The Conspicuous Consumer

To many people, eating healthy means eating tiny portions of bland foods every day. While some people have success doing this, others find this too boring and start “cheating” within a couple weeks.

Here are 5 tips for how you can still eat gourmet food while maintaining a healthy diet:

1. The hand rule
The “hand rule” is one of those old standards that never really goes away. Why? Because it works. The basic idea behind the hand rule is that it allows you to determine portion sizes appropriate for your body size - a salad should never be larger than your two hands put together, meats should be the size of the palm of your hand, and a handful of fruit or vegetables is an appropriate serving.

2. Buy high quality ingredients
When I go to the supermarket, it amazes me the number of people I see buying the lowest quality meats, poultry, and fish. When you’re buying beef, opt for higher quality grass fed beef instead of corn fed beef because grass fed beef is lower in cholesterol and fat. Buying free range poultry allows you to avoid the hormones and chemicals that are given to most farm raised poultry. Yes, these higher quality products are more expensive, but keep in mind the hand rule and realize that your portions are going to be smaller - you won’t have to buy as much.

3. Opt for better carbs
Carbohydrates are an important part of every diet. Yes, there are some diets that achieve a great deal of success restricting carbohydrate consumption. However, if you are not going the “low carb” route, simply avoiding things like white flour products, potatoes, and items high in sugar and replacing them with better options like sweet potatoes, yams, or brown and wild rice.

4. Use fresh herbs for flavor instead of heavy sauces and condiments
Herbs are extremely low in calories, fat, and carbohydrates. In fact, the chopped herbs that help flavor a dish rarely add any nutritional impact to the meal. So, instead of using heavy sauces and condiments, garnish or rub your meats with fresh herbs before grilling to add additional flavor.

5. Grill Meats and Bake Fish - Never Fry
As good as fried fish or fried chicken may sound at times, it is rarely a healthy alternative. Do what most gourmet chefs do - grill your meats. Grilling properly allows fats to drip away from the meat, lowering the fat content in the finished meal.

So, there you have 5 easy tips that can allow you to enjoy gourmet food while still keeping your diet healthy.