These days there is so much nutrition advice being put out there. Some o fit is helpful and some of it is not so helpful. Among this, there is helpful and practical nutrition information that people are missing out on.
In response, we asked a group of dietitians for their top underrated nutrition tip.
Tim Crowe from Thinking Nutrition
There is no need to try and keep up with the latest ‘superfood’ trends – just let colour be your guide for choosing what fruits and vegetables you eat. The more colours on your plate, the greater the diversity of beneficial natural plant compounds you’ll be eating. Those colours come from a range of pigments that have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects in the body.
Erin Colebatch from Calvary Healthcare
I think that the power of real food enjoyed at the dinner table with good company is highly under-rated these days. There is so much guilt and confusion around food, with many diets involving restricting food groups and many people eating on the run – this risks missing out on valuable nutrients and an unhealthy relationship with food and eating. The power of the long game of a healthy, balanced lifestyle including a wide variety of foods and healthy eating behaviours is where the big wins will be for those wanting health for life.
Brie Salagaras from Adelaide Football Club
Ensuring that you are hydrated is an important nutrition tips that tends to be underrated. For general population, aiming to drink at least 6-8 glasses of water is helpful. Ensuring that you are hydrated is also going to help with dietary aspects and potentially prevent fatigue.
Nicholas Needs from The Needs Analysis
For me, my most underrated tip is the importance of good old fashioned unsaturated fats and how we do it. I’m a big fan of making foods colourful, often looking for bang for your buck options added to boost the nutritional content of the snack. Playing around with extras like avocado, nuts or seeds are simple, quick and easy ways to not only improve satiety and slow energy release, but also makes our food look so good you just want to snap a pic then snap up that appetite.
Tyson Tripcony from Fuel Your Life
Match food to your lifestyle, because that is what is going to make it easy and sustainable – and likely you won’t have to think about it at all. Trying to mould your life around what you eat is not going to work. All you will do is stress about it all the time, force yourself to have a strict regime, give up social occasions, and feel like you are missing out which of course eventually you’ll get jack of it. Match food to your lifestyle, not the other way around.
Evangeline Mantzioris from the University of South Australia
Michael Pollan’s quote summarises my tip. “Eat food”, not too much, mostly plants”
It encompasses three great bits of food advice which effectively summarises the literature on nutrition and health. Eat food- referring to wholefood, and not supplements. This supports various literature that suggests that a food-first approach is generally best over supplements. ”Not too much”- recognising that we need to balance our food to maintain a healthy weight. “Mostly plants” – this recognises the literature that supports plants are a strong theme in a healthy diet.
Lana Hirth from What About Health
Build better habits.
When we attempt to completely shift our eating overnight, or make dramatic changes to our diets, we end up exhausted! By focusing on building new habits instead, we can automate our actions. This means less energy and effort long term. Pick something small, like eating two serves of fruit daily or two cups of vegetables at dinner. Work hard to nail this goal, then move onto the next thing. In the long run, this means more time enjoying the important things in life.
Aidan Muir from Ideal Nutrition
Strategically match your fluid intake to your appetite and goals. If you are attempting to lose weight and struggling with hunger, drink a large glass of water pre and post meals. The research shows people eat fewer calories across the day if they do this. If you are trying to bulk up but struggling to eat enough, add in some liquid calories such as replacing fruit with fruit juice or adding a glass of milk after a meal. Liquid calories are far less filling than solid calories.
