To maintain a healthy heart, active brain and optimally working muscles, you must take care to eat a balanced diet that provides proper nutrients to your body. These nutrients provide you with energy as well as stronger bones, muscles and tendons. Nutrients also aid in the regulation of bodily processes, like blood pressure and digestion. What nutritious foods to eat for all these amazing benefits?
The Importance of Eating Nutritious Foods
1. Weight Control
A diet that is full of fruits, vegetables, lean proteins and whole grains can help you lose, maintain or control your weight. Replace high-fat and high-calorie foods with nutrient rich items. The fiber in fruits, vegetables and whole grains will keep you fuller for longer while proteins will provide you with cellular support.
2. Blood Sugar Control
Sugary foods cause spikes in your blood sugar. If you consume too many sugary foods like white breads and concentrated fruit juices, over time you can develop Type 2 diabetes. Complex carbohydrates, like those in oatmeal, can help reduce and regulate blood sugar.
3. Heart Health
High-fat foods cause high cholesterol and a buildup of plaque in your arteries. It’s a known fact that this can lead to stroke, heart attack or heart disease. Eat healthy fats, like those found in nuts and avocados, to get the fat you need without the plaque buildup. Don't miss this one when talking about the importance of eating nutritious foods.
4. Deceased Cancer Risk
Fruits and vegetables are full of antioxidants that help neutralize the damaging cells known as free radicals. Free radicals are highly unstable and can lead to cancerous cells. Antioxidants create a stable cell environment.
5. More Benefits
- Greatly reduce your risk of heart and coronary artery disease.
- You can decrease bone loss and reduce your overall risk of developing kidney stones.
- Most fruits and vegetables are naturally low in fat and calories. Plus, they have no cholesterol.
- Potassium rich diets can help to maintain healthy blood pressures.
- Dietary fiber has been found to help reduce blood cholesterol levels and might actually lower your risk for heart disease. Fiber is also important to maintaining proper bowel functions. Fiber-rich vegetables can help you feel fuller for longer and consume less calories in a meal.
- Folic acids, or folates, are an important part of helping the body form red blood cells. This is particularly good for women who are or may become pregnant. They will need folic acid during pregnancy so supplements and foods with folates are needed.
- Vitamin A found in nutritious foods keeps your eyes and skin healthy while also protecting from infections.
- Vitamin C is needed for healthy skin as well, aiding to heal cuts and keep teeth and gums healthy. It is also a part of iron absorption in the blood.
Healthy Eating: Healthy Foods and Recipes
Tips for Healthy Diet
Since you have known the importance of eating nutritious foods, keep reading to learn how to a balanced and healthy diet:
Be sure you are eating the correct number of calories per day based on your level of activity. This balances the energy you consume and the energy you use. On average men need about 2,500 calories (10,500 kilojoules) per day and women need about 2,000 calories (8,400 kilojoules) per day to maintain a healthy diet.
Most of us eat more calories than we need on daily basis, so the intake of energy is greater than the output of it. The excess is stored as fat. Make sure you eat a variety of nutritious food. This ensures you have a regular, balanced diet, and your body is receiving the proper nutrients.
|
Foods |
How to Eat |
|---|---|
|
More Starchy Food |
Try to include one starchy food with each main meal like cereal for breakfast or rice with dinner. Choose wholegrain varieties of starchy foods like those in pastas and bread. |
|
Lots of Fruits and Vegetables |
Eat the recommended 5 servings of various fruits and vegetables each day. Chop a banana up with your cereal or make some chicken and broccoli. Eat dried fruit as snacks, too. |
|
More Fish |
You want to try and eat at least 2 portions of fish each week as they are high in protein and minerals. Oily fish, like salmon, have a lot of omega-3 fatty acids in them that are good for the body. Fresh fish is best, but frozen works as well. Canned fish can often have too much sodium in it so try not to eat too much of that. |
|
Less Saturated Sugar and Fat |
Too much saturated fat increases the cholesterol in the blood. Choose foods that have unsaturated fats like avocados and vegetable oils. Also try to cut down on the number of sweet like pies, cakes and cookies that you may consume regularly. Sugary drinks like juices and alcoholic beverages should be consumed sporadically as well. |
|
Less Salt |
Check your food labels. Most of what we buy had salt and sodium in it already without us adding any more. It is often used as a preservative, but it still causes high cholesterol. Try to choose lower sodium foods or more fresh foods. |
|
Plenty of Water |
Be sure to always stay hydrated. Water, milk and unsweetened fruit juices are the best for this. Try to avoid carbonated, sugary sodas and juices from concentrate. |
|
Always Have Breakfast |
Knowing the importance of eating nutritious foods is not enough, you should remmeber to have it in three meals. Eating breakfast has been found in studies to actually contribute to weight loss. It jumpstarts your metabolism each day. Fruit, yogurt and cereal are good breakfast choices as well as eggs and whole grains like oatmeal or granola. |
How to Develop Healthy Eating Habits: