Healthy eating does not mean to restrict your favorite diet or make yourself lean to that extend where your immunity fails to protect your body from intruders. It is a simple phenomenon of feeling good with better energy level to keep yourself healthy as much as possible.

Concept of Healthy Eating

All you need a basic knowledge about the nutrition, their value and the way of utilization that works better for you. Always select the food that is healthy for you and ditch the diet that enhances the risk of diseases like heart diseases, cancer and diabetes.

In a recent study, researchers noticed that people know about the Trans fat and associated risk but they don’t know what kinds of foods contain the Trans fat. All diets of food pyramid are delicious but expand your food spectrum with the healthy diets. This guideline may provide you the tips to choose healthy diet and stay healthy.

Smart Eating

The first step towards healthy eating, in this epoch, is smart eating. It demands a little attention in the selection of food that provides you nutrients and makes it an enjoyable experience.

• Chew food slowly and grind it to maximum because, stomach don’t have the teeth and it can’t grind your food as your teeth can. People used to eat in haste and forget to enjoy the taste and texture of food they are eating.
• Try to eat in the relax atmosphere. Stress can affect the whole process of digestion and cause the problems like hyperacidity and heartburn. Experts’ advice to avoid eating while driving or watching television.
• Feel the difference between hunger and thirst. Drink fresh water in case of thirst and always use at least one class before starting eating. Water is a natural appetite suppressor and it will limit your food intake. Try to stoop eating when you feel near to full, our body coordination system takes few minutes to interpret the feeling. Eating for your hunger satisfaction will keep you active and relax.
• Start your day with high nutritious breakfast that will boost your energy. Early eating will provide you the time to consume the maximum calories. Also concentrate on the small portions throughout the day instead of the large meals, this will keep your metabolism going and deflects the snack attack.

Fruits and Vegetables

Nature has packed fruits and vegetables with lots of essential minerals vitamins and fiber. These contain plenty of healthy nutrition and cover a major portion of the healthy diet.

These are considered as low calorie diet and you should eat four to five portions each day. These contain the maximum amount of antioxidants that can provide protection against the cancer and other chronic diseases.

• Green vegetables are rich in nutrients such as, iron, potassium, magnesium, zinc and vitamins A, E and k. These vegetables enhance the production of hemoglobin of the blood and regulate the functioning of respiratory system.
• Eating a wide range of fruits is a healthy habit. Different fruits provide us different vital elements such as apple gives us fiber and iron, citrus fruits are good source of vitamin C, blue and black berries have proven health benefits and act as anti-cancer. Thus, fruits are natural sweetener and taste delicious. Give priority to the fresh fruits and focus on variety. Try to eat fruit in natural form instead of their juices or shakes. The pulps of the fruits contain lots of fiber which prevent constipation
• Avoid juices that contain synthetic sugar or diluted with other beverages. Avoid dried fruits and fried vegetables, though these will provide the desired nutrients but also add extra calories to your diet that can be stored as unhealthy fats in your body.

Proteins and Dairy Products

In the process of digestion, our digestive system breaks down the protein into 20 different types of amino acid that are the basic unit and building blocks of the protein. Protein synthesis is essential for the proper functioning of our muscles and organs. Lack of proteins in body can cause many abnormalities such as, reduction in muscles mass, week immunity, compromised growth and poor anabolism of the body.

Proteins are high energy diet and you should use the limited amount. Always focus on the quality of the proteins than the quantity. Need of protein varies from person to person, depending on their body, climate and the physical activity. You should eat the complete protein diet that dives you the best and most essential elements. Animal based foods are the best source of the complete protein which includes fish, poultry, meat, milk and egg.

Dairy products are the biggest source of calcium which is vital for the strengthening of bones. Our skin in the presence of sunlight make the vitamin D that limit the absorption of calcium in the digestive track and help to deposit calcium in the bones. Deficiency of calcium and vitamin D in the kids and adults results in rickets and osteoporosis respectively.

According to the FDA recommendation, one should take up to 1000mg of calcium daily and 1200mg for the people aged above fifty. You can add calcium supplement in your diet if your present diet is not fulfilling the requirement of calcium.

Fats

Fats are the most energetic portion of our diet. We gain maximum energy from very small quantity of fat’s breakdown. Healthy fats are vital to nourish our skin, nails, hormones and nervous system. Fats also work as solvent for vitamins A, D and E. Fats quickly satisfy our hunger and make us to feel full.

Saturated fats are found in the read meat and trans fats that are made from the vegetable oil with the process of hydrogenation increase the LDL cholesterol (bad cholesterol) level in the body. This rise increases the risk of atherosclerosis and coronary heart diseases.

People who use the monounsaturated fats have the lower risk of cardiovascular diseases. These fats can be found in olive oil, Mediterranean diets, canola oil and peanut oil. Polyunsaturated fats include omega 3 and 6 fatty acid, which are not made inside the body. Foods that contain omega 3 and omega 6 reduce the cardiovascular risks and increase the level of the HDL cholesterol (good cholesterol).

People have a very question that how many fats they should consume? In the health experts opinion, the consumption of fats depends on your lifestyle, BMI , age and on your overall health. Just try to add food that contain mono and polyunsaturated fats and avoid the food that contain saturated and Trans fats as much as you can.