HEALTHY
DIET
Healthy eating is not about strict nutrition philosophies, staying
unrealistically thin, or depriving yourself of the foods you love. Rather, it’s
about feeling great, having more energy, stabilizing your mood, and keeping
yourself as healthy as possible– all of which can be achieved by learning some
nutrition basics and using them in a way that works for you.
You can expand your range of healthy food choices and learn how to
plan ahead to create and maintain a tasty, healthy diet.
Healthy eating tip 1: Set yourself up for success
To set yourself up for success, think about planning a healthy
diet as a number of small, manageable steps rather than one big drastic change.
If you approach the changes gradually and with commitment, you will have a
healthy diet sooner than you think.
• Simplify. Instead of being overly concerned with counting calories or
measuring portion sizes, think of your diet in terms of colour, variety, and
freshness. This way it should be easier to make healthy choices. Focus on
finding foods you love and easy recipes that incorporate a few fresh
ingredients. Gradually, your diet will become healthier and more delicious.
• Start slow and make changes to your
eating habits over time. Trying to make your diet healthy
overnight isn’t realistic or smart. Changing everything at once usually leads
to cheating or giving up on your new eating plan. Make small steps, like adding
a salad (full of different colour vegetables) to your diet once a day or
switching from butter to olive oil when cooking. As your small changes become
habit, you can continue to add more healthy choices to your diet.
• Every change you make to improve
your diet matters. You don’t have to be perfect and you
don’t have to completely eliminate foods you enjoy to have a healthy diet. The
long term goal is to feel good, have more energy, and reduce the risk of cancer
and disease. Don’t let your missteps derail you—every healthy food choice you
make counts.
Healthy eating tip 2: Moderation is key
People often think of healthy eating as an all or nothing
proposition, but a key foundation for any healthy diet is moderation. But what
is moderation? How much is a moderate amount?
That really depends on you and your overall eating habits. The
goal of healthy eating is to develop a diet that you can maintain for life, not
just a few weeks or months, or until you've hit your ideal weight. So try to
think of moderation in terms of balance. Despite what certain fad diets would
have you believe, we all need a balance of carbohydrates, protein, fat, fibre, vitamins,
and minerals to sustain a healthy body. For most of us, moderation or balance
means eating less than we do now. More specifically, it means eating far less
of the unhealthy stuff (unrefined sugar, saturated fat, for example) and more
of the healthy (such as fresh fruit and vegetables). But it doesn't mean
eliminating the foods you love.
Eating bacon for breakfast once a week, for example, could be
considered moderation if you follow it with a healthy lunch and dinner–but not
if you follow it with a box of donuts and a sausage pizza. If you eat 100
calories of chocolate one afternoon, balance it out by deducting 100 calories
from your evening meal. If you're still hungry, fill up with an extra serving
of fresh vegetables.
• Try not to think of certain foods as
“off-limits.” When you ban certain foods or food
groups,
it is natural to want those foods more, and then feel like a failure if you
give in
to
temptation. If you are drawn towards sweet, salty, or unhealthy foods, start by
reducing
portion sizes and not eating them as often. Later you may find yourself craving
them
less or thinking of them as only occasional indulgences.
• Think smaller portions. Serving sizes have ballooned recently, particularly in restaurants.
When dining out, choose a starter instead of an entree, split a dish with a friend,
and don't order supersized anything. At home, use smaller plates, think about serving
sizes in realistic terms, and start small. If you don't feel satisfied at the
end of a meal,
try adding more leafy green vegetables or rounding off the meal with fresh
fruit. Visual
cues can help with portion sizes–your serving of meat, fish, or chicken should
be the size
of a deck of cards, a slice of bread should be the size of a CD case, and half
a cup of mashed potato, rice, or pasta is about the size of a traditional light
bulb.
Healthy eating tip 3: It's not just what you eat, it's
how you eat
Healthy eating is about more than the food on your plate—it is also
about how you think about
food. Healthy eating habits can be learned and it is important to slow down and
think about food as nourishment rather than just something to gulp down in between
meetings or on the way to pick up the kids.
• Eat with others whenever possible. Eating with other people has numerous social and
emotional
benefits—particularly for children—and allows you to model healthy eating habits.
Eating in front of the TV or computer often leads to mindless overeating.
• Take time to chew your food and
enjoy mealtimes. Chew your food slowly, savouring
every
bite. We tend to rush though our meals, forgetting to actually taste the
flavours and feel
the textures of our food. Reconnect with the joy of eating.
• Listen to your body. Ask yourself if you are really hungry, or have a glass of water to
see if you are thirsty instead of hungry. During a meal, stop eating before you
feel full. It actually takes a few minutes for your brain to tell your body
that it has had enough food, so eat slowly.
Eat breakfast, and eat smaller meals
throughout the day. A healthy breakfast can
jumpstart
your metabolism, and eating small, healthy meals throughout the day (rather
than the
standard three large meals) keeps your energy up and your metabolism going.
• Avoid eating at night. Try to eat dinner earlier in the day and then fast for 14-16 hours
until breakfast the next morning. Early studies suggest that this simple
dietary adjustment—eating
only when you’re most active and giving your digestive system a long
break each day—may help to regulate weight. After-dinner snacks tend to be high in fat
and calories so are best avoided, anyway.
Healthy eating tip 4: Fill up on colourful fruits and
vegetables
Fruits and vegetables are the foundation of a healthy diet. They are
low in calories and nutrient dense, which means they are packed with vitamins,
minerals, antioxidants, and fibre.
Try to eat a rainbow of fruits and vegetables every day and with every
meal—the brighter the better. Colourful, deeply coloured fruits and vegetables
contain higher concentrations of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants—and
different colours provide
different
benefits, so eat a variety. Aim for a minimum of five portions each day.
Some great choices include:
• Greens. Branch out beyond bright and dark green lettuce. Kale, mustard
greens, broccoli, and Chinese cabbage are just a few of the options—all packed
with calcium, magnesium, iron, potassium, zinc, and vitamins A, C, E, and K.
• Sweet vegetables. Naturally sweet vegetables—such as corn, carrots, beets, sweet potatoes,
yams, onions, and squash—add healthy sweetness to your meals and reduce your
cravings for other sweets.
• Fruit. Fruit is a tasty, satisfying way to fill up on fibre, vitamins,
and antioxidants. Berries are cancer-fighting, apples provide fibre, oranges
and mangos offer vitamin C, and so on. The importance
of getting vitamins from food—not pills
The antioxidants and other nutrients in fruits and vegetables help
protect against certain types of cancer and other diseases. And while
advertisements abound for supplements promising to deliver the nutritional
benefits of fruits and vegetables in pill or powder form, research suggests
that it’s just not the same.
A daily regimen of nutritional supplements is not going to have
the same impact of eating right. That’s because the benefits of fruits and
vegetables don’t come from a single vitamin or an isolated antioxidant. The
health benefits of fruits and vegetables come from numerous vitamins, minerals,
and phytochemicals working together synergistically. They can’t be broken down
into the sum of their parts or replicated in pill form.
Healthy eating tip 5: Eat more healthy carbs and whole
grains
Choose healthy carbohydrates and fibre sources, especially whole
grains, for long lasting energy. In addition to being delicious and satisfying,
whole grains are rich in phytochemicals and antioxidants, which help to protect
against coronary heart disease, certain cancers, and diabetes.
Studies have shown people who eat more whole grains tend to have a
healthier heart. A quick definition of healthy carbs
and unhealthy carbs Healthy carbs (sometimes
known as good carbs) include whole grains, beans, fruits, and vegetables.
Healthy carbs are digested slowly, helping you feel full longer and keeping
blood sugar and insulin levels stable.
Unhealthy carbs (or bad carbs) are foods
such as white flour, refined sugar, and white rice that have been stripped of
all bran, fibre, and nutrients. Unhealthy carbs digest quickly and cause spikes
in blood sugar levels and energy. Tips for eating
more healthy carbs
• Include a variety of whole grains in
your healthy diet, including whole wheat, brown rice, millet,
quinoa, and barley. Experiment with different grains to find your favorites.
• Make sure you're really getting
whole grains. Be aware that the words
stone-ground, multigrain, 100% wheat, or bran can be deceptive. Look for the
words “whole grain” or “100% whole wheat” at the beginning of the ingredient
list. In the U.S., Canada, and some other countries, check for the Whole Grain
Stamps that distinguish between partial whole grain and 100% whole grain.
• Try mixing grains as a first step to
switching to whole grains. If whole grains like brown
rice and whole wheat pasta don’t sound good at first, start by mixing what you
normally use with the whole grains. You can gradually increase the whole grain
to 100%. Avoid: Refined foods such as
breads, pastas, and breakfast cereals that are not whole grain.
Healthy eating tip 6: Enjoy healthy fats & avoid
unhealthy fats
Good sources of healthy fat are needed to nourish your brain,
heart, and cells, as well as your hair, skin, and nails. Foods rich in certain
omega-3 fats called EPA and DHA are particularly important and can reduce
cardiovascular disease, improve your mood, and help prevent dementia.
Add to your healthy diet:
• Monounsaturated fats, from plant oils like canola oil, peanut oil, and olive oil, as
well as avocados, nuts (like almonds, hazelnuts, and pecans), and seeds (such
as pumpkin, sesame).
• Polyunsaturated fats, including
Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids, found in fatty fish such as salmon, herring,
mackerel, anchovies, sardines, and some cold water fish oil supplements. Other
sources of polyunsaturated fats are unheated sunflower, corn,soybean, flaxseed
oils, and walnuts. Reduce or eliminate from your diet:
• Saturated fats, found primarily in animal sources including red meat and whole
milk dairy products.
• Trans fats, found in vegetable shortenings, some margarines, crackers,
candies, cookies, snack foods, fried foods, baked goods, and other processed
foods made with partially hydrogenated vegetable oils.
Healthy eating tip 7: Put protein in perspective
Protein gives us the energy to get up and go—and keep going.
Protein in food is broken down into the 20 amino acids that are the body’s
basic building blocks for growth and energy, and essential for maintaining
cells, tissues, and organs.
A lack of protein in our diet can slow growth, reduce muscle mass,
lower immunity, and weaken the heart and respiratory system. Protein is particularly
important for children, whose bodies are growing and changing daily. Here are some guidelines for including protein in your healthy
diet:
Try different types of protein. Whether
or not you are a vegetarian, trying different protein sources—such as beans,
nuts, seeds, peas, tofu, and soy products—will open up new options for healthy
mealtimes.
• Beans: Black beans, navy beans,
garbanzos, and lentils are good options.
• Nuts: Almonds, walnuts, pistachios,
and pecans are great choices.
• Soy products: Try tofu, soy milk,
tempeh, and veggie burgers for a change.
• Avoid salted or sugary nuts and
refried beans.
Downsize
your portions of protein. Many people in the West eat
too much protein. Try to
move
away from protein being the centre of your meal. Focus on equal servings of
protein, whole grains, and vegetables. Focus on
quality sources of protein, like fresh fish, chicken or
turkey, tofu, eggs, beans, or nuts. When you are having meat, chicken, or
turkey, buy meat that is free of hormones and antibiotics.
Healthy eating tip 8: Add calcium for strong bones
Calcium is one of the key nutrients that your body needs in order
to stay strong and healthy. It is an essential building block for lifelong bone
health in both men and women, as well as many other important functions. 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.
Recommended calcium levels are 1000 mg per day, 1200 mg if you are
over 50 years old. Take a vitamin D and calcium supplement if you don’t get
enough of these nutrients from your diet.
Good
sources of calcium include:
• Dairy: Dairy products are rich in calcium in a form that is easily
digested and absorbed by the body. Sources include milk, yogurt, and cheese.
• Vegetables and greens: Many vegetables, especially leafy green ones, are rich sources of
calcium. Try turnip greens, mustard greens, collard greens, kale, romaine
lettuce, celery, broccoli, fennel, cabbage, summer squash, green beans,
Brussels sprouts, asparagus, and crimini mushrooms.
• Beans: For another rich source of calcium, try black beans, pinto beans,
kidney beans, white beans, black-eyed peas, or baked beans.
Healthy eating tip 9: Limit sugar and salt
If you succeed in planning your diet around fibre-rich fruits,
vegetables, whole grains, lean protein, and good fats, you may find yourself
naturally cutting back on foods that can get in the way of your healthy diet—sugar
and salt.
Sugar
Sugar causes energy ups and downs and can add to health and weight
problems. Unfortunately, reducing the amount of candy, cakes, and desserts we
eat is only part of the solution. Often you
may not
even be aware of the amount of sugar you’re consuming each day. Large amounts
of added sugar can be hidden in foods such as bread, canned soups and
vegetables, pasta sauce, margarine, instant mashed potatoes, frozen dinners,
fast food, soy sauce, and ketchup. Here are some tips:
• Avoid sugary drinks. One 12-oz soda has about 10 teaspoons of sugar in it, more than the
daily recommended limit! Try sparkling water with lemon or a splash of fruit
juice.
•
• cane sugar or maple syrup
• corn sweetener or corn syrup
• honey or molasses
• brown rice syrup
• crystallized or evaporated cane
juice
• fruit juice concentrates, such as
apple or pear
• maltodextrin (or dextrin)
• Dextrose, Fructose, Glucose,
Maltose, or Sucrose
Salt
Most of us consume too much salt in our diets. Eating too much
salt can cause high blood pressure and lead to other health problems. Try to
limit sodium intake to 1,500 to 2,300 mg per day, the equivalent of one
teaspoon of salt.
• Avoid processed or pre-packaged
foods. Processed foods like canned soups or frozen dinners
contain hidden sodium that quickly surpasses the recommended limit.
• Be careful when eating out. Most restaurant and fast food meals are loaded with sodium.
• Opt for fresh or frozen vegetables instead of canned vegetables.
• Cut back on salty snacks such as potato chips, nuts, and pretzels.
• Choose low-salt or reduced-sodium
products.
• Try slowly reducing the salt in your
diet to give your taste buds time to adjust.
Think of water and exercise as food groups in your diet.
Water helps flush our systems of waste products and toxins, yet
many people go
through
life dehydrated—causing tiredness, low energy, and headaches. It’s common to
mistake
thirst for hunger, so staying well hydrated will also help you make healthier
food
choice.
Exercise: Find something active that you like
to do and add it to your day, just like you would add healthy greens,
blueberries, or salmon. The benefits of lifelong exercise are abundant and
regular exercise may even motivate you to make healthy food choices a habit.
Some
more tips and advices :
World
Health Organization
The
World Health Organization (WHO) makes the following 5 recommendations with
respect to both populations and individuals:
•
• Increase consumption of plant foods,
particularly fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole grains and nuts.
• Limit intake of fats, namely
saturated fats and trans fats and replace with healthier unsaturated fats.
• Limit the intake of granulated
sugar. A 2003 report recommends less than 10% simple sugars.
• Limit salt / sodium consumption from
all sources and ensure that salt is iodized.
Other
recommendations include:
• Essential micronutrients such as
vitamins and certain minerals.
• Avoiding directly poisonous (e.g.
heavy metals) and carcinogenic (e.g. benzene) substances.
• Avoiding foods contaminated by human
pathogens (e.g. E. coli, tapeworm eggs).
American
Heart Association / World Cancer Research Fund / American Institute for Cancer
Research
The American Heart Association, World Cancer Research Fund, and
American Institute for Cancer Research recommends a diet that consists mostly
of unprocessed plant foods, with emphasis a wide range of whole grains,
legumes, and non-starchy vegetables and fruits.
This healthy diet is replete with a wide range of various
non-starchy vegetables and fruits, that provide different colors including red,
green, yellow, white, purple, and orange. They note that tomato cooked with
oil, allium vegetables like garlic, and cruciferous vegetables like cauliflower,
provide some protection against cancer.
This healthy diet is low in energy density, which may protect
against weight gain and associated diseases. Finally, limiting consumption of sugary
drinks, limiting energy rich foods, including “fast foods” and red meat, and
avoiding processed meats improves health and longevity. Overall, researchers
and medical policy conclude that this healthy diet can reduce the risk of
chronic disease and cancer.
Harvard
School of Public Health
The
Nutrition Source of Harvard School of Public Health makes the following 10
recommendations
for a healthy diet:
1. Choose good carbohydrates: whole
grains (the less processed the better), vegetables, fruits and beans. Avoid
white bread, white rice, and the like as well as pastries, sugared sodas, and
other highly-processed food.
2. Pay attention to the protein
package: good choices include fish, poultry, nuts, and beans. Try to avoid red
meat.
3. Choose foods containing healthy
fats. Plant oils, nuts, and fish are the best choices. Limit consumption of
saturated fats, and avoid foods with trans fat.
4. Choose a fiber-filled diet which
includes whole grains, vegetables, and fruits.
5. Eat more vegetables and fruits—the
more colorful and varied, the better.
6. Calcium is important, but milk is
not its best source. Good sources of calcium are collards, bok choy, fortified
soy milk, baked beans, and supplements which contain and calcium and vitamin D.
7. Water is the best source of liquid.
Avoid sugary drinks, and limit intake of juices and milk. Coffee, tea,
artificially-sweetened drinks, 100-percent fruit juices, low-fat milk and alcohol
can fit into a healthy diet but are best consumed in moderation. Sports drinks are
recommended only for people who exercise more than an hour at a stretch to
replace
substances lost in sweat.
8. Limit salt intake. Choose more fresh
foods, instead of processed ones.
9. Moderate alcohol drinking has health
benefits, but is not recommended for everyone.
10. Daily multivitamin and extra vitamin
D intake has potential health benefits.
Other
than nutrition, the guide recommends frequent physical activity (exercise) and
maintaining
a healthy body weight.
For
specific conditions
In addition to dietary recommendations for the general population,
there are many specific diets that have primarily been developed to promote
better health in specific population groups, such as people with high blood
pressure (as in low sodium diets or the more specific DASH diet), or people who
are overweight or obese (in weight control diets). However, some of them may
have more or less evidence for beneficial effects in normal people as well.
Hypertension
A low sodium diet is beneficial for people with high blood
pressure. A Cochrane review
published
in 2008 concluded that a long term (more than 4 weeks) low sodium diet in
Caucasians
has a useful effect to reduce blood pressure, both in people with hypertension and in people with normal blood
pressure.
The DASH diet (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) is a diet
promoted by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (part of the NIH, a
United States government organization) to control hypertension. A major feature
of the plan is limiting intake of sodium, and it also generally encourages the
consumption of nuts, whole grains, fish, poultry, fruits and vegetables while
lowering the consumption of red meats, sweets, and sugar.
It is also "rich in potassium, magnesium, and calcium, as
well as protein". Evidence shows that the Mediterranean diet improves
cardiovascular outcomes.
Obesity
Weight control diets aim to maintain a controlled weight. In most
cases dieting is used in combination with physical exercise to lose weight in
those who are overweight or obese. Diets to promote weight loss are generally
divided into four categories: low-fat, lowcarbohydrate, low-calorie, and very
low calorie.
A meta-analysis of six randomized controlled trials found no
difference between the main diet types (low calorie, low carbohydrate, and low fat),
with a 2–4 kilogram weight loss in all studies. At two years, all
calorie-reduced diet types cause equal weight loss irrespective of the
macronutrients emphasized. Diet and possible reduced
disease risk
There may be a relationship between lifestyle including food
consumption and potentially lowering the risk of cancer or other chronic
diseases. A healthy diet may consist mostly of whole plant foods, with limited
consumption of energy-dense foods, red meat, alcoholic drinks and salt while
reducing consumption of sugary drinks, and processed meat.
A healthy diet may contain non-starchy vegetables and fruits,
including those with red, green, yellow, white, purple or orange pigments.
Tomato cooked with oil, allium vegetables like garlic, and cruciferous vegetables like cauliflower
"probably" contain compounds which are under research for their possible
anti-cancer activity.
A
healthy diet is low in energy density, lowering caloric content, thereby
possibly inhibiting weight gain and lowering risk against chronic diseases.
Unhealthy
diets
An unhealthy diet is a major risk factor for a number of chronic
diseases including: high blood pressure, diabetes, abnormal blood lipids,
overweight/obesity, cardiovascular diseases, and cancer. The WHO estimates that
2.7 million deaths are attributable to a diet low in fruit and vegetable very
year. Globally it is estimated to cause about 19% of gastrointestinal cancer,
31% of ischaemic heart disease, and 11% of strokes, thus making it one of the
leading preventable causes of death worldwide.
Fad
diets
Fad diet usually refers to idiosyncratic
diets and eating patterns. They are diets that claim to promote weight loss or
treat obesity by various mechanisms, provide little to no scientific reasoning
behind their purported health benefits, and have little or no proof to support
them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthy_diet
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