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By Julie Murphree, Arizona Farm Bureau Strategic Communications Director

Happy 2024; Happy New Year! We want to start out right in many areas of our lives when the new year begins and one of the top-of-our-list areas is eating healthy and eating right. I’ll share my priorities for healthy eating and link to some other articles that give some great ideas.

The list is not exhaustive; it’s more about basics.

1. So, stick to the basics. I try to make sure I’m eating lots of fruits and vegetables, proteins (beef, poultry, eggs, fish, and nuts), dairy, and complex carbohydrates.
2. Purchase at the food’s purest or most basic form. In other words, don’t buy in the box, purchase at the meat counter, the dairy case, and in the produce aisle. You get my meaning.
3. Enjoy your food. We must eat what we like, or we’ll give up on the foods we don’t. If you like beef, but not fish, you obviously need to stick to the beef.
4. Have a plan. At Fill Your Plate, we always encourage you to have a plan when you shop for food. Create your menu. Make a list of the items you’ll need to purchase and stick to it.
5. Cut out sugar. A treat every once in a while doesn’t hurt but Americans truly need to cut out all the sugar we consume, especially when it comes to the beverages we consume on a regular basis.
6. Watch Your portion size. The easiest way for me to drop a few pounds (besides cutting out the sugar) is to be careful about how much I pile on my plate.

An endless number of sources can help us find the right balance of healthy eating tips to move wisely and proactively into this new year. Watching what we eat is never easy when we have so much to choose from, but with a little planning and fortitude, we can make better decisions with our diet.

Cruise the Fill Your Plate blog for more articles on healthy eating. And, Happy New Year!