Healthy Eating Diet - Back To Basics
Posted byJoe Bai | May 23rd, 2008 | Posted In: Health | No comments
Humans are intelligent creatures, during the history of our development we have managed to identify which foods are actually good for us. Moreover, we know the specific quantities of the different foods we need to eat to be healthy and avoid illness and disease. The eating habits of people differ greatly depending on which part of the world you are in for example in Japan you will find a lot of dishes containing rice and noodles where as in Spain you will find the Mediterranean diet rich in fish and olive oil.
Good eating habits should be developed from an early age as a badly balanced diet will have a long term effect on a child. Bad eating habits can lead to childhood and adolescent obesity, vitamin deficiency, tooth decay, diabetes and the list could go on. Learn to love eating the foods that are good for you and if you`re not really keen on these foods experiment with some recipes, you can often squeeze these foods into your meals without even knowing!
What do we need to eat?
There are certain categories of food that we simply need to eat in order to stay alive and protein is one of them. Foods which contain protein include meat, fish, pulses, milks and eggs. Sugars are also extremely important as they provide us with energy, sugar can be found in fruits, cereals, bread potatoes and honey. The body will break these foods down and turn them into glucose which is an immediate source of energy. If there is no glucose available, the body will use the fat stores and turn them into energy, foods which are high in fat include milk butter eggs and meat. Lastly, it is important to eat foods containing vitamins and minerals and these can be found in plants and dairy products.
Fish for Thought
Incorporating fish into your diet is a must if you want to develop healthy eating habits. Fish is an important source of protein, vitamins and minerals. Fish such as herring, mackerel, sardines and tuna are all rich in iron and vitamins A, D and E. Fish such as sole, cod, hake and plaice are rich in vitamins and less oily than the fish I previously mentioned.
How much do we need to eat?
There are so many different foods which we are required to eat it becomes particularly difficult to include them all into your eating plan. The trick here is to create balance and try to eat a variety of different foods every day. Many people have set days for certain meals (for example Tuesday will be fish night) although it won’t satisfy your spontaneous side. We can’t eat fruit and vegetables all day everyday and so it is necessary to make allowances for the more comforting foods such as ice cream and chocolate in our diet. The important thing here is to eat in moderation, over eating these types of food is one of the main health hazards in the developed world.
This article serves as a reminder of the types of foods we need to eat and why. Too often our diets suffer major neglect and it is sometimes important to go back to basics in order to realize why a healthy diet is important.
Article Source: www.yourhealthfiles.com
