After the holiday whirlwind, the start of a new year is the perfect time for adding more healthful habits into our routines to bring us joy and help us feel better throughout our daily lives. While New Year’s resolutions are known for being broken soon after they’re set, realistic, sustainable lifestyle tweaks can help you and your family thrive throughout the coming year.
As a registered dietitian, here are my top tips for bringing more healthful—and delicious—eating into your new year.
Top 7 Healthy Meal Tips for the New Year
1. Fill Up With Fiber
If you make only one healthy addition to your diet this year, add more fiber to your meals! Up to 95% of us are falling far short of our daily recommended fiber intake.1 Adults should be consuming 14 grams of fiber per 1,000 calories, or about 25 grams of fiber daily for women and 38 grams for men, according to the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans.2
Fiber offers many health benefits, including improved gut motility, insulin sensitivity, and weight management, less chronic inflammation, and reduced risk of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and certain types of cancer. It also supports digestive health by feeding the healthy bacteria in your gut.
Fiber-rich foods include:3
- Whole grains, like oats, wheat, popcorn, barley, bulgur, and spelt
- Beans and lentils, like black, navy, pinto, and kidney beans, split peas, chickpeas, and green and red lentils
- Veggies, including Brussels sprouts, broccoli, sweet potatoes, squash, avocados, dark leafy greens, and cabbage
- Fruits, including berries, apples, pears, kiwis, oranges, bananas, and figs
- Nuts and seeds, like pepitas, chia, almonds, sunflower seeds, pistachios, and flaxseeds
Ensure you’re meeting your body’s needs by including fiber in every meal and snack. Enjoy a fiber-rich breakfast of oatmeal or a high-fiber cereal topped with berries or banana slices. Include nuts and seeds, veggies dipped in hummus, or apple slices with nut butter for snacks. Have a veggie-rich salad or lentil soup for lunch, and load your plate with veggies and whole grains for dinner. Each time you eat, you have an opportunity to close in on your fiber goal—and enjoy the many health benefits of fiber.
Quick Tip: Start your day strong with a fiber-rich breakfast like Banana Breakfast Oats
2. Color Your Plate
Nutrition recommendations have changed over the years. But one thing we know for sure? Eating more fruits and veggies is really, really good for you! Fruits and veggies are loaded with fiber and antioxidants that help reduce the risk of many chronic diseases and support cognitive health.
In fact, research shows higher intakes of fruits and vegetables are associated with lower blood pressure levels, higher survival rates for certain cancers, improved cognitive and mental health in older adults, and lower risk of gestational diabetes, endometriosis, and death from all causes—especially cardiovascular disease.4–9
What’s more, fruits and vegetables’ vibrant colors reflect the nutrients and antioxidants they contain. For example, tomatoes are red because they are rich in the antioxidant pigment lycopene, and butternut squash is orange because it’s loaded with beta-carotene, an orange precursor to vitamin A. So, when you eat a rainbow of fruits and veggies, you’re more likely to meet your micronutrient needs.
Quick tip: Challenge yourself to include at least three different colors of fruits or veggies in every meal!
3. Get Fishy
Fish—especially fatty fish like salmon, tuna, sardines, mackerel, and trout—is an excellent source of a variety of nutrients, including protein and omega-3 fatty acids like eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosapentaenoic acid (DHA). Eating more fish provides a host of short- and long-term health benefits.
A 2023 umbrella review of studies found that eating more fish was associated with:10
- decreased risk of death from cardiovascular disease, prostate cancer, and all causes
- reduced risk of developing certain types of cancer
- lower risk of stroke, heart attack, and heart failure
- increased vitamin D levels
- possible reduced risk of depression, dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, and multiple sclerosis
Almost 90% of Americans don’t meet the recommended intake of at least 8 ounces, or two servings, of fish and seafood weekly.2 So, invest in your health by featuring fish in your meals at least twice a week.
Quick tip: Sheet Pan Salmon, Potatoes, and Veggies is one of the quickest meals to prepare, often ready in 15 minutes or less. Keep frozen fish filets in the freezer for evenings when you need dinner on the table fast! For lunch, add canned salmon or sardines to salads or pastas, or enjoy with whole grain crackers for a quick boost of omega-3s.
4. Snack Smarter
Every time you eat is an opportunity to fill your body with good nutrition—and that includes snacks! Treat every snack as a mini meal and fill in some of the nutrients you may be falling short on, like fiber, fruits and veggies, or protein. Examples of well-rounded, nutrient-dense snacks that contain all macronutrients—protein, healthy fats, and complex carbohydrates—include:
- Trail mix of nuts and dried fruit
- Baby carrots or mini bell peppers with hummus
- Apple slices with creamy nut butter
- String cheese, almonds, and grapes
- Greek yogurt with berries and chia or ground flaxseeds
- Whole grain avocado toast with roasted red pepper or smoked salmon
- Hard-boiled egg with fresh fruit
- Homemade energy balls with nut butter, oats, chia seeds, and dried fruit
- Smoothie with fresh fruit, veggies, and nut butter
Quick tip: Having trouble meeting your nutrient needs? Use snack time to get closer to your five to nine servings of fruits and veggies, sneak in more protein, or get some healthy omega-3s.
5. Swap In NA Beverages
While previous recommendations suggested moderate alcohol consumption might benefit heart health, recent research suggests any potential benefits occur at very low levels of consumption—no more than about one drink every other day.11 Alcohol, even in moderate amounts, increases the risk of certain types of cancer, including liver, colorectal, and breast cancers, liver disease, and mental disorders.12,13
Those of us who drink may benefit from drinking less in general. And after the indulgent holiday season, January is the perfect time to cut back or go dry.
From craft NA (non-alcoholic) beers to alcohol-free wines and mocktails, there’s never been a more delicious time to experiment with NA beverages and enjoy the physical and mental benefits of drinking a bit less alcohol.
Quick tip: Try pouring some kombucha into a coupe glass garnished with a sprig of rosemary for a classy—and healthy!—cocktail hour alternative.
6. Start With a Plan
Healthy eating begins with preparation. Taking time to plan your meals at the start of the week doesn’t just reduce end-of-day stress when you’re tired, hungry, and wondering what’s for dinner—it also helps you and your family eat a more well-rounded, nutritious diet and maintain a healthy weight.
A study of 1,108 college students found those who planned their meals and cooked more frequently consumed more fruits and vegetables and had lower body mass index (BMI) than those who didn’t.14 And in another study, people aiming to lose weight who meal planned more frequently lost more weight.15
Quick tip: Download the A Better Meal app on your phone for quick and healthy meal planning done for you so you can cross another task off your to-do list for the week!
7. Model Healthy Eating for Your Kids
Your kids are watching—and learning from—you! If you want your kids to eat a nutritious diet and develop a healthy relationship with food (who doesn’t?), prioritize modeling those behaviors for them.
Start by filling your plate with lots of fruits and veggies, whole grains, lean protein, and other nutrient-dense foods and eat them mindfully. Remove screens from the breakfast, lunch, and dinner table and enjoy connecting over food.
Young kids may not dig into the veggies with enthusiasm right away—and that’s okay! (It can take many instances of trying a new food before kids decide they like it.) But you’re sending a big message by enjoying healthy foods that will make an impression on your kids (and leave you healthier, too!).
Quick tip: Involve your kids in the meal planning and prep! When kids have a hand in choosing and preparing meals, they’re more likely to enjoy eating those foods, too. Have them scroll through the A Better Meal app to choose healthy recipes they’re excited to make and eat with you.
Start Small for Big Changes
Many of us approach the new year with big plans for how we will overhaul our lives and achieve better health. But after a couple of weeks, we’re often left disappointed and discouraged when those grand resolutions fail.
The key to successfully eating healthier this year is taking baby steps. Start with just one of my seven tips—whichever feels easiest and most realistic for you and your family to take on right now. As you begin to feel the benefits of that small change, you’ll be motivated to adopt other healthy habits.
Get started by adding more fiber to your diet, eating more fruits and veggies, enjoying fish twice a week, making snacks count, drinking less alcohol, meal planning, or modeling healthy eating for your kids today so you can make sustainable changes that help you feel your best tomorrow.
Want to kick-start your healthy eating? Check out this 5 Day Healthy Eating Plan article.
References
1. Quagliani D, Felt-Gunderson P. Closing America’s Fiber Intake Gap: Communication Strategies From a Food and Fiber Summit. Am J Lifestyle Med. 2016;11(1):80.
2. Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2020-2025 and Online Materials | USDA. Accessed December 15, 2024.
3. Food Sources of Dietary Fiber | Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Accessed December 15, 2024.
4. Madsen H, Sen A, Aune D. Fruit and vegetable consumption and the risk of hypertension: a systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective studies. Eur J Nutr. 2023;62(5):1941.
5. Hurtado-Barroso S, Trius-Soler M, Lamuela-Raventos RM, Zamora-Ros R. Vegetable and Fruit Consumption and Prognosis Among Cancer Survivors: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Cohort Studies. Advances in Nutrition. 2020;11(6):1569.
6. Harris HR, Eke AC, Chavarro JE, Missmer SA. Fruit and vegetable consumption and risk of endometriosis. Hum Reprod. 2018;33(4):715-727.
7. Wang X, Ouyang Y, Liu J, et al. Fruit and vegetable consumption and mortality from all causes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer: systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies. BMJ. 2014;349.