Might as well face it. There’s no denying that you’re an adult now. Your life is definitely different than it was not so long ago. Those changes in your life can make it more of a challenge to stay physically active, eat healthy foods and do everything else that’s part of a healthy lifestyle.
The healthy eating tips listed below are designed to help you meet many of the health challenges you can face in your 30s. These include losing weight, maintaining a healthy weight, avoiding health issues that you haven’t faced before and simply having the energy to just be you.
4 Healthy Eating Tips for Your 30s
If you’ve read our article, Healthy Eating Tips for Your 20s, you’ll know that one of the goals was to become more mindful of eating a healthy diet. With that groundwork in place, it’s time to take real action on preparing healthy meals, including more fresh fruits and vegetables and healthy fats; and avoiding the opposite, like processed foods and sugary drinks (including diet pop!).
Start Looking After Your Gut Health
Whether you’ve read one of our articles on gut health, or you’ve heard about it elsewhere, you know that the health of the good bacteria in your stomach and digestive system is being increasingly linked to your overall mental and physical health.
Choose foods that are good for your gut, like plain greek yogurt, bone broth, almonds and bananas.
Eat More Foods with Antioxidants
Here’s something you probably never thought about in your 20s: cell damage caused by oxidative stress! But the results of that stress, which is caused by things like processed foods and environmental pollution, are more noticeable in your 30s. These include signs of ageing, like fine lines and gray hair, and an increased risk of heart disease and cancer.
Antioxidants help your body balance the effect of the “free radicals” that can cause oxidative stress. Put more antioxidant-rich foods into your healthy eating plan, including olive oil, berries, colourful vegetables, grapes (or grape seed extract), nuts and green tea.
Iron & Folic Acid
If you are planning to start a family, your body will need the support of folic acid, or folate (vitamin B-9), and iron from your diet. Folate helps the body make healthy red blood cells while synthesizing and repairing DNA. Iron helps maintain your energy, digestive functioning and immune system.
Good sources of iron and folate include fortified breakfast cereals that are low in sugar, dark, leafy greens, and legumes (beans, peas and lentils).
Low-Fat Dairy
You start losing bone mass in your 30s and calcium is just about the best way to fight against it. Dairy foods, including milk, cheese, yogurt and cottage cheese, are great sources of calcium. But choose low-fat options to help you eat fewer calories and avoid some of the other issues the extra fat can cause.
The nutritional counsellors are your local Herbal One Centre will help you create a Herbal One diet plan that’s specifically designed to for your health and weight loss needs in your 30s.
To learn more, check out our article “How to Choose the Right Weight Loss Program”.