Combining a healthy diet with an active lifestyle has huge benefits. Healthy eating should be long-term measure that emphasize on enjoying more of the foods that protect and nourish the body by choosing a variety of foods. We need to remember that there are no healthy or unhealthy foods - just healthy or unhealthy diets.
On the basis of nutritional composition, food can be classified as:
- Macro nutrients - protein, fats and carbohydrates - provide energy and are essential for growth and maintenance;
A Guideline for framing a Healthy Diet can be as follows:
Drinking 10-12 glasses of plain water is recommended to replenish the body's essential fluid requirements.
Fats too are essential in our diet but then the right choice of fats has to be made. Excess of fats is bad for our health but then limiting the fat has to be in a correct way so that the intake of good for health fats like essential fatty acids (Omega 3 fat found in oily fish) and fat soluble vitamins is not compromised. Restrict the use of butter, fat on meat and trans-fats or hydrogenated fats found in processed foods like cakes and pastries as these can raise cholesterol and increase risk of heart disease. Choose to cook your food in oils of sunflower, soy, sesame, corn, olive or rapeseed.
- Two plums or similar-sized fruit;
- Three heaped tablespoons of colored vegetables;
- A 150 ml glass of fruit juice.
A diet with optimum levels of salt is an important factor to watch out as a diet with high salt intake may graduate to some chronic health ailments like hypertension.
Some health experts advocate that alcohol in small quantities can actually have a beneficial effect on health. Alcohol is also a diuretic.
Cutting out on any of the food groups from the diet whether for weight loss or unproven food intolerance can lead to serious health implications (and may result in nutrient deficiency) and should not be undertaken without adequate medical and dietetic supervision.
