What national eating healthy day means to me

For National Eating Healthy Day 2016, we're thrilled to be joined by guest-blogger Chef Hamlet Garcia.

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Since I was a child, I had problems with being overweight. Until one day I said, "That's enough" and decided to learn how to cook healthy but above all, educate myself on the nutritional value of the ingredients and its benefits. Therefore, I studied culinary arts in order to learn how to manipulate this knowledge and create recipes that I knew; it would help me to lose weight.

Today, I focus my efforts on developing truly healthy recipes that can help you to change your eating habits in a delicious way, and at the same time, advising my followers about how to improve their lifestyle based on a stress-free diet and including a workout routine.

That’s why I support the American Heart Association. I have been a spokesperson for AHA’s Go Red For Women campaign for five years and during this time, I have learned more about health risk factors targeted to heart diseases, diabetes and stroke. My conclusion is, as the old saying goes, “you are what you eat.”

I’m joining the association’s National Eating Healthy Day and celebrating by being “more colorful.” Because as emphasized by the association’s new +color campaign, nationally sponsored by SUBWAY® restaurants and national recipe host, Fresh Avocados – Love One Today®, it’s important to BE COLORFUL through fruits and vegetables. Adding more fruits and vegetables to your meals is taking simple, yet significant steps to a more vibrant, healthier, longer life.

Fruits and vegetables typically have more nutrients with fewer calories than other less-healthy food choices, and eating a colorful variety may help you prevent heart disease, stroke and other illnesses.

From a kitchen point of view, fruits and vegetables are:

• Colorful and rich with texture, they give “life” to your meals.

• Variety. They are available in a huge variety for every single season of the year so there’s always something new to try.

• Convenient as they come: fresh, frozen or dried.

• A natural treat and easy to grab for a snack.

• Delicious and fun to eat.

Enjoy National Eating Healthy Day with your family by making a healthy recipe with tons of vegetables and have fruit as a dessert, such as an avocado green tea popsicle, a recipe from National Eating Healthy Day’s national recipe host, Fresh Avocados – Love One Today®.

Chef Hamlet Garcia can be followed via Facebook or at @chefhamletg.