Eating Healthy - How Do We Maintain Changes?

It can be difficult to make changes in your diet, let alone maintain those changes throughout your lifetime. Over the past 40 years total calorie consumption has increased considerably, partially attributable to greater average carbohydrate intake and increased consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages. It is imperative that we make changes now to prevent future diseases like diabetes, heart disease, kidney disease, etc.

How should we go about making changes in our diets? 

This depends on what types of changes you are planning on making. Based on research studies, interventions have been least successful with increasing fruits and vegetables. Reduction in sodium intake is most effective when there is extensive counseling and extended support. The interventions that have been most successful at reducing fat intake typically consist of motivated individuals who set intensive dietary goals. Better results have been reported among people aiming to increase fiber intake. However, most of the literature has focused on middle-aged, well educated, and motivated people with a high-risk of disease (e.g. heart disease). The good news is that less-intense, community-based interventions seem to be appropriate for helping people make smaller changes. Self-monitoring, such as keeping a log of what you eat throughout the day, is associated with improved dietary adherence. It appears that just paying close attention to behavior helps with making changes.

Typically people make dietary changes with an intermediate goal in mind, such as weight loss. Ideally, we take the weight off and keep it off. The Women's Health Initiative implemented an intervention for women involving group and individual sessions which emphasized a decrease in fat intake and increases in vegetable, fruit, and grain consumption in contrast to the control group which just received diet-related education materials. Women in the intervention group lost weight and maintained lower weight than those in the control group during an average of 7.5 years of follow-up (Howard et al., 2006). This program was successful in supporting women to make changes and sustain those changes years later.

Regardless of your reason for wanting to make dietary changes, it seems the best way to start is by making small achievable goals. Little by little you will reach those goals, and you will also feel better about yourself as you achieve them. Many people will benefit from some type of support, ranging from weight loss groups to your partner keeping you accountable for the goals you have in mind. As you start to make changes, keep a journal and monitor your progress. This will help you see patterns in your own behavior (e.g. such as overeating when you have a hard day at work) that you normally might not have noticed.