening that led to ‘falling off the wagon.’
All of us could stand to be a little healthier - for some it may be to eat more healthy food, while others may need to get out for regular exercise. Whatever you’re feeling, know that you aren’t alone, there are lots of resources online to help you achieve your goals, so don’t be afraid to do some research, join a group on social media, and share your own experiences!
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