5 simple food rules to boost your well-being without dieting

Want to improve your health and well-being?

You can do that by following some simple, evidence-based food rules. Many studies have found that the foods we eat influence our mood, body weight, gut microbiome, and our likelihood of developing chronic diseases such as Type 2 diabetes, heart disease and cancer. Some researchers have found that eating the right foods could even add years to your lifespan.

Eating foods that optimize your health doesn’t have to be complicated. Nor does it mean you have to go on a restrictive diet.

Here are five research-backed food choices you can make each day to boost your overall health and well-being.

Focus on eating more protein and fiber

The largest and longest clinical trial on diet and weight loss - called the POUNDS Lost Trial - found that overweight men and women were most successful at losing weight and improving their health when they adopted certain habits. Two of the most important habits they implemented were eating more protein and fiber.

High-protein consumers in the clinical trial lost triple the amount of weight compared to people who ate the least amount of protein, while people who ate a lot of fiber shed nearly double the amount of weight lost by people who consumed the least amount of fiber.

Protein increases satiety, which causes you to eat less food, and it’s also thermogenic. That means you burn more calories when you digest protein compared to fat and carbs. Fiber stimulates the release of appetite-suppressing hormones like GLP-1, and it causes microbes in our guts to produce short-chain fatty acids, which are good for metabolic health.

- You can increase the amount of fiber in your diet by eating foods such as green leafy vegetables, berries, citrus fruits, beans, chickpeas, lentils, nuts, brown rice, quinoa, oats and other whole grains and plants.

- Some great sources of protein you can add to your diet are seafood, lean meats, eggs and dairy. Beans, nuts, tofu, legumes and even some plant-based meat alternatives are also good sources of protein for both vegans and omnivores alike.

- Aim to eat one to three cups of beans, peas or lentils each week. That’s equivalent to about half a cup per day. Beans, peas and lentils are among the best sources of plant protein, and they contain a lot of fiber - so you get double the bang for your buck.

Cut back on ultra-processed foods

Another finding from the POUNDS Lost Trial was that people who successfully lost a lot of weight ate fewer ultra-processed foods. People who consumed the fewest ultra-processed foods throughout the study lost an average of more than 18 pounds, while those who ate the most ultra-processed foods shed 11.6 pounds on average.

That is supported by the findings of other studies. A rigorous clinical trial carried out at the National Institutes of Health found that people who were fed a diet of ultra-processed foods ate 500 extra calories a day and quickly gained weight. Many large studies have shown that people who eat a lot of ultra-processed foods have a higher risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, heart disease and cancer.

Ultra-processed foods are typically packaged foods that contain high amounts of sodium, sugar, fat and additives you wouldn’t find in most home kitchens, such as synthetic flavors, emulsifiers, preservatives and artificial colors and sweeteners. They include packaged cookies, doughnuts, hot dogs, potato chips, sugary breakfast cereals, soft drinks and frozen entrées.

You can identify ultra-processed foods - and replace them with less-processed alternatives - by reading food labels and looking for the following telltale signs:

- More than three ingredients: Ultra-processed foods often have a long list of unrecognizable ingredients that can sound like a high school science experiment. Not all foods with a lot of ingredients are ultra-processed. But when buying everyday foods such as bread, peanut butter, yogurt, deli meats, cereals and sauces, it’s best to choose the foods that have the fewest and simplest ingredients.

- Thickeners, stabilizers and emulsifiers: Ultra-processed foods typically contain ingredients such as soy lecithin, guar gum, xanthan gum, carrageenan, mono- and diglycerides, or carboxymethylcellulose. Manufacturers add food dyes to make them look appealing, preservatives to give them a long shelf life, and thickeners, stabilizers and emulsifiers to improve their texture or to keep their ingredients from separating as they sit on store shelves for weeks or months at a time.

- Added sugars and sweeteners: Ultra-processed foods often contain corn syrup, cane sugar, malt syrup, molasses and artificial sweeteners such as sucralose, aspartame, and acesulfame-K.

Eat your omega-3s for brain and heart health

Studies show that people who eat seafood regularly are less likely to die of heart disease or develop Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. Scientists think that’s in large part because fatty fish contain omega-3 fatty acids that promote brain and cardiovascular health.

Because of this, omega-3 supplements have become quite popular. But studies suggest that getting your omega-3 fatty acids from a supplement does not produce the same cognitive and cardiovascular benefits as getting them from food. In many studies, dietary sources of omega-3s had better results than omega-3 supplements.

- To give your diet a healthy boost of omega-3s, try eating at least two 4-ounce servings a week of seafood. Some of the best options that are high in omega-3s but low in mercury are salmon, sardines, trout, cod, sole, oysters, shrimp and other shellfish.

- If you don’t eat seafood, then consider adding chia seeds, flaxseeds, or hemp seeds to your diet. These seeds are good sources of omega-3 fatty acids, and you can easily add them to yogurt, smoothies, salads and oatmeal.

Drink coffee, eat dark chocolate to lower your diabetes risk

Both coffee and dark chocolate have been linked in studies to a lower risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, and scientists think that the reason is because they each contain an abundance of beneficial plant compounds called polyphenols.

Many large studies have found that people who drink three to four cups of coffee daily - whether caffeinated or decaffeinated - have a roughly 25 percent lower risk of developing Type 2 diabetes compared to people who don’t drink coffee.

Researchers have also found that people who eat about 5 ounces of dark chocolate per week - equivalent to five servings - have a 21 percent lower likelihood of developing diabetes compared to people who don’t eat dark chocolate. Interestingly, this benefit is only seen among people who eat dark chocolate, not milk chocolate.

The high concentrations of polyphenols in coffee and dark chocolate might protect against diabetes in a few ways. Research suggests that polyphenols can improve how our bodies respond to insulin and break down sugar. They may also help to prevent the deterioration of the beta cells that produce and release insulin from the pancreas.

Treating yourself to coffee and dark chocolate could be a very simple way to boost your metabolic health. Here are some tips:

- If you don’t like drinking coffee, don’t feel pressure to start. But for those who enjoy it, studies suggest that having two to five cups of brewed coffee daily is the range in which you’re likely to see health benefits.

- Experts generally recommend that you have no more than about four 8-ounce cups of caffeinated coffee daily. If you’re pregnant, sensitive to caffeine, or find that coffee disrupts your sleep or causes other sides effects, then try drinking decaf coffee, which is also rich in polyphenols.

- If you enjoy chocolate, then consider having a couple small squares of dark chocolate daily. Dark chocolate has more polyphenols than milk or white chocolate and it also has less sugar. Some experts say you should choose dark chocolate with a cocoa content of 70 percent or higher to maximize the potential health benefits.

- A caveat is that some dark chocolates may contain heavy metals such as lead and cadmium, which can be damaging to developing brains and nervous systems, so it’s best for those who are pregnant and children to eat dark chocolate only sparingly. Consumer Reports tested many dark chocolate bars in 2023 and found that some popular brands were low in heavy metals, such as Sam’s Choice (Walmart) Dark Chocolate 85% Cocoa and Divine 70% Deliciously Smooth Dark Chocolate.

Cut back on salt to protect your gut microbiome

We’ve known for a long time that eating a lot of sodium can be detrimental to your blood pressure.

But now studies indicate that at least one reason sodium contributes to hypertension is because it suppresses some of the beneficial microbes in your gut, including the microbes that help to regulate blood pressure. Studies have found that eating a lot of sodium leads to sharp reductions in beneficial gut microbes, and that high-salt eaters have less microbiome diversity, which is associated with higher rates of obesity, hypertension and other chronic diseases.

Health authorities recommend that adults consume no more than 2,300 milligrams of sodium each day, the amount in roughly one teaspoon of table salt. Yet on average, Americans eat 3,400 milligrams of sodium daily.

You can trim some of the sodium from your diet by doing the following:

- Read food labels and look for foods that are low in sodium. A food is considered low in sodium if it contains 5 percent or less of the daily value for sodium per serving. Try to avoid foods that are high in sodium, which typically means they contain 20 percent or more of the daily value for sodium per serving.

- Ultra-processed foods tend to be quite high in sodium. Cutting back on them will help to lower the amount of sodium you consume.

- Another way to mitigate the effects of salt on your health is to eat more potassium. A large meta-analysis in the Annals of Internal Medicine found that people who replaced table salt with salt substitutes that contained potassium chloride and sodium chloride (instead of sodium chloride alone) were significantly less likely to die prematurely from heart disease compared to people who used regular salt. Other studies have also found that replacing regular salt with salt substitutes that contain potassium lowers blood pressure.

- Try adding some of the following potassium-rich foods to your diet: root vegetables, butternut squash, beans, and fruits such as avocados, bananas, oranges, mangos, kiwis, prunes, raisins, dates and dried apricots.