Characteristics of a Healthy Diet
Food is one of the three basic needs of living beings. Plants, when provided with optimum factors, manufacture their food and help feed the animals. Human beings, other than getting food from plants, get an additional meal from animals. It is this food obtained from plants and animals that we consider healthy for human consumption.
Still, there are other sources of food, especially today. Humans have innovated newer and more advanced ways to obtain food. This is increasingly becoming unsafe as countries and states ban laboratory engineered and bred food from being sold in stores in those territories. So, why do you think such food is being banned?
With increased cancers and other lifestyle conditions such as eating disorders, it is unclear what really causes these conditions. One this is, however clear, is that without food, there is no life. It is the quality of life that bothers people. A healthy and well-balanced diet will nourish your body and mind, providing you with sufficient calories to convert into fuel.
The irony with food is that those people dying from overeating or conditions instigated by food are more than those that succumb to hunger. Therefore, the goal should never be to eat; but what to eat. If you have plenty of food, you are likely to overeat. With less or no food, you may starve. The only balance you can strike is to eat a healthy diet. This article, therefore, gives you some of the characteristics of a healthy diet.
Before then, we can conclude that food is available in plenty. This is true depending on where you stand; the few that starve or the many that overeat. Nature provides plenty of food, which, when correctly taken, improves the quality of life. You can find food from forests, farms, water, plains, valleys, etc. Essentially, we are surrounded by food. Choosing the right food is necessary for maintaining a healthy life. We often choose foods that we like. Coupled with other factors such as its price, taste, ease of preparation, and nutritional value, it makes a choice more difficult than we may care to admit.
These factors play a major role in deciding what a person ends up with on their plate. Whether healthy or not, having food regardless is sufficient. Sometimes we don’t even know what a healthy meal comprises. And if we do, our addiction and love for certain foods that we can’t help craving make it difficult to choose a healthy diet.
A healthy meal helps in many ways:
- It is essential in helping human beings to lead healthy lives
- Healthy food is key in eradicating some diseases caused by insufficient nutrients or over-supply of the said nutrients.
- Healthy eating helps people evade lifestyle conditions such as diabetes, cancer, heart diseases, obesity, etc.
So, what are these characteristics of a healthy diet?
There are many features of a healthy diet that people have come up with overtime. However, nutritionists have grouped these features into the following five universal characteristics of a healthy diet.
Your diet must be well-balanced.
Different foods come bearing a variety of nutrients. These nutrients are proteins, vitamins, minerals, ions, carbohydrates, and water. For your diet to be assumed to be balanced, it should contain rich foods in these nutrients.
Also, at no point should you take food rich in one or two nutrients, say carbs and proteins, and assume that you have eaten a balanced diet. It is only balanced if it has these compounds listed above in correct proportions. For instance, according to many nutritionists, your food should be about 60% carbs, 25% proteins, 10% vitamins, fats, oils, and 5% mineral compounds. Water should be taken at all times to prevent dehydration.
Sufficient food
By sufficient, I mean just enough to replenish that which you have lost. A healthy diet contains a quantity adequate to maintain health. This is also consistent with the number of nutrients you take. Most people overeat, and the end product is weight gain. They embark on costly programs to lose the same weight.
Calorie control
Your body is constantly burning calories to use as fuel for the continuance of functions of body parts. For instance, your heart needs to beat regularly, your muscles need to help move you to certain places, your brain needs to think and coordinate body functions. All these and many more tasks performed by your body succeed when powered by the calories present in your food. Food that is not burned by physical or mental activities is stored in the body in the shape of fats. Fats stored in the body and not used cause many health problems.
Food variety
It would help if you incorporated different food types in your menu. Therefore, while you are trying to balance the diet by getting different nutrients, consider sourcing different food types to give you these same nutrients. Some people will eat potatoes, meat, and avocado for three straight days because they like it. If this happens to you, note that the same food may only increase toxins in the body.
Moderation in eating
Sugar, red meat, junk, and other unhealthy foods should be consumed in moderation. If taken in large portions, these foods will likely predispose you to health conditions such as obesity and diabetes. In general, do not overeat. It is healthy to consume just enough of something.
Here are healthy eating tips you should know: –
Diet fads rarely work.
A lot of beliefs out there are for the idea that foods should be eaten in raw forms. Some even believe that humans should have continued the caveman eating patterns. At the same time, others maintain that high saturated fat diets, bacon diets, and others are the way to go. One thing, however, remains true — some foods cannot be eaten without cooking, and consuming saturated fats brings a health crisis.
Losing weight quickly is never a good sign.
Just like it was easy to lose it, it might be equally easy to gain.
Diets with more veggies are the healthiest.
This is according to most studies, which quote those diets such as the Mediterranean, vegan, and vegetarian diets as the healthiest. Always include plenty of vegetables in your daily diet. Such diets are high in fiber, vitamins, minerals, and proteins.
Manage your plate portions.
In Nordic diets, proteins are supposed to be more than any other food component. In many other diets, animal products like chicken and red meat take the smallest meal portions. Whole grains and vegetables take center stage. Fats are generally taken in low quantities.
In Summary
Food is an essential need for human existence. However, based on the notes above, food can also easily become your worst nightmare in many different ways. For instance, eating similar meals over time is equated to toxifying your body, eliminating certain nutrients from your diet is wrong, eating more than you should easily lead to health problems, and eating unhealthy foods such as saturated fats is a danger to your life.
You can lead a healthy life while eating healthy diets, as we have shown herein.
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