A healthy food regime is a diet which assists maintain or improve general health. A healthy eating regime gives the human body all the essential nutrients: macronutrients, fluid, nutrients, and enough food energy to function normally. It includes all food groups, including protein, carbohydrates, fats, fruits and vegetables, as well as essential vitamins and minerals. It must ensure that your body gets all the nutrients it needs to function properly and remain healthy. In short, it is the best dietary advice one can receive.
Eating healthy foods is not an easy thing at all. It involves much more than just choosing good looking but unhealthy foods for the sake of eating them. You need to have the right kind of understanding of nutrition, about how different foods affect your body and the amount of nutrients they contain, in order for you to choose healthy foods for the right reasons. This means understanding your body, what nutrients are missing and what nutrients you actually need from the foods you eat and how each of these nutrients affect your body.
One very important concept that you need to grasp is how to choose your own diet, since the diet you choose determines the level of micronutrient absorption you will get from the diet. If you are following a low calorie diet, then you will not be getting enough calories from the foods you eat to keep your body healthy and running smoothly. Calorie intake from the diet must be adequate, in terms of calories per kilogram of body weight. The number of calories you need daily depends on your height, age, gender, physical activity level and so on.
The next concept that you must understand is the importance of carbohydrates in a healthy eating pattern. Carbohydrates provide the body with most of the nutrients we need. They are also the source of glucose, which is used in our body’s cells to generate energy and release energy for muscle contraction and so on. Most of the carbohydrates found in our daily diet are quickly metabolised by the liver to create glycogen, which is then stored in our muscles. Glycogen is the energy storage house of the body. Therefore, carbohydrates provide the energy you require for working and playing and you should therefore include as many carbohydrates as possible in your diet.
But just as important as carbohydrates are, they should be consumed in small quantities, especially if you are following a low calorie diet or trying to lose weight. In this case, the main sources of vitamins for you would be vegetables, fish and nuts. However, you need to be careful about how much of each vegetable and vitamin you take. The main sources of vitamins for vegetarians are fresh fruits, beans and whole grains, whereas dairy products and alcohol are the major source of vitamins for non-vegetarians.
Another thing you have to be cautious about when consuming diets is your intake of starches. Starches are essential to a healthy diet, but they are easily stored in the body as glycogen. The main problem with starches is that they cause weight gain. They also slow down the body’s ability to digest and absorb food, causing it to become malnourished. For this reason, it is best to choose brown rice, oats, sweet potatoes and dried beans over white rice and refined white sugar. Similarly, avoid refined sugar, junks and other starches, including potatoes, egg yolks, dried beans, spinach, kale, carrots, cucumber and tomatoes, as well as corn, peas, beans and other legumes.
To keep your weight in check, and help you maintain a healthy weight for a lifetime, you must incorporate healthy eating into your lifestyle. Your diet will not change overnight and it does take time. However, it is important to introduce these changes gradually, so that your body gets used to the new foods. You also need to identify the foods that set off your appetite and those that you can eat often and still keep your weight in check. For many people, learning to accept and understand their bodies is the most difficult part of healthy eating. Only when you learn to accept and understand your own body can you hope to be successful in changing your lifestyle to one that is healthier and more balanced.
It is also important to take in a wide variety of foods, including protein, carbohydrates, fiber, fat and a variety of vitamins and minerals. These foods have different nutrients in varying proportions. Carbohydrates, for example, provide energy and provide nutrients through the body’s metabolism. Proteins are the building blocks of tissues and hormones, while fiber supplies nutrition to the digestive tract and contains antioxidants that protect the heart and brain.