What Americans get wrong about healthy eating and theres a simple fix, according to a nutrition scientist

Living a healthy lifestyle is not as complicated as many Americans make it out to be, according to a nutrition scientist, who says people shouldn’t try to be perfect but should focus on gradually improving their diet day by day.“It is simpler than people think,” Christopher Gardner, Ph.D., a nutrition scientist at Stanford University and author of the book”Food Sense: What to Eat and Why,” told Fox News Digital.He believes that the 80/20 rule is a solid framework for a healthy diet.The approach encourages people to make nutritious food choices about 80% of the time while allowing flexibility for indulgences the remaining 20%.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 “everybody knows” but doesn’t necessarily follow, such as eating a healthier diet, exercising more and smoking less, he said.He advises against trying to follow all the latest wellness trends because, sometimes, they’re not based on factual information.He doesn’t recommend cutting out an entire food group or following a strict diet.

Rather, he encourages a gradual approach.An easy way to start improving an unhealthy diet is to incorporate more vegetables, fruits and minimally processed foods.He emphasized the importance of eating legumes, adding that he feels they’re an underutilized component of a healthy diet.“Asian 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,” he said, noting that legumes are usually inexpensive and versatile.They’re also a great source of protein, Gardner added, as well as fiber, which many people don’t consume enough of, he pointed out.Americans also eat too much junk food, he said, adding that people often know what the healthier option is, but they still choose the “chips and candy and cake and snacks and mo...