5 Healthy Diet Ideas

By: Tal Boldo

Break Studios Contributing Writer

Looking for 5 healthy diet ideas to help you lose weight and feel great? Healthy diets that restrict your fare to specific foods provide your body with the nutrients required to lose fat and build muscles, while avoiding unwanted ingredients that interfere with the process. Though food portions are typically larger in healthy diets, they are also more limited in range and can grow tiresome. It’s important, therefore, that you pick a food category that you like and will enjoy eating exclusively for a period of 3 weeks. Here are 5 healthy diet ideas great if you want to get in shape or lose weight fast while staying healthy.

  1. Salmon diet idea. Devised by Nicholas Perricone, M.D., assistant clinical professor of dermatology at Yale University School of Medicine, the salmon diet offers not only a healthy diet idea for your body but for your skin as well. Recommending 10 servings of fish a week, the salmon diet consists of a portion of oatmeal, yogurt, egg white or fresh fish for breakfast, followed by fish or chicken and a side of vegetables for lunch. For dinner eat fish or chicken once more together with high fiber vegetables such as broccoli or spinach.
  2. Steak diet idea. A study conducted by Professor Donald Layman for the Journal of Nutrition, concluded that people eating diets rich in protein in place of grains or carbohydrates lost greater amounts of body fat and gained more muscle tone. To implement the steak diet idea make steak, fish or egg whites the staples of your diet, with high fiber vegetables to assist in digestion. Furthermore, be sure to eat your steak diet meal one hour before exercising to optimize the health benefits to your body.
  3. Egg diet idea. Offering a variation on the Atkins diet, the egg diet idea restricts carbohydrate consumption and stresses protein consumption from eggs. Though some egg diets consist of eating eggs alone, variations permit you to combine high fiber, low carbohydrate fruits and vegetables with your diet, such as grapefruits and broccoli. Though you may substitute chicken or fish for egg in the evening, the egg diet idea stresses the important of egg consumption in the morning. Unlike ordinary diets that allow you to eat the egg white only, with the egg diet idea you may eat the entire egg.
  4. Bean diet idea. Though rich in carbohydrates, the bean diet idea offers a healthy diet alternative to vegetarians and vegans. Unlike carbohydrates in raw sugar, which your body consumes at once, those in beans take longer to break, leaving you feeling full and energized longer. The bean diet idea is best implemented with a combination of seafood or eggs, however you can substitute these with beans only if you like. Eat cottage cheese in the morning, followed by baked beans for lunch and chicken or fish for dinner together with a second serving of baked beans. Munch on berries between meals for a high-fiber, nutritional supplement.
  5. Milk diet idea. Seeking to capitalize on the healing properties of milk, the milk diet recommends drinking three 8 oz glasses of milk a day in addition to eating a low-fat diet. Containing nine essential nutrients, milk has been found to help reduce body fat and contribute to muscle tone and bone health. However consumption of more than 24 oz of milk a day is not recommended. Drink a glass of milk with breakfast, lunch and dinner. Avoid any other liquids but water when you are not drinking milk.

All healthy diet ideas are intended for short duration. Though healthy in themselves, diets that limit your consumption to a short list of foods is likely to grow tiresome and eventually send you running to forbidden treats. Moderate your use of healthy diets and you can reap the benefits without feeling deprived of life’s culinary delights.

Posted on: Oct. 31, 2010