A healthy diet involves including in the diet all the food groups that one sees in the food chart. It is eating in variety. It is enjoying life including titillating the palate. The main pitfall of obesity and being unhealthy is sticking to a particular food group day in and day out. The habit of eating only a particular food group nourishes the body, energizes it in fact but limited only to the nourishment that a particular food group offer. And so it is very important to diversify your menu although that done, it is just as important that the correct balance is achieved.
Throughout the country, it is very common to see large people that are undernourished. For example, while sodium helps the body to function normally, it is a fact that sodium consumption is often three times the required daily intake. Fats and calories are too, sometimes even more. This is attributed (fair or not) to fast food chains serving much soda, sugary foods and foods that contain saturated trans-fats. Since foods served here are almost similar in content, and are readily available, favoring a particular diet is common. Variety is lost and so are other essential nutrients.
It has often been said that when we buy food we should read the label or at least know the caloric content to arrive at a healthy diet. Wise advice that should be heeded. Label information is very important if we do not want to go over the required fat, calorie and sodium intake. But if you are like most people, the less bother you have the better. Besides who really enjoys counting calories inside a restaurant or read labels in a grocery all the time, every time. And so the list below is translated to the number of cups or servings if you will, so that the diet is easily monitored. For brevity though, ages are those that are in the adult range. The list is based on people of average weight. The heavier and the more active you are the more you will require depending on the difference of the weight against people in the normal weight range. The approximation is very close and effective for all activity ranges that do not have particular diet requirements aside from getting sufficient nutrients in the food and staying fit.
There are six main food groups that are to be included to the diet. The food groups in order of serving size priority are:
1. Grains – Average daily serving for adults should be about six ounces, half of which are whole grains
2. Fruit – Eat fruits daily equivalent to two cups. This is the minimum requirement eating more than that is advisable.
3. Vegetables – About three cups is the minimum
4. Meat, Beans and Proteins – Three quarters of a cup is ideal.
5. Milk Groups – Three cups a day is sufficient.
6. Oils – should be about six teaspoons
When these requirements are met, you can still eat as much as 260 calories of added sugars and fats at your discretion.
Eating a healthy diet then simply means eating various foods to get the entire nutrient that the body needs. It does not really have to be costly. It does not have to be anything special. It is simply enjoying the entire spectrum of food that nature offers and then regulating it.
The truth of the matter is that all foods are health foods. The variety of foods that are available has their purpose and uses. The food that grows in one region is a balanced food for that region and is not superior to those that grow in another which is also the food that is very appropriate for that region. Everything is where it should be. No amount of hype and sales pitch could change that, and no matter the try, people will remain healthy if people eat in variety and in correct proportions without gorging.
Health foods however is a term used by health proponents in the 1920's to foods that have special benefits to specific health issues. Health foods for example are those foods that are low in sugar and fat since these are the primary causes of obesity when left unchecked.
What are these?
Organic Foods
These are foods farmed as organic in nature. Organic foods for most of human history had been the staple in farming. These are foods farmed without the use of pesticides, herbicides, and insecticides. For livestock, organic classification mean that the animals were not injected with antibiotics, are not genetically modified nor growth hormones used in raising them. Today, there are two basic kinds of farming of organic food. One is the private garden which will also sell their produce labeled as organic, the other are organic food industries regulated heavily by most governments.
Natural Foods
Natural foods are health foods that are similar in ideal to organic foods although these foods are processed without the use of refined sugar, food coloring, refined flour, and flavorings.
High Fiber Foods
High fiber foods are health foods that have high fiber density. Examples of high fiber foods are berries, cabbages, and fruits and vegetables that have high fiber concentration. The thing that is so important with foods that are high in fiber is that it improves the absorption of nutrients in the body as it cleanses the digestive system. A clean colon and healthy colon for example prohibits 64 different kinds of diseases that would otherwise afflict the body when the gunk and the junk in the system are not flushed out.
Omega 3 rich foods
Unlike foods that are low fat and low sugar, foods rich in Omega 3 are good sources of essential fatty acids whose benefits are too numerous to name. Some of the benefits of foods rich in omega 3 are that it has excellent anti aging qualities, is a good cancer retardant, good for heart problems, skin, hair, metabolism, rheumatism, good for the memory and brain health, etc. What is good about these foods is that it is everywhere and is not expensive. Examples of foods are, Avocado, berries, soya beans and soybean oil, flaxseeds and flaxseed oil, pumpkin seeds, hemp seeds, olive oil, Brazil nuts, tofu etc.
Vegetables like, broccoli, squash, kidney beans, green beans, lettuce, cauliflowers are very rich in Omega 3. Likewise fish especially the cold water/fatty variety are excellent sources of Omega 3. Some of the fish are the trout, swordfish, milkfish, salmon, mackerel, herring, and Albacore tuna.
Health foods are everywhere. Those mention here are just a few of the examples but mostly the healthiest and among the best. Dieting through health foods is as easy as picking the next choice.
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