Healthy food choices essential to achieve your study and career goals. To perform at your best, you need to make healthy food choices.

A healthy diet allows your body to feel at its best and to perform at its full potential.

The following healthy food choices and diet preferences will help you achieve better performance:

FRUITS and Vegetables

---

Fruits and Vegetables significantly contribute to healthy diet. Eat at least 4-5 fresh fruits and vegetables a day (some sources advise 70% of your daily diet should be fruits and vegetables). Someone even said, “If you want to stay alive – eat food that is alive”.

Moreover, you need to have a variety of vegetables and fruits. Some experts suggest eating a “rainbow” of fruits and vegetables each week. This refers to the fact that your diet, over the week, needs to incorporate fruits and vegetables of all colors of the rainbow.

Organic food

---

Try to eat organic food when possible. This will allow you to stay away from hormones, antibiotics or sprays added to traditional food, as well as from genetically modified food.

Clean Water

---

Drink a sufficient amount of clean water (at least 3-5 glasses a day). The rest of the water you need will come from fruits and vegetables.

Supplements

---

Take in supplements, but in limited doses. Ginkgo biloba and omega 3 are popular supplements for improving brain functionality. Multivitamin and mineral supplements are also important. Supplements fill in the gaps in your nutrition and contribute to good diet.

No heavy food after 6pm

---

Try not to eat heavy food after 6pm. It is more appropriate to have light snacks such as a yogurt or a fruit. Heavy food can disrupt your sleep patterns and significantly contribute to an extra weight problem. Therefore, it pays off to have it as a rule to not have heavy food after 6pm and especially not after 8pm.

Green tea, red wine and dark chocolate

---

According to research conducted by Harvard professors, green tea is very healthy and considered to be one of the 3 healthiest foods when it comes to longevity. The other two are red wine and dark chocolate.

Red wine has well known benefits but the alcohol in it is harmful for one’s health. Dark chocolate, according to the same research, apparently can decrease the possibility of a heart attack.

Avoid processed food

---

It is important to avoid processed food as much as possible. As one food expert recommended, – “if it is made from the plant – eat it, if it is made in the plant – don’t eat it”. Processed food should be avoided when possible.

Nuts

---

Raw nuts are very healthy and nutritious. Raw almonds and walnuts are especially highly recommended. Make sure to avoid roasted, honey coated or heavily salted nuts. These are all bad for you and the oil in nuts converts to a heavy saturated fat when nuts are roasted.

Semi-healthy treats

---

One needs to select a diet that is manageable and sustainable. This refers to a diet that still allows one to feel happy and satisfied with one’s food choices.

Therefore, some creativity may be required in building a healthy diet. Granola bars can be used as a substitute for sugary sweets. Organic popcorn with olive oil is another good light snack that provides fiber.

Probiotic yogurt is yet another option. By using your preferences and by being creative, you can find a healthy or semi-healthy treats for yourself that will allow you to overall healthy diet.

What you really do not want is to occasionally eat healthy but unsatisfactory food and at other times eat really unhealthy food to compensate for it. It is best to find a diet which consists of healthy food and semi-healthy food, and which is sustainable.

You can feel how differently your body reacts to healthy food choices. You can also feel the negative reaction of your body to poor food choices. One indication that you can use as to whether or not you are following a healthy diet is to see how energetic you feel. Above all, use your judgment and listen to your body.

Making healthy food choices is not as hard as it seems. Once you make an effort for 21 days or so to make healthy food choices, you will start forming a new habit and it will become increasingly easier to maintain healthy diet to fuel your success.