Healthy Eating: The Beginner’s Guide on How to Eat Healthy and Stick to It

Healthy eating. It's something everyone knows they should do, but few of us do as consistently as we would like. The purpose of this guide is to share practical strategies for how to eat healthy and break down the science of why we often fail to do so.

Now, I don't claim to have a perfect diet, but my research and writing on behavioral psychology and habit formation has helped me develop a few simple strategies for building and strengthening a healthy eating habit without much effort or thought.

You can click the links below to jump to a particular section or simply scroll down to read everything. At the end of this page, you’ll find a complete list of all the articles I have written on healthy eating.

I. The Science of Healthy Eating

• Why We Crave Junk Food
• How Food Scientists Create Cravings

II. How to Make Healthy Eating Easier

• The Importance of Environment for Healthy Eating
• How to Eat Healthy Without Noticing
• What Should I Eat?
• Two Simple Ways to Eat Healthy
• How to Eat Whatever You Want Without Feeling Guilty

III. How to Stick to a Healthy Eating Habit

• Address the Root Problem of Unhealthy Eating
• How to Say No to Temptation
• This One Phrase Will Help You Eat Healthy Time After Time
• Where to Go From Here

I. The Science of Healthy Eating

Every nutritionist and diet guru talks about what to eat. Instead, I'd like to discuss why we eat the way we do and how we can change that. The purpose of this guide is to share the science and strategy you need to get the results you want.

Now, the benefits of good nutrition are fairly obvious to most of us. You have more energy, your health improves, and your productivity blossoms. Healthy eating also plays a huge role in maintaining a healthy weight, which means a decreased risk of type 2 diabetes, certain cancers, heart problems, high blood pressure, and a host of other health ailments. (Genetics also plays a significant role. I'm not some crazy person who thinks genes don't matter.)

But if there are so many good reasons for healthy eating, why is it so difficult to actually do? To answer that question, we should start by learning why we crave junk food.

Before we talk about how to get started, let's pause for just a second. If you're enjoying this article on healthy eating, then you'll probably find my other writing on performance and human behavior useful. Each week, I share self-improvement tips based on proven scientific research through my free email newsletter.