Choosing the right healthy foods to eat should encompass many factors. Three important healthy foods to eat factors are:

1. Does it promote increased health and not weight gain? This may seem obvious, but it can be tricky. People sometimes make pizza and claim that it is a healthy food to eat, just by adding some vegetables. But most likely pizza is high in calories, contains white flour and cheese. Even though you get nutrition from vegetables, the overall effect leans to the negative side due to the other fat-increasing ingredients.

2. Is it organic? Fruits and vegetables are always better to source organically, but this is mostly focused on meat products. Claiming that a lean chicken breast is a healthy food to eat due to its high protein content and minimal fat content is fine, but what is the actual quality of the meat? With the horrible conditions of factory farming and the potential for disease, one really should qualify most meat products as a healthy food to eat only if it falls under the umbrella of organic.

3. What is the sodium content? I include this because it is an overlooked aspect of today’s healthy food decision-making process. High sodium content has many negative health benefits. Too often, one will think that they are choosing a healthy food to eat without realizing that the sodium content is really through the roof. An example of this can be bread. Many breads on the market that are promoted as a healthy food to eat actually contain high levels of sodium. There is a brand called Ezekial which is one of the lowest sodium breads available. Also canned fruits and vegetables that you may think of as a healthy food to eat are often loaded with sodium from the solution needed to preserve the produce. Fresh fruits and vegetables are always the best.
A side note that any generic sauce you put on your food will likely add huge amounts of sodium to your food, making it an unhealthy food to eat.

These are three important factors to help you in your search for healthy foods to eat.