Can you enjoy your food, satisfy your hunger, and fuel your body for optimal health all at the same time? For this blog, we partnered with Maria Zamarripa, MS, RD, who specializes in functional nutrition at FoodFarmacistRD.com to share how to make healthy eating sustainable and enjoyable.

Plus, she’ll be sharing about our new product—Simple Mills Soft-Baked Almond Flour Bars—which fits perfectly into a realistic and healthy eating pattern while also providing a unique and satisfying taste! 

Healthy meals and snacks have to taste great.

Great tasting food and a better-for-you lifestyle can easily fit together!  Incorporate a variety of delicious flavors and textures in your meals and snacks to keep your tastebuds happy. Here are a few tips to make healthy food taste delicious:

• Use different cooking methods. Roasting, grilling, sauteing, broiling, slow-cooking, and steaming all produce different yet enjoyable flavors and textures.

• Include seasonal foods. Foods that are in-season are fresher than other produce grown further from home. For example, fresh tomatoes and peaches are much sweeter in the summer than other seasons!

• Incorporate a variety of herbs and spices. Salt and pepper are great, but fresh herbs and warm spices produce delicious flavors that interest your taste buds.

• Use healthy fats for flavor. Adding extra virgin olive oil, real butter, coconut oil, or avocados to meals increases the mouthfeel of the recipe to make it extra satisfying.

Keep an open mind and continue to experiment and try new foods, flavors, and textures to make your diet sustainable!

A healthy meal should satisfy hunger and nourish your body. 

A sustainable and healthy eating pattern should keep you satiated and provide nutritious fuel so you can be your best and brightest at whatever you may do.  Try incorporating the “P.F.F” guideline. Planning a P.F.F. meal or snack means that it includes three important nutrients for satiety and health: protein, fat, and fiber.

Examples of P.F.F. foods:

Protein: eggs, meat, seafood, poultry, nuts, and seeds

Fat: olives, coconut oil, nuts, seeds, and avocados

Fiber: fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, seeds, and whole-grains

Many foods contain a variety of protein, fat, and fiber and can count for all three categories. Some great examples of these versatile and nourishing foods include nuts, seeds, and avocados! Each of these three nutrients provides important benefits to your body like maintaining lean muscle mass, balancing your blood sugar, and optimizing gut health. Food quality is also helpful for nourishing your body for the long-term. Try to eat a diet that includes a variety of colors, fresh foods, and simple ingredients.


It should be realistic.
Life can get a little busy sometimes! From thriving in your career to cheering on your kids at the soccer game, the fullness of life warrants healthy foods that are realistic for you. Sometimes this means enjoying a home-cooked meal paired with a delicious wine or sparkling water with lemon and great company. But, other times it may mean grabbing a quick snack before heading into a big meeting!

To make healthy eating more realistic, keep healthy snacks on hand that are easy to grab and go. I like to keep fruits, pre-chopped veggies, hummus, guacamole, and healthy crackers and snack bars on hand for times like these. Additionally, try making a list of a few 20-minute (or less) meals that you can whip up when you’re short on time.

Long-term health includes listening to your body.
By becoming mindful of how your body feels before and after eating, you can tune in to what makes you feel best! Use this simple appetite scale to help you better understand your hunger and fullness cues: Imagine a ruler that is numbered from 1 to 10 and represents how hungry or full you may feel. A number one on the scale means you are starving and will eat anything in sight! On the other hand, a number ten represents the overly full and uncomfortable feeling you may experience after a big Thanksgiving dinner.  It’s best to stay within a 4 and 7 on the appetite scale. This means that you never let yourself get uncomfortably hungry (i.e. “hangry”), and you finish eating when you feel satisfied, but not overly full.

Incorporate Tasty and Nutritious Foods to Support Long-Term Health

Maintaining and enjoying a healthy diet means that you feel satiated, nourished, and in-tune with your body’s cues. That’s why I’m so excited to share one of Simple Mill's newest creations that support a long-term healthy diet - Soft-Baked Almond Flour Bars!

Simple Mills bars are a wholesome, nutritious snack bar with a uniquely satisfying taste and texture that can easily support a sustainable and healthy eating pattern. The four different flavors—Chunky Peanut Butter, Dark Chocolate Almond, Nutty Banana Bread, and Spiced Carrot Cake—allow for a variety of textures and flavors to keep your taste buds happy.

Besides tasting great, these soft-baked bars also include the three important nutrients we discussed earlier: protein, fat, and fiber. With nourishing ingredients like nuts, seeds, egg whites, carrots, and bananas, you can be sure that these bars will not only keep you satiated but also provide an easy source of fuel for whatever life brings you!