{"id":910367,"date":"2026-11-08T16:54:17","date_gmt":"2026-11-08T16:54:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/910367\/"},"modified":"2026-11-08T16:54:17","modified_gmt":"2026-11-08T16:54:17","slug":"what-americans-get-wrong-about-healthy-eating-and-theres-a-simple-fix-nutrition-scientist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/910367\/","title":{"rendered":"What Americans get wrong about healthy eating \u2014 and there’s a simple fix: nutrition scientist"},"content":{"rendered":"

Living a healthy lifestyle<\/a> is not as complicated as many Americans make it out to be, according to a nutrition scientist, who says people shouldn\u2019t try to be perfect but should focus on gradually improving their diet day by day.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is simpler than people think,\u201d Christopher Gardner, Ph.D., a nutrition scientist at Stanford University and author of the book\u201dFood Sense: What to Eat and Why,\u201d told Fox News Digital.<\/p>\n

He believes that the 80\/20 rule is a solid framework for a healthy diet<\/a>. The approach encourages people to make nutritious food choices about 80% of the time while allowing flexibility for indulgences the remaining 20%.<\/p>\n

Gardner also works with the Stanford Prevention Research Center, where a big part of his role is trying to figure out how to get people to follow guidelines that \u201ceverybody knows\u201d but doesn\u2019t necessarily follow, such as eating a healthier diet, exercising more and smoking less, he said.<\/p>\n

He advises against trying to follow all the latest wellness trends<\/a> because, sometimes, they\u2019re not based on factual information.<\/p>\n

He doesn\u2019t recommend cutting out an entire food group or following a strict diet. Rather, he encourages a gradual approach.<\/p>\n

Christopher Gardner, a nutrition scientist at Stanford University, discusses common dietary mistakes. Fox News<\/p>\n

An easy way to start improving an unhealthy diet is to incorporate more vegetables, fruits and minimally processed foods.<\/p>\n

He emphasized the importance of eating legumes,<\/a> adding that he feels they\u2019re an underutilized component of a healthy diet.<\/p>\n

\u201cAsian cultures eat a lot of tempe, tofu, edamame and soy, and Latin American cultures eat a whole bunch of bean and grain dishes, and Indian culture eats a lot of lentil dals,\u201d he said, noting that legumes are usually inexpensive and versatile.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re also a great source of protein, Gardner added, as well as fiber, which many people don\u2019t consume enough of, he pointed out.<\/p>\n

Gardner recommends the 80\/20 rule to allow for diet flexibility and advises adding legumes like lentils, tofu, and beans as cheap protein sources. Pixel-Shot \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

Americans also eat too much junk food<\/a>, he said, adding that people often know what the healthier option is, but they still choose the \u201cchips and candy and cake and snacks and mocha frapp\u00e9 frappuccino instead of black coffee.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think the ultra-processed thing is like, oh, we never understood it before, and now we do. I don\u2019t really think people know that it\u2019s 200 cosmetic additives,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Context matters when determining the \u201chealthier\u201d choice, Gardner noted, using the example of coffee versus tea.<\/p>\n

Coffee and tea by themselves are unproblematic, he noted. The issue lies in the sugar, dairy and other ingredients that might be added.<\/p>\n

He warns against latest wellness trends and ultra-processed foods loaded with cosmetic additives while noting coffee and tea depend on added ingredients. Dorota \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

\u201cI can show you volumes of studies that both are good for you,\u201d Gardner said, noting that both contain antioxidants, but the additives are what determine which is \u201chealthier.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ultimately, different things work for different people, Gardner said, and he stays open-minded.<\/p>\n

What people eat is much more than just science, he acknowledged, adding that \u201cfood is comfort and food is culture and food is other things.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever you screw up today, you get a do-over tomorrow and the day after,\u201d he said, so \u201cgive yourself a little grace, a little patience, a little love.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Living a healthy lifestyle is not as complicated as many Americans make it out to be, according to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":910368,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[3457,46189,97,149,269,5599],"class_list":["post-910367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nutrition","tag-diets","tag-food-trends","tag-health","tag-lifestyle","tag-nutrition","tag-public-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=910367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/910368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=910367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=910367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=910367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}