Well-being and food – how to build a sustainable and healthy diet

Healthy food is one of the cornerstones of well-being. There are many ways to build and cultivate healthy habits, but the most important thing when building a sustainable diet is to find the eating habits and routines that best serve your life. 

We know that many meals can fit into a single week, even to a single day. The first step towards a balanced diet is to establish a good foundation – by focusing on making sensible choices most of the time, we can easily incorporate our own preferred treats into our diet. 

We also know that a varied, plant-based focused diet and regular mealtimes are the basis of good eating habits, but this can be difficult to achieve at times. Healthy eating is important at every age, that is why we have created Vegemi. Vegemi is a good tummy bacteria who lives inside you but also in his very own app! Vegemi gets amazing superpowers when fed with fruits and veggies and children get excited to eat their 5 a day!

Here are a few good examples of daily choices that can help you and you family add wellbeing to your daily life.

1. Eat half a kilo of vegetables, fruit and berries a day

It’s a familiar phrase, but even so, only 1% of kids in Finland eat veggies according to the recommendations. 14% of the men and 22% of the women eat veggies according to the recommendation.  

Vegetables, root vegetables, berries and fruits are rich in protective nutrients such as fibre, vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals and are therefore important for the body’s function.

 There are so many ways to add vegetables to everyday food item, so let’s get creative! 

– Choose seasonal treats – they’re cheaper and taste heavenly. 

– Make veggie-based foods and don’t forget to use the Vegemi-app and photo recognize the veggies with the kids before you start cooking!

– Smoothies, the perfect snack! Make the most of leftover veggies and fruit by blending them in a lovely smoothie. You’ll get a wonderful and nutritious drink!

– Add veggies to sauces and casseroles. This is a sneaky and delicious way to increase the veggie intake.

– For a snack or a movie night snack, chop up a plate of fresh veggies and swirl a side of hummus dip. Your health-boosting snack is ready!

2. Plan your week’s meals in advance – and save time, money and the environment!

Planning is the basis of a varied diet and time management. If planning the next week’s meals seems too much of a hassle, try planning meals for the upcoming couple of days. If you’re feeling energetic and excited, we also recommend “meal prepping”, which means preparing food in advance. You’ll find that your everyday life rolls along much more comfortably, and you’ll eat more cheaply and healthily – win-win!

3. Stick to your meal rhythm

A regular meal rhythm is one of the key elements of healthy eating. Meal rhythms are individual, and you’ll know they’re working if your blood sugar stays steady and there are no cravings or evening mood swings.

In general, you could say that sugar cravings, binge eating, and stress eating are surprisingly often caused by an uneven meal rhythm. So here again, planning is the key!

4. Create routines that last

Did you know that we make over 200 food-related decisions a day, most of them unconsciously?

The change towards a healthier everyday life starts with new habits, from the shopping list to creating new routines! An example of a new pattern might be a decision to eat five colours of vegetables a day. Eating for health does not have to be boring!

Let’s remember that even a small improvement is a big leap!

 

Have you downloaded the Vegemi app to see how it might help your families’ wellbeing and food?

On the app store.

On the google play store.

 

Cecilia Portnoj, Projects Manager @ Vegemi