Choosing Healthy Foods for You and Your Family: The Traffic Light Technique

"Let your food be your medicine and your medicine your food."

Hippocrates.

Eating healthy does not mean counting calories, monitoring fat content, or analyzing every detail of a food’s nutritional information. That information is surely important, but it can lead to confusion, stress, and even boredom when it comes to making healthy choices for yourself and your family. Choosing healthy foods shouldn’t be complicated!

The Traffic Light Technique is a very useful tool that makes healthy eating easy to understand, even for children. Just like when you are driving a vehicle, the traffic light tells you what to do:

• Green means “Go on!”

• Yellow tells us: “Slow down, be careful”

• Red means “Stop and think”

Green light food

Faced with green-light foods, the message is “Go on”, “Do it”, it means to eat as much as you want. These include all fresh fruits and vegetables. Please be aware that if you are diabetic it is important to choose the type of fruit and the amount you eat wisely, as some contain more sugar than others, and they can affect your blood sugar levels. To understand this better, check the Sugar Infographics at https://phcuk.org/sugar/ , it is a very useful tool, and you are advised to ask your healthcare provider about this. It is important to emphasize what “fresh” foods are, they are those that are grown and not manufactured. Packaged snacks made of fruit, for example, are not green light foods.

Nutritional information: These foods are low in calories and rich in nutrients.

Yellow light food

Yellow light foods are foods with which it is better to “slow down”, and “eat wisely.” The foods that fall into this category can be eaten every day and are essential for health, but they should be eaten in moderation because it is easy to overindulge and eating too much of these is not good. The goal is simply to have a balanced diet. Examples of light yellow foods are: whole wheat pasta, eggs, salmon, nuts, seeds, rice, whole grain bread, and plain Greek yogurt.

Nutritional information: These foods have more calories than green light foods and generally have more fat or sugar.

Red light food

When faced with red light foods, it is suggested to “stop and think.” Since these foods are high in sugar, low in nutrients, and contain artificial sweeteners and ingredients, you should try to find a healthier option, eat a smaller portion, or save them for special occasions. Examples of red light foods include: cookies, candy, fatty meats, soda and sugary drinks, bacon and other processed meats, frozen yogurt.

Nutritional information: These foods are low in nutrients and high in calories, fat, and sugar.

Healthy tips

Avoid these components found on food labels for a healthier family:

1. High fructose corn syrup

2. Hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils

3. Any word followed by a number, such as red # 40, blue # 5, and other artificial flavors and colors.

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Do you want to know more about the Traffic Light Technique and healthy eating? Request information to schedule an appointment or to participate in one of my workshops.