Dinner Plans to Improve Your Health

To help improve your overall health and alleviate symptoms of anxiety and related problems, follow these tips at dinnertime.

Make a serious effort to eat dinner at about the same time every night, preferably between 7:00 and 9:00 p.m. Try to complete the meal at least three hours before bedtime.

Plan ahead so you can easily prepare a nutritious, well-balanced dinner. A healthy diet emphasizes fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and fat-free or low-fat milk and milk products. It also includes lean meats, poultry, fish, beans, eggs, and nuts and is low in saturated fats, trans fats, cholesterol, salt (sodium), and added sugars. With this in mind, keep salad fixings, frozen vegetables, fish, chicken breasts, and soy products on hand, so even if there isn’t much time to cook, you can throw together a salad and stir-fry easily and quickly.

A good way to be sure your meal is balanced is to think about how the dinner plate will look. Vegetables and salads should take up about half the plate; one quarter of the plate should be occupied by lean protein such as fish, soy products, or lean meat, beans, or skinless chicken; and the last quarter should be composed of whole grains such as brown rice, whole-wheat pasta, bulgur wheat, or buckwheat groats.

Incorporate some healthy fat, such as olive or canola oil, by using it for sautéing or as salad dressing; a few chunks of avocado or a handful of nuts (unsalted ones, either raw or dry-roasted, are healthiest, of course) also contain natural, healthful fat.

And if you haven’t had fruit or fat-free or low-fat milk products earlier in the day, be sure to include those as well, perhaps for dessert. Pay particular attention to avoiding spicy or fatty foods, which can cause gas and heartburn.

-- From One Less Thing to Worry About, Uncommon Wisdom for Coping with Common Anxieties, by Jerilyn Ross, MA, with Robin Cantor-Cooke; Ballantine Books: 2009