Healthful eating is not the only way to improve your overall well being, but it’s often the first place many of us start.

Food is not the enemy; it’s just the bad habits that need to go. As you embark on tuning up your eating habits, don’t think about going on a diet or losing weight. Instead, make a promise to yourself that you’re going to focus on healthful eating habits that will make you feel well today and every day. If you do that, you’ll have more energy and chances are you will also lose weight. Here are a few guidelines to get you started.

NO MORE PACKAGED FOODS

Midlife is a great time to stop eating packaged processed foods. We eat a lot of these foods for convenience when we are rushing kids out the door to school or when we’re working late. Whether you still have kids at home or an empty nest, resolve to stop eating packaged foods. (Help your kids kick the habit now!) Here are some tips for eliminating packaged food from your daily diet.

• Only buy single-ingredient items from the grocery store. Some foods — like milk, yogurt and almonds — have to come in a package, but you will know it’s OK to eat them because the container label shows only one or two ingredients. Processed foods (think chips, cookies, frozen dinners) have multiple ingredients, additives and added sugar. Don’t eat them. Cooking at home doesn’t have to be complicated. Keep it simple. Make a simple avocado taco (you can buy the salsa if you don’t have time for homemade), roast a really big beet or make a more-vegetable-than-egg frittata.
• Don’t be fooled by “healthy” foods. Granola bars, sports drinks and vegetable chips sound like they’d be good for you, but they are loaded with added sugars, extra calories, food coloring, preservatives and other things you don’t need. Grab some nuts or an apple instead.
• Find homemade alternatives. If you love breakfast cereal, make your own blueberry oatmeal or steel-cut oatmeal with fruit, make your own granola or a yogurt parfait.Love french fries? Cut up some sweet potatoes and bake fries at home. Mac-n-cheese from a box? Our Cooking team has 11 great ways to make it yourself. 

SKIP THE SUGAR

The nutrition community has spent much of the past few decades talking about the perils of fatty foods and eating too many calories. But increasingly, research is showing that sugar is what ails us. Not only is there evidence that it makes you gain weight, but it appears that the body metabolizes sugar in a way that is, quite literally, toxic. Sugar appears to play a role in insulin resistance, which leads to diabetes, heart disease and other problems. When the body can’t manage the amount of sugar in the blood, the sugar begins to damage artery walls, increasing the risk for heart attack and stroke. Some research has suggested a link between sugar and cancer. 

None of this is to say you can’t enjoy a sweet bite of chocolate or the occasional dessert. In fact, the best advice is to savor every bite of that birthday cake, holiday chocolate or other dessert. But use your midlife tuneup to mindfully stop eating so much added, hidden sugars in your diet. 

JUST ADD NUTS

One of the simplest ways to stop eating packaged junk food and unhealthy snacks is to keep nuts close at hand. At first, you may over do it, so be careful as you nosh on that pack of salted almonds. But over time, you will learn that just eating seven or eight nuts can do the trick when you need an afternoon pick me up. 

Why are nuts good for you? Nuts have been shown to lower the risk for heart disease as well as diabetes. A review of nearly two dozen studies of nuts and health found that people who ate, on average, about one ounce of nuts a day (that’s about two dozen almonds or 15 pecan halves) had lower risk for heart disease, cancer, respiratory disease, diabetes and infectious diseases compared with those who rarely ate nuts.

It’s not entirely clear why nuts are so good for you, but we know they contain healthful unsaturated fats; omega-3 fatty acids (good for the heart); fiber (which can lower cholesterol and diabetes and increase satiety); vitamin E (good for heart health); and L-arginine (good for healthy artery walls.)

One provocative study suggests that eating walnuts -- and perhaps any type of nut - may influence satiety sensors in the brain. The study was tiny -- just nine people and it was paid for by the California Walnut Commission, so obviously more research is needed. But the research does offer a hypothesis about why nuts can help curb our appetite.

STOP DRINKING YOUR FLAVORS

Most cultures around the world are grateful for healthy, clean water. But in a growing number of countries, we’ve taken to wanting our water flavored. We can thank the beverage marketers for treating us to the joys of flavored beverages. While flavored drinks tickle our taste buds, they also fill our bodies with empty calories and added sugars. Even diet sodas have been implicated — the artificial sweeteners may change our gut bacteria, causing glucose intolerance, or it may be that fake sweeteners increase your cravings for actual sweets. 

We don’t have all the answers, but we do know for sure that water — simple, plain, water — is good for you. As you are tuning up your body for your second act, consider your commitment to water. And if you still are craving fruity, flavored drinks, consider cutting up some fruit and infusing your water at home to give you a touch of flavor without all the bad stuff. And you can use all the money you were spending on sweet drinks to buy yourself a nice water filter pitcher.

LOVE YOUR VEGETABLES

Midlife is not the time to starve yourself or embark on a restricted eating plan. Has that strategy ever worked for you? The good news: You can eat delicious food and still be healthy and lose weight. The best way to do that is to focus on the vegetables in your life. Spice them up. Sear them in a pan. Roast them in the oven. Enjoy them with quality olive oil, aioli or a dollop of butter. Shop for the freshest vegetables at a local farmer’s market. Eat them for dessert. Be decadent with your vegetables. Eating more of them will push less healthful foods of your plate.

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