When the phrase healthy eating is mentioned, what comes into the mind of most people is all about how they can limit their diets, deprive themselves the foods they love most, or stay unrealistically thin. Rather healthy eating is about having more energy, stabilizing your mood, improving your outlook, and feeling great. Mostly, you’ll find conflicting diet and nutrition tips out there, but if you use these 5 simple nutrition tips, you’ll cut out the confusion in addition to leaning how to keep your body healthy.
Eat more of fresh vegetables and fruits
Colorful fresh vegetables are nutrient dense and low in calories. This means that they’re packed with fiber, vitamins, antioxidants, and minerals. Make sure you meet the recommended minimum of five servings daily, that is half a glass of veg or raw fruit or a small banana or apple. This will of course fill you up hence you will cut back on unhealthy diet.
Maximize on eating fruit for dessert, snack on vegetables like carrots, cherry tomatoes, or carrots, adding berries to breakfast rather than processed snack foods. Fruits and vegetables still have micro nutrients and have cancer protective properties.
Increase your fiber intake
Fiber not only slows the release of insulin but also helps maintain a steady supply of energy. This will help reduce your risk of diabetes, stroke and heart disease, help in your weight loss program and stay regular. Your fiber intake depends on your gender and age, but overall nutrition specialists recommend an adult to eat a minimum of between 21 and 38 grams of fiber daily for optimal health.
Natural and unprocessed food are high in fiber. Some good sources to get fiber include wheat cereals, oatmeal, beans, barley, nuts, and some vegetables and fruits like apples, berries, carrots, celery, and pears.
Eat proteins
Proteins are a good source of energy, but they can cause harm to people suffering from kidney disease when taken in large quantities. Most people need high-quality protein as they age.
Proteins are not based on calorie intake, but on weight. An adult needs to eat at least 0.8 grams of protein per a kg (2.2) of body weight daily. However, nursing women need extra 20 grams of high quality protein daily than they needed before pregnancy to assist milk production.
Bulk up on healthy carbs and grains
Both healthy fiber and carbohydrates, most specifically whole grains, have long-lasting energy. You should take whole grains since they contain antioxidants and phytochemicals, which are vital to protecting your body against diabetes, certain cancers, and coronary heart disease.
Since healthy curbs are digested slowly, they help keep you full longer in addition to keeping insulin and blood sugar levels stable. Healthy curbs include foods like vegetables, fruits, beans and whole grains. Unhealthy curbs you should avoid include refined sugar, white rice and white flour. These foods are highly digestive and can lead to spikes in both blood sugar levels and energy as well.
Reduce sugar
Apart from causing energy spikes and causing weight problems, excessive sugar has been attributed to depression and diabetes. When you reduce the amount of desserts and candy you eat, also remember to reduce intake of the sugar hidden in foods like margarine, fast food, cereals, bread, frozen dinners, instant mashed potatoes, etc. Your body gets enough sugar that naturally occur in food. Therefore, all these added sugar just add up on the empty calories.
