What a Healthy Diet Looks Like in 2020

Gluten-free diet, paleo diet, cabbage soup diet, alkaline diet, HCG diet, South Beach diet, blood type diet, keto diet, raw food diet–the list could go on. Every year there’s a new, “revolutionary” weight-loss strategy, and every year there’s a new doctor or self-reported expert nutritionist telling us what to eat.

Some of these dieting trends are legit. Others? A complete scam. But how can we differentiate between what’s real and what isn’t? Sifting through piles and piles of conflicting information online can be a real nightmare, so we’ve decided to make it easier for you. If you want to know what a healthy diet looks like, just keep reading.

Eating Breakfast

Breakfast is not, as it turns out, the most important meal of the day. At least not for everyone. While the standard practice is that you have to eat your breakfast almost as soon as you wake up, recent meta-analysis on several combined studies shows that there is practically no difference in weight loss between people who eat breakfast regularly and those who do not. 

Now does this mean that breakfast is suddenly the villain? Not at all. Breakfast is still important and if you like eating breakfast, you should go ahead and eat it. But if you’re food-averse in the morning and simply can’t find the appetite, go ahead and skip breakfast. After all, different habits work for different people, and you should always listen to your body to determine what you need. If you do want to eat breakfast, we recommend avoiding sugary cereal and sticking to veggies, fruit, whole grains, or low-fat dairy products.

Detox Menu for a Cleanse

A detox cannot be reduced to drinking fruit juice all day and hoping for the best. It has been proven time and time again that this simply doesn’t work and can even potentially be dangerous to you. The best cleanses are actually not restrictive nor dangerous, and they can make you feel better and help your lymphatic system and kidneys work at optimum capacity. Since we’re constantly exposed to pollution and our own bad habits in the form of drinking, smoking and junk food, letting your body flush those toxins out is a good idea.

To start a cleanse, toss out all the junk you usually ingest from your fridge and replace it with whole foods. Cruciferous vegetables, leafy greens, beets, and fermented foods like kimchi, sauerkraut, and kombucha are a good example of what you need to eat. Drink water and green tea and abstain from alcohol. If you need a more serious cleanse and want to know how to detox your system safely, you have to use the right products and keep yourself well-hydrated throughout the whole process. Doing a full body cleanse like this can rid your body of dangerous and toxic chemicals and make you feel fit and clean again.

Gut Health and Inflammation

2020 is all about gut health. There is a well-established link between the health of your intestines and your overall health, and it’s become clear to scientists that if your gut isn’t okay, all sorts of problems will rise. Inflammation can run rampant and cause you to gain weight, be exhausted, and get sick more often. 

One way to heal your gut is by helping its natural flora. Certain bacteria play a large role in your gut health, and you can help the good bacteria along with probiotic supplementation and eating a diet based on vegetables and fermented foods.

Balance Between Nutrients

We hear a lot of talk about keto or low-fat diets that tend to become fads overnight because they cause temporary fat loss. However, the problem with these diets is that they rarely work long term, mostly because they require you to severely reduce or even completely cut out an important macronutrient.

The three main classes of macronutrients are carbohydrates, fats and proteins. You need all three for your body to function, and if you severely limit any of them, your body will rebel and generally make it impossible for you to get used to such a diet.

While cutting down your carbohydrate intake can cause weight loss, you still need carbohydrates. The trick is just to get them from the right sources. Instead of cookies, pizza, cake, burgers or similar junk food, get your carbs from vegetables, rice, fruit, nuts, whole grains and seeds like chia or pumpkin seeds. 

Reduced Portions

The amount of food we stuff ourselves with would be okay if we worked three jobs (two of which involved heavy physical work), walked to work, and exercised six times a week. Everywhere we go, we see huge portions that contain almost endless calories and it seems like we can’t escape labels like “supersize” and “grande”. A whopping 92 percent of restaurants in America serve oversized portions. Nearly two-thirds of American adults are overweight or obese.

We don’t need that much food. The latest diet rules are simple: even though what you eat has a lot to do with health, your portion sizes are equally as important.

Final Verdict

In the end, the basics haven’t changed. If you exercise regularly, eat fruits, veggies, and lean meats, avoid junk food and control your portions, you’ll be on the path to better health. We’d recommend avoiding most fad diets until they’ve been tested thoroughly, and focusing on simple, tried and true ways to shed weight and stay healthy.