One Bad Meal Doesn’t Ruin Your Diet, Stanford Nutrition Scientist Says

Healthy eating can get complicated fast if you try to follow every new rule about what to buy, what to avoid and what to order with your morning coffee. Stanford nutrition scientist Christopher Gardner has a simpler suggestion: Make choices you feel good about most of the time, and leave some room for the foods you eat just because you like them.

Gardner, who works at the Stanford Prevention Research Center and wrote Food Sense: What to Eat and Why, told Fox News Digital that he likes the 80/20 approach. The idea is to choose nutritious foods about 80 percent of the time and be more flexible the rest of the time. It’s a rough guide, not an invitation to start keeping score at dinner.

Much of Gardner’s work involves a familiar problem: People often know the basics of healthy eating, but knowing what to do and doing it regularly are two different things. That’s one reason he favors gradual changes over strict diets, cutting out entire food groups or chasing the latest wellness trend.

A good place to start, he said, is by adding more fruits, vegetables and minimally processed foods to meals you already eat. And if he had to point to one category Americans tend to overlook, it would be legumes. Beans, lentils and soy foods provide protein and fiber, are generally inexpensive and can fit into all kinds of meals.

Think black beans and rice, lentil soup, or edamame and tofu in a stir-fry. You can also add a can of beans to a pot of chili or toss a handful of chickpeas into a salad. The point is to find a few things you’d happily eat again next week.

Gardner also said Americans could stand to eat fewer chips, sweets and other snack foods. Drinks are another place to look, though he said the details matter more than broad debates over whether coffee or tea is healthier. A plain cup of either is different from a large blended drink loaded with syrup and whipped cream. What goes into the cup can matter more than what it started out as.

That still leaves room for cake at a birthday party or a favorite meal that doesn’t check every nutritional box. Food is part of family life, culture and comfort, Gardner said, and what works for one person may not suit another. The trick is finding a way to eat better that fits the life you already have.

And if today didn’t go as planned? “Whatever you screw up today, you get a do-over tomorrow and the day after,” Gardner said. There’s no need to wait until Monday. Just make the next meal a little better.