Proper nutrition is the basic foundation of good health. Everything your body needs comes from the food you eat-energy to move, and building blocks for everything from muscles to brain chemicals. That’s why nutrition is so important. Read on for some nutrition tips to keep your body and mind well.

Chocolate is not your enemy. While candy bars are obviously an unhealthy choice, dark chocolate is a much healthier alternative. Dark chocolate has much less fat and calories than milk chocolate, and consuming a little bit of it can reduce your sweet tooth and has even proven to increase your life span.

For cancer prevention, try adding more plants to your daily diet. These are versatile enough to go anywhere from a salad to a soup to a stew to even a smoothie. Try eating green things like lettuce, spinach, broccoli, asparagus and more to get a vast array of nutrients. Also, add things like fruits and nuts for a huge boost to prevent cancer.

Remember that vitamins are nothing more then supplements. You want to make sure you are eating healthy throughout the day rather than just taking vitamins all day. You should only take one dose of multivitamins in a given day. The rest of your nutrients should come from the food you eat throughout the day.

Write down and collect healthy recipes. Cook books are expensive and seldom have much useful information. Make your own instead. Buy a pack of index cards and use them to copy down any healthy recipes you try and enjoy. Replace all those high calorie, unhealthy recipes you had been saving with the new ones.

Make your own fruit smoothies. Smoothie products you can buy in the store or at a stand, can be full of calories. If you make your own, you control how nutritious it is. Plus, it is easier to fit into your eating plan. Use ingredients like skim milk, Greek yogurt, bananas, frozen or fresh fruit and ice, to make a healthy, low calorie smoothie.

Limit your consumption of red meat to no more than two to three times a week. Research has shown that a diet high in red meat can clog arteries and potentially lead to high blood pressure. Red meat is also high in saturated fat and cholesterol. This can lead to heart disease.

To maintain good nutrition it is important to avoid trans-fats. Trans-fats damage the cardiovascular system. Labels can lie about the presence of trans-fats. Look for hydrogenated oils in the ingredients. Hydrogenated soy bean oil is a common trans-fat. Foods can claim they do not contain trans-fat even when they do. Companies set the serving size so they can round the amount of trans-fats down to zero, but if you eat the whole bag of chips you have still consumed plenty of harmful trans-fats. Be careful, vigilant, and check the ingredients closely.

Many people love drinking iced tea, but try drinking green iced tea instead of “regular” iced tea. Green tea has polyphenols, which help protect against cancer, lower cholesterol and have anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory properties. Black tea contains polyphenols as well, but far less than green tea. Green tea also has less caffeine than black tea.

A great nutrition tip is to customize your diet to your body type. Not everyone has the same body type. Some people are more sensitive to carbohydrates and will gain weight just by looking at them, while others can eat anything they want and will never gain any weight.

Obesity and nutrition are major concerns today. Not obese people have poor eating habits that have lead to excess weight gain. Many people who are classified as obese have a great diet. Nutrition is one way to help one maintain over all heath, even if weight issues are present.

A good nutrition tip is to eat darker colored vegetables. Darker colored vegetables tend to offer the best nutrition. A good example of a darker vegetable would be something like broccoli or spinach. Avoid lighter colored vegetables such as celery and iceberg lettuce because they offer very little in terms of nutrition.

Always carry healthy snacks around with you. That is a good idea because most of the time people cheat on diets because healthier options are not available to them at the time. Keeping nuts, dried fruits, sugar free candy and sliced vegetables around will satisfy any cravings you get.

You set yourself up for failure right from the start if you don’t eat breakfast. Many believe that calorie consumption can be lowered by skipping breakfast. The truth is that when you skip breakfast, you are more likely to become overly hungry and grab an unhealthy snack later in the day. Without breakfast and with copious snacking, your final calorie total for the day may end up much higher.

You might have heard many negative comments about carbohydrates, but you should include good forms of carbohydrates in your daily nutritional plan. Good sources include fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and legumes. Whole fruits and vegetables provide your body with fiber. Whole grains contain essential vitamins and minerals, and legumes are an excellent source of low-fat protein.

Even if you feel rushed in the morning or just do not feel like taking the time to eat breakfast, stop and sit down and eat something healthy. It will boost your metabolism and add some fuel to your body for the day. Studies show that those who have breakfast each day have more success in losing weight.

When trying to feed your child nutritional foods, make it fun. Give a vegetable a cheese topping. Cut a fruit into the shape of a smiley face. Serve food on a plate with your child’s favorite super hero on it. Your child will view meal time as fun, and the foods as more appetizing too.

The benefits of practicing proper nutrition are varied and plentiful. Hopefully you learned something from this article that can improve your nutrition, and you’ll put it into play today! Try eating good, healthy food and see if it doesn’t change the way to feel and think every day! Good luck!