A step-by-step guide to eating healthier

Whether you are a child or an adult, when it comes to choosing healthy foods, practice makes perfect.

If you’ve spent much of your life snacking on junk food, it may feel difficult to make the healthy changes you’d like.

The key is to start slowly and keep practicing healthy behaviors.

- Rather than eliminating all snack foods at once, try steadily substituting some of those snacks for organic fruit and vegetable snacks into your diet. Over time, you can tip the balance, adding healthier foods and fewer processed foods.

- To shift away from sugary carbonated drinks, try replacing one soda a day with organic fruit juice. You’ll still be getting a lot of sugar, but you will be slowly eliminating the chemicals found in soda.

- Once you’ve made the switch from soda, you can start trading juice for unsweetened tea or water with lemon, both healthier choices.

Here are a few more ideas to help you take steps toward a healthier diet:

- Eat one less meal at a fast-food restaurant per week. Try easy healthier alternatives such as making a sandwich at home or choosing a supermarket salad.

- Eat an extra serving of fruit every day. Blend frozen fruit into a smoothie or add fresh berries to yogurt for a yummy dessert.

- Eat an extra serving of veggies every day. It is easy to add a side salad to your evening meal, for example.

- Eat one serving per week of seafood. Try a tuna salad sandwich instead of deli meat.

- Try to cut out one or two servings of potato chips or other salty snacks.

- Replace a sugary dessert with fruit.

- Try olive oil instead of butter for a rich, smooth taste – without the “bad” kind of fat.

- By making just one small change a day and building on that success, you’ll empower your family to make healthy choices without feeling deprived. They will have the power in their hands to live a healthy life.

Courtesy of PeaceHealth Medical Group