Tag Archives: healthy diet

Information On Nutrition

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Nutritional information seems to be everywhere nowadays. The secret to feeding your family and yourself a healthy diet consisting of healthier food is to read the labels. The United States Food & Drug Administration has laid out some strict rules for nutritional labeling of all food products.

The nutrition label will tell you all you need to know in order to choose real health foods. But with the new FDA guidelines, mandating more detailed information on the labels of every product you purchase, it could quickly become a case of overload very soon.

To start with, here are some facts (and myths) about some of the more common, “healthy” snack food you come across every day:

Yogurt: This can be either very good or very bad for you, depending on many factors. A real yogurt should have two ingredients: milk (whole, skim or low fat) and live yogurt culture. That is healthy food consisting of calcium, vitamin D, vitamin A and protein.

However, a lot of the yogurts at the grocery store are loaded with various kinds of hidden sugars. Flavours such as lime pie, kiwi-raspberry, strawberry-banana, etc., usually come with heavy doses of sugar which are added in order to generate that particular flavour. Quite often, the actual “fruit” is of poor quality and was too damaged or over-ripe to sell as a raw produce.

The solution to this is to buy plain, fat-free, sugarless yogurt, and then add your own nuts, berries or fresh fruits to it. This way you’ll have complete control over how healthy you would like your yogurt to be.

Granola bars: The first granola bars were the same as normal granola except for the shape. Instead of a loose, breakfast cereal-like consistency, granola bars were pressed into a bar shape and baked in that shape. These granola bars often tend to contain dried fruit, as normal granola.

Granola bars have since then evolved into expensive candy bars which contain chocolate chips and gooey caramel. The whole wheat flour is bleached and denuded of its flavorful kernels.

To conclude, here are some things to bear in mind when reading nutrition labels for health food:

* In the ingredients area of the nutrition label, ingredients are listed in order of amount. The ingredient that is listed first is the main ingredient, followed by the next largest amount, etc.

* The nutritional facts label must list each of the required nutrients even if the food provides 0% of your recommended daily value.

* The nutritional facts label must list what portion of the food’s calories are derived from fat, sugar, protein and carbohydrates. It should also break down the fat into saturated and unsaturated fat.

 

John Rifkind is a contributing editor at FitnessHealthArticles.com. This article may be reproduced provided that its complete content, links and author byline are kept intact and unchanged. No additional links permitted. Hyperlinks and/or URLs must remain both human clickable and search engine spiderable.

Benefits Of A Healthy Diet

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A healthy diet is something everyone who cares about their health claims they want. But the question is how do we really get it?

The Key To A Healthy Diet

Developing a healthy eating habit is not as confusing or as restrictive as many people tend to imagine. The first principle of a healthy diet is to simply eat a wide variety of food. This is important because different foods make different nutritional contributions to the body.

Secondly, fruits, vegetables, grains, and legumes—foods high in complex carbohydrates, fiber, vitamins, and minerals, low in fat, and free of cholesterol—should make up for the bulk of the calories you consume. The rest should come from low-fat dairy products, lean meats, lean poultry, and fish.

You should also try to keep a balance between calorie intake and calorie expenditure – that is, do not eat more food than your body can use. Otherwise, the chances are you will gain weight. The more active you are therefore, the more you can eat whilst still maintaining this balance.

Following these three basic steps does not mean that you have to give up on your favourite food. As long as your overall diet is low in fat and rich in complex carbohydrates, there’s nothing wrong with an occasional cheeseburger. Just make sure you limit how frequently you eat these foods, and when you do, try to eat small portions of them.

You can also see healthy eating as an opportunity to expand your range of choices by trying foods – especially vegetables, grains, or fruits – that you do not normally eat. A healthy diet does not have to mean eating foods which are bland or unappealing.

 

John Rifkind is a contributing editor at FitnessHealthArticles.com. This article may be reproduced provided that its complete content, links and author byline are kept intact and unchanged. No additional links permitted. Hyperlinks and/or URLs must remain both human clickable and search engine spiderable.

Keys To A Healthy Diet

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These days, there seems to be as many “healthy diets” as there are experts. Whilst our specific dietary needs may vary according to our individual body types, metabolisms, and genetics, there are also some basic guidelines that can be useful in determining which foods are nutritious and which aren’t.

1. Try to emphasize fruits and vegetables. Fruits and vegetables are high in antioxidants–nutrients which help neutralize toxins in the body. In general, brightly coloured fruits and vegetables contain the highest levels of antioxidants: for example, yellow, orange, and dark green vegetables; citrus fruits; and cruciferous vegetables (those in the cabbage family, such as broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, and cabbage). Whilst taking antioxidants in supplement form can be beneficial, those found in foods are a lot more powerful.

Fruits and vegetables are also high in other sorts of vitamins and minerals. Vitamin C, which is supportive of the immune system, is abundant in strawberries, oranges, and bell peppers. Carrots, sweet potatoes, and winter squash are a powerful source of beta-carotene, which is important for vision. Green leafy vegetables support the health of our bones and teeth, amongst other things, with high levels of calcium, magnesium, and vitamin K.

Some helpful guidelines for you to follow: Eat two to four pieces of fresh fruit every day, and fill half of your plate with vegetables at any meal.

2. Eat the amount and combination of whole foods that make you feel your best. There are so many different approaches to healthy eating. If you feel good when eating a high-protein diet with lots of non-starchy vegetables and few carbohydrates, it may be the best diet for you. However, if you feel your best when eating a diet high in grains, vegetables, and beans, then that may be the best diet for you.

Animals that are grass-fed and/or grown on organic foods (and all the products those animals produce) seem to have superior nutritional profiles. Additionally, studies have shown that children who grow up eating organic foods have lower levels of toxic chemicals in their bodies than those raised eating conventional foods.

 

John Rifkind is a contributing editor at FitnessHealthArticles.com. This article may be reproduced provided that its complete content, links and author byline are kept intact and unchanged. No additional links permitted. Hyperlinks and/or URLs must remain both human clickable and search engine spiderable.