HEALTHY EATING TIPS

Main Points

1) Drink plenty of water and unsweetened teas. Those should be your leading drinks; try to drink them before meals. Coffee only from time to time because of excess caffeine. Skip decaffeinated coffee. Avoid this ritual, "I got up, now I need my morning coffee."
2) Stop buying sugar altogether. Limit all consumed sugar as much as possible. Obviously, sugar cannot be entirely eliminated; pay attention to hidden sources.
3) Reduce salt consumption. Ready-to-eat foods already contain enough salt, and there is no need to artificially increase blood pressure.
4) Always have fresh vegetables and fresh fruits with all meals. Change vegetables very often.  Consider frozen vegetables if fresh vegetables are not available. Canned vegetables are fine, too, and last longer. However, watch for salt.
5) Add some raw or lightly cooked mushrooms to your diet.
6) A single boiled egg, maybe two, once a week.
7) Healthy nuts, once or twice a week.
8) Fish is always good; canned sardines, herrings, anchovies, wild salmon. Boiled fish is much better than fried fish.
9) Any wild seafood, in general, is acceptable. Better skip farmed seafood.
10) Cooked chicken, turkey, beef, or pork, perhaps once every two weeks, in small amounts.
11) Lots of cooked beans and peas. Soak the beans for at least several hours to remove extra sugar, which may cause unpleasant bloating and gas. Canned beans are already cooked and ready to eat. However, they usually contain some preservatives.
12) Fermented vegetables quite often; sauerkraut, pickles, beets, kimchi, and tofu, twice a week; contain beneficial gut bacteria.
13) Olive oil twice a week. This is a significant source of good fat. Extra virgin olive oil is easy to buy. However, pay attention to excess calories. Avoid fake olive oil.
14) A glass of milk once a week. Try to avoid a low-fat version. If you cannot drink milk due to lactose intolerance, skip it.
15) Cultured milk contains less sugar and could be a better choice.
16) Plain kefir and yogurt without added fruits and extra sugar. Once or twice a week.
17) Cottage cheese, from time to time. Hard cheeses only sporadically.
18) Once weekly, oats with cold milk or cooked oats with milk.
19) Whole grain bread, once a week.
20) A small piece of dark chocolate with 90% cacao once a week.

21) Add some herbs to your food.

Better to avoid
1) Avoid any foods you are allergic to. After a while, see if the allergies are still there. Some may disappear, your microbiome may improve, and some problems may be lessened.
2) Avoid all soft drinks, fruit juices, vegetable juices, sports drinks, and energy drinks. Some of them contain too much sugar, little or no fiber, and unnecessary extra vitamins. Excess carbon dioxide is also optional.
3) Nothing containing high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). Your lean liver will thank you.
4) Do not try drinks with artificial sweeteners. If those with natural sweeteners are acceptable, you may want to experiment.
5) No deep-fried foods.
6) Avoid dried fruits because of their high sugar content. Stick with raw fruits, and do not use canned fruits.
7) No fast food at all. This is very important, remember.

8) Avoid all breakfast cereals.
9) Avoid most restaurant food. The food at "healthy" restaurants no more often than once a month.
10) Avoid candies, cookies, cakes, or ice cream. They contain too much sugar, fructose, preservatives, color dyes, emulsifiers, and food-like substitutes.
11) Avoid all highly processed foods. Concentrate on simple foods that are close to nature. Either raw or lightly cooked if raw is too difficult or unpleasant to eat.

12) Avoid farmed fish and seafood because of likely antibiotic presence.
13) Check the labels for trans fats. Reject those products.
14) Also, check the labels for saturated fats. Eat a little.
15) No supplements or vitamins, which only tend to produce expensive urine. No probiotics either because the results are questionable.
16) Stay away from alcohol. OK, a maximum of a glass of wine per month.
17) Don't smoke cigarettes.
18) No drugs, opioids, pot, fentanyl, glue, gasoline fumes, etc.

Additional items
1) You won't get tired of those foods. Pick something different when you want to eat; avoid repeatedly sticking with the same food.
2) Check the label; avoid it if the product contains more than 4-6 grams of sugar per serving.
3) Vegetables and fruits contain prebiotics that improve the gut microbiome, improving health. A slow weight loss is likely without any unwanted side effects.
4) Try to eat the food as soon as you buy it. Keep it around or store it in the fridge for a short time. This means shopping quite often, but it is worth it. That way, food does not spoil, and there are no leftovers.
5) "How could this be bad for me if it tastes so good?" Don't get fooled by this. Very often, foods that taste good are pretty bad for your health! The taste has been chemically altered to fool your gut satiety sensors.
6) You will not feel hungry between meals since you are eating whole foods. There are no sugar spikes or crashes; you will not feel hyper.
7) Some antibiotics may be in the meat, which is unavoidable. Eat only a little bit.
8) Those ideas are unsuitable for vegetarians or vegans since meat in small quantities is included. More than just removing meat, dairy, and eggs may be needed since the calories could be too low, and some vitamins and essential amino acids may need to be included.
9) You should know that gluten is in the mentioned foods.
10) Read labels on products. If the label contains ingredients your grandmother would not recognize, it is better to set aside that item.
11) Skipping a meal is OK; you will not die, but don't skip too often.
12) Don't eat or drink before going to bed. A little break before sleep is always beneficial.
13) Checking your body weight very often is optional. You will feel better once your weight starts to go down, and you will know it.

Body hygiene tips
1) Remember to brush your teeth before breakfast to remove bacteria accumulated during sleep. You don't want extra bacteria to colonize your stomach, intestines, or brain.
2) After eating, brush your teeth without toothpaste or wash your mouth with warm or cold water.
3) Obviously, brush your teeth before going to bed. You may also want to chew on celery, parsley, cilantro, or other green leaves. Never hurts.
4) Do not use any antibacterial products that are supposed to kill bacteria, such as soap, toothpaste, mouthwash, shampoo, body wash, etc. Those tend to kill harmful and good bacteria, and the bad bacteria become more resistant to those products over time, thus continuing a vicious cycle.

Word on exercise
1) Daily walking for about an hour, two to three hours on weekends.
2) More exercise will not hurt you but may not be practical because of your work schedule.
3) If you exercise more, take a day off to relax.

Sleep
1) Plenty of good sleep. This is mandatory. You cannot ever fool sleep!
2) Lower room temperature to about 65°F/18°C.

3) Remove all noise sources; TV, radio, cell phones, computers, games, music, etc.
4) Sleep in near darkness, perhaps with a small night light such that you can find a way to the bathroom if necessary.
5) Try to sleep during the same hours; do not change your sleep pattern.

What to change?
1) The foods mentioned contain plenty of fiber, which may sometimes cause diarrhea. If this happens, reduce fruit and vegetable consumption. The right amount has to be adjusted individually; everyone is different. You need to experiment a bit.

Tell me how you are doing
1) Leave a comment if you try those ideas for a while.

2) Let me know if you want to add something that was omitted.

3) Are those ideas too restrictive?