Our EATBetter Guide to Better Nutrition
Seven simple eating behaviours, with no diet and no food rules to memorize. This is the same nutrition strategy patients use in our physician-led programs for type 2 diabetes and metabolic health.
Eating better, not dieting.
Low fat, keto, paleo, Atkins: every diet claims to be the one right way, and most are temporary, restrictive and hard to stick with. The EATBetter Strategy takes a different approach. It focuses on whole foods and on the eating behaviours that let your body’s own hunger and fullness signals do their job.
The guide explains the science behind each behaviour in plain language, gives practical meal-building tips, and ends with a 7-day tracker so you can put it into practice.
The 7 EATBetter behaviours
Build your meals around a healthy protein package
Protein drives satiety. Meals short on protein leave you hungry, so you keep eating. Aim for a protein target at every meal, from sources that come with healthy fats and fibre.
Load up on veggies, fruits, legumes, and whole grains
Fill half your plate with fibre-rich plants and work toward 30 g of fibre a day. Vegetables, most fruit and legumes can be eaten freely. Keep whole grains and starchy vegetables to a sensible portion.
Balance your meals with healthy fats
Fats help you feel full. The guide cuts through the confusion over saturated, unsaturated and omega fats and shows you which whole-food fats to choose.
Avoid ultra-processed foods
We call it cutting the CRAP (Calorie-Rich And Processed). Ultra-processed foods are engineered to be overeaten. Whole foods are not.
Only drink the calories you love — learn to love water
Calories you drink bypass your body’s fullness signals. Swapping sweet drinks for water is one of the easiest changes you can make.
Stop eating when you are 80% full
Your brain and gut balance hunger and fullness remarkably well. Slow down, notice your fullness signals, and tell real hunger apart from boredom, stress and habit.
Go 12 hours without eating
A daily 12-hour overnight break cuts out late-night snacking and lets your body flip its metabolic switch from burning glucose to burning fat.
Where to start
Start with behaviours 1 to 3. Once your meals are built on protein, plants and healthy fats, the rest come much more easily.
Join our free 12-week Better Health Program.
A physician-led lifestyle medicine program for type 2 diabetes, prediabetes and other chronic conditions. Our dietitians help you apply the EATBetter Strategy to your own life, and your care team calculates a personalized protein target for you.
Share it with your patients, or refer them to us.
You’re welcome to share this guide freely. For patients who need more support, a referral to LifestyleRx gives them a full care team that works alongside you, at no cost to them.