Healthy Eating Habits

What is a Balanced Diet?

Your diet should be healthy and balanced. It should contain sufficient amounts of fats, carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins, minerals, enzymes and fibers. You should include plenty of fresh vegetables and fruits as well as dairy products in your daily diet. Generally, it should be low in fats and rich in proteins and carbohydrates.

Tips for Healthy Eating Habits

A key to healthy eating is the time-tested advice of variety, balance and moderation. You should eat a variety of foods without gaining excessive calories or any of nutrients. Here are some useful tips for healthy eating habits:

• Eat a wide variety of nutrient-rich foods. More than 40 different nutrients are required for normal growth and functioning of the body. Our daily meals should contain whole-grain products, fresh vegetables and fruits, poultry, dairy products, fish, meat and other protein foods. Vegetables and fruits are rich in vitamins and minerals and low in fats, sodium and calories. Most vegetables contain and antioxidants plant-chemicals, which prevent some chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and some types of cancers.
• Don't skip a breakfast. After not eating anything for past 10-12 hours during night, our body requires food to boost the energy levels. Your breakfast should consist of fruits and a glass full of milk or fresh fruit juice. Avoid eating oily, high calorie snacks in breakfast.
• Your lunch should be the largest meal of the day. Start every meal with a low-fat starter including soup, salad, broth or a glass of water. Your lunch should include enough quantity of proteins, carbohydrates and fats. Include some raw vegetables and fruits in your lunch. Eat slowly and take care that you are not eating more than required. Your lunch should be followed by a fruit juice or fruit salad.
• We all need some snacks in between two meals. So choose the snacks very carefully. Avoid eating junk foods, which lack in nutrients and contain high calories. Instead, select some healthy snacks such as vegetables, fruits, cottage cheese with applesauce, low fat yogurt, whole-wheat crackers or some trail mix. Dietary sugars can be replaced with no-calorie sweeteners.
• Drink at least 8 glasses of water every day. It keeps your body hydrated. It is also helpful for body-cleansing and weight loss.
• Add calcium for strong bones, you and your bones will benefit from eating plenty of calcium rich foods, limiting foods that deplete your body’s calcium stores and getting your daily dose of magnesium and vitamins D and K, nutrients that help calcium do its job.
• If you keep a reasonable serving size, then it's easy to eat adequate quantity of food and stay healthy. Excess eating can give rise to a number of health problems, including obesity.
• If you are trying for weight loss, then don't go for crash diets or don't totally eliminate certain foods. You can reduce the foods that are rich in sugar, fat or salt. You can choose skim or low fat dairy products. If you are going to do some changes in your diet, then do it gradually. Sudden changes can give rise to food allergies.

Always remember, no food is good or bad. It's up to you how to balance the variety of foods. Adopt healthy eating habits for good health and physical fitness, leading to a cheerful, healthy life.