You’d think it really strange if someone said to you: “I need to have lots of willpower to eat chocolate or McDonalds.” Your answer would probably be: “well don’t do it – eat something else”.

This is because chocolate and McDonalds are seen as enjoyable things to eat. Of course, you don’t need willpower. You can just do it.

But when we talk about healthy eating, we often also talk about needing willpower and self-discipline, because we are assuming that healthy eating is unpleasant. This is important.

If you are assuming it’s going to be unpleasant, you are setting yourself up to fail. Built in to the idea of self-restraint and willpower is that you are attempting something difficult, and you might fail. Subliminally you’re telling yourself what you’re about to do is unpleasant!

That is, of course, far from the truth. There are at least three reasons for this.

The first is that the world is overflowing with great recipes that are healthy and super tasty. Many are quick to prepare or allow you to use a slow cooker. You don’t need hundreds of recipes at your fingertips. Many people have 5 or 6 favourite recipes that they regularly cook. Maybe a curry, something with noodles, a pasta with sauce and so on. You can find tasty and nutritious healthy options to replace these. Maybe not all at once, but you can try several different healthier versions of a curry until you find one you really like. That becomes one of your weekly staples.

Eating healthier makes you happier

The second is that eating healthier actually makes you happier. There is a big link between food and mood. Eating healthy food stabilises your blood sugar, making you less susceptible to mood swings. Healthy food feeds the beneficial gut bacteria.

Gut bacteria significantly interact with the brain through what’s called the gut-brain axis. This connection involves a network of neurons, hormones, and chemicals that relay messages between the digestive system and the brain. Gut bacteria can influence brain function by producing neurotransmitters, modulating the immune system, and affecting the release of hormones that can impact brain activity.

Eat more to eat more healthily

The third reason is that eating more healthily means adding lots of good things. This is what I always recommend people start with, rather than focusing on what they shouldn’t be eating.

Elizabeth A Dennis and colleagues conducted an experiment in which half the participants drank 500 ml (1.06 US pints) of water before meals. After 12 weeks weight loss was around 2 kg (4.4 lb) greater in the water group than in the non-water group. This was a 44% greater decline in weight over the 12 weeks for participants who drank water before meals.

All the participants were middle-aged and older adults and followed a low-calorie diet for the 12 weeks. There is every reason to think this would apply whatever your age and whether or not you are reducing your calories.

Drinking a glass of water before each meal is an easy thing to do, isn’t it? (yes, I know this is technically drinking more!)

Eating nuts and seeds used to be discouraged on the grounds that they were very high calorie snacks. Tufts University (USA) Health & Nutrition Letter says:

“Nuts and seeds are a rich source of plant protein, have plenty of dietary fiber, and are high in heart-healthy mono-and polyunsaturated fats (including plant omega-3 fatty acids) and low in saturated fats. They also contain many vitamins and minerals (such as vitamin E, magnesium, phosphorus, copper, and manganese) and a collection of plant chemicals with potential antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.”

The general recommendation is to have a small handful of nuts and seeds every day. If you tend to eat unhealthy snacks, replacing them with a handful of nuts or seeds will bring even more benefit.

There’s lots of evidence that we  should be eating a big variety of plants – at least 30 different ones a week.

The World Cancer Research Fund  has an excellent summary on their website of what this means in practice:. E.g. each variety of nut counts as one; each herb and spice only counts as a quarter because we usually eat so little of them.

Start to think of it as an exciting adventure, not a dreadful chore. It’s going to be great!