A Healthy Diet For Life
Namita Nayyar

Having established that your body needs a well balanced diet, with a good supply of carbohydrates, especially high – fiber foods, water vitamins and minerals, and a certain amount of protein, fat and bacteria, you need to know how to put it into practice.
Much media attention is focused on foods that one should not have, yet there has been very little to tell women how they can use food to enhance their life rather than make it more difficult. Forget the labels; every figure is relative and food manufacturers are frequently very selective about what they tell you, making your task of deciding what is right for you an impossible one. Instead build your choices on the following guidelines.

RESPECT YOUR MOUTH AND BODY: GET INTO THE HABIT OF ONLY EATING THINGS YOU LIKE AND NEED

Before you put anything in your mouth, ask yourself three questions: Do I want it/ Do I like it/ Do I need it?

If you want it and like it then go ahead and enjoy it, if you dont why bother wasting the eating experience? Throw all the boring, unnecessary eating out of your life.

The worst thing you can do with food is to feel guilty about eating it. If you have eaten something that you know is not the healthier but you really fancied it or were in a situation where you didnt have any choice, enjoy it an forget about it. Dont beat yourself up with guilt. Guilt is a negative emotion, which is likely to lead you to bingeing on comfort foods. This can then get you into a negative sugar or salt cycle in which you eat more of these foods, which in turn makes you feel even more guilty. You might then decide its not worth continuing with you healthy eating lifestyle. It is always worth persevering. Remember that life is for living and food is there to help us, not hinder us.

AIM TO EAT FIVE PORTIONS OF FRESH FRUITS AND VEGETABLES EVERY DAY

This provides your body with a good source of vitamins, minerals and fiber, to maintain your body in peak condition to fight diseases. Fiber helps your food to move effectively through the body, keeps you feeling pleasantly full and satisfied and in control of your eating habits, and your energy levels steady.

EAT THREE MEALS A DAY

This is usually made up of one main meal, a smaller snack or lunch-type meal and breakfast. You may, however, feel that you need two smaller snacks, such as a piece of fruit, a small sandwich or a piece of cake, in between two smaller meals. It all depends on your body rhythms. Meals should be based on carbohydrates, such as pasta, whole-meal bread, wholegrain cereals, rice or potatoes, along with fruits and/or vegetables. The main meal should include a source of lean protein, along with carbohydrate and plenty of vegetables and fruits.

CHOOSE LEAN SOURCES OF PROTEIN

Fish, shellfish, lean red meat, game, poultry, eggs or pulses meet your bodys protein requirements without overloading on fats.

TRY TO GET INTO THE HABIT OF USING JUST A SMALL AMOUNT OF FAT

You can use butter, olive oil, sesame oil or walnut oil to enhance the flavor of your food or for cooking, but do try to keep the quantity low.

KEEP YOUR INTAKE OF REFINED SUGAR FOODS LOW

Too much sugar disrupts your natural energy balance, and can cause headaches; mood swings and if eaten in large quantities sugar sensitivity problems such as hypoglycemia and diabetes mellitus. It is much better to get into the habit of using the natural sugars in fruits to provide sweetness.

INCLUDE SOME DAIRY PRODUCTS OR ANOTHER SIGNIFICANT SOURCE OF CALCIUM IN YOUR DAILY DIET

This has far reaching benefits for all women of all age group .

DRINK TWO THREE LITERS (FOUR TO FIVE PINTS) OF WATER EVERY DAY

Water helps the fiber in your food to swell and perform its duties. It also helps to metabolize other nutrients from your food, keep your skin and hair healthy and prevent your body from becoming dehydrated.

TRY NOT TO DRINK MORE THAN THREE CUPS OF COFFEE, TEA OR COLA .

All such drinks contain caffeine, which inhibit the absorption of vitamins and minerals from the gut, causes your body to excrete vital nutrients and interferes with the fluid and energy balance mechanisms in your body. Caffeine also causes your body to be stimulated in an artificial way, which in the long run has the opposite effect of supressing your performance and general feeling of well

INCLUDES SOME GOOD BACTERIA IN YOUR DAILY DIET, IN THE FORM OF LIVE YOGURT CONTAINING BIFIDUS AND ACIDOPHILUS

A small pot of bio yogurt a day should help to keep a healthy balance of good and bad bacteria in your gut. If you dont like or are unable to eat live yogurt, seek the advice of your dietician

TRY TO EAT REGULARLY AND IDEALLY NOT LEAVE YOUR STOMACH EMPTY FOR MORE THAN FOUR TO FIVE HOUR

This helps to keep your gut functioning effectively. Regular eating helps your gut maintain a steady supply of digestive enzymes, protects it from excess acid secretion and enables it to metabolize food in the most efficient way, to keep your energy level and moods on an even keel

KEEP YOUR ALCOHOL INTAKE MODERATE

Some drinks, especially young red wines such as Beaujolais, contain anti-oxidant vitamins and minerals, which can help to reduce the risk of heart disease and some cancers. Beers and Champagnes can also provide beneficial nutrients. Drinking can be a very pleasurable part of a healthy lifestyle, but drinking to excess can cause liver damage, mood and energy-balance problems. Try not to drink on an empty stomach as this can cause your blood sugar levels to crash.

FOOD COMBINING/SEPARATING

The issue of whether you should eat proteins and carbohydrates at the same meal is one that regularly crops up in the media. Some diet consultants feel strongly that proteins and carbohydrates should be separated, and advocate that proteins should be eaten only with vegetables and fruit, not mixed with carbohydrates. Many people feel that their body functions better if they out this into practice; it is commonly known as food combining.
From the physiological and nutritional viewpoint, proteins (meat, chicken, fish, eggs, cheese, nuts, pulses) provide the body with amino acids, used as building blocks within muscles and other tissues. Carbohydrates provide energy and fiber. If you eat proteins on their own, without carbohydrate present, the protein can be broken down into energy, rather than used for building body tissue. Proteins also have other important functions to perform in maintaining body health and carbohydrates protect proteins, enabling them to fulfill these functions.

The choice is yours, but there is no physiological reasoning behind food combining. I believe that food is there to be enjoyed. Women should not have to agonize over whether they are allowed to eat certain things at certain times.

To know more on how to make healthy choices of food while eating ,log on to www.womenfitness.net,a complete resource for healthy living .

About the Author

Ms Namita Nayyar is a gold medalist in M Sc (Child development)and a fitness trainer with a sound knowledge of normal & therapeutic nutrition . She is the founder of Women Fitness (www.womenfitness.net)

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Food calorie counters can be thought of as a vital tool in the battle against obesity. Anybody who has ever tried to lose weight knows just how hard it can be, and anything you can use to help you shed some extra pounds is worth using.

To make things worse, it often seems as though you are being encouraged to keep your weight on forever. Food manufacturers are always looking to generate profits, but the way they do it is by selling junk food. Restaurants are serving larger portions, and often seem to be competing against one another for the title of “Unhealthiest Meal”. It used to be that a regular double cheeseburger was bad enough, but now you can get triple cheeseburgers (with each patty being a quarter-pound) loaded with bacon, chili, fried onion rings (yes, they put them on the burger) and three kinds of cheese for good measure!

No wonder it’s hard to lose weight. But food calorie counters give you a way of knowing what’s really going into your body. Sure, you may not kid yourself that eating a heart attack burger is healthy, but what about knowing the difference between a chicken breast and a grilled chicken sanwich? That could really make a difference over time.

The other great thing about food calories counters is that the actually help you to enjoy a wider variety of foods. Instead of following some strict diet plan, you can simply choose the foods that are better for you. This allows you to eat more, within reason, so you don’t ever have to feel hungry. This doesn’t mean you can eat all the junk food you want, but it does mean that you will be better informed so you can make better food choices.

No matter what the latest fad diets claim, the only way to lose weight is by storing fewer calories than you burn. In fact, every successful diet takes advantage of this fact; though they often try to disguise the facts under some sort of a gimmick. A good calorie counter puts the power back in your hands and gives you an instant assessment of the food you’re eating.

Some people want to know which food calorie counters are best; books or computer software? The answer is that neither one is automatically better than the other. It all comes down to this: you need to have a calorie counter with you whenever you eat. Therefore, it makes sense to have a book that you can carry with you, and a calorie counter for your computer for when you are at home. That way you will have all of your bases covered.
If at all possible, you should check food calorie counters to make sure they list the foods you are most likely to eat. It wouldn’t do much good to get a calorie guide that doesn’t list the right foods. That being said, there are a lot of counters that cover thousands and thousands of foods, so it should be pretty easy to find one that works well for you.

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Healthy Eating Facts – Trans Fat And Soda Wake Up Tips

Regardless of the type of diet you may be on, or what your current lifestyle is, there are definitely some healthy eating facts that always stay the same. Saturated fat, for example, is not healthy for you, and it doesn’t matter how active or sedentary you are, nor does it matter how much you weight or how many calories you eat per day. Facts are facts. Man-made trans fats are always unhealthy. Another fact is that restricting your calories too severely can take its toll on your body.

One thing that people didn’t need to concern themselves with several years ago was trans fats; to be more specific, man-made trans fats, as there are some naturally occurring trans fats which aren’t a major health issue. The good news is that trans fats are easy to spot on food labels, but only when you know how. The most recent labeling guidelines say that food manufacturers have to show how much trans fats are in each serving of their food. However, if it’s under a certain amount, thy are allowed to show it as 0 grams of trans fat, even if there is some of it in the food. While this is playing dirty with your health, there is a way you can know for sure. Simply read the full list of ingredients. If you see the word ‘hydrogenated’, then it contains man-made trans fats and you should leave it on the shelf.

Researchers first brought hydrogenated fats and oils to the market in 1911. At the time they solved a big problem: spoilage. Refrigeration was still fairly new, and a lot of homes had no way of keeping their food cool. This meant that most foods that contained fats would turn rancid on the shelf. Trans fats changed that. All of a sudden, people could have margarine, shortening, instant cocoa and various mixes at home.

Refrigeration is no longer a problem, but trans fats are. That’s because researchers have found a link between hydrogenated fats and various diseases. This is most likely due to the fact that hydrogenation changes the molecular properties of otherwise natural fats. Even the government is starting to change the way it looks at trans fats.

Healthy eating facts don’t end with trans fats, though. Another thing to avoid is carbonated soft drinks. If they are sweetened with sugar, then they can have up to 3 tablespoons of sugar in a 12 ounce can! And it’s all empty calories. Even those soft drinks that have added nutrients aren’t that great for you, because you are still getting way too many simple carbohydrates.

Most such beverages also contain artificial flavors, caffeine, artificial colors and other things that aren’t any good for you. But what about sodas that use artificial sweeteners? They aren’t good for you either. The jury is still out on various sweeteners, but so far it looks they are not worth the risk. Even if they aren’t that bad for you, there are enough other bad things in carbonated beverages to make steering clear of them another one of the healthy eating facts you can rely on.

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