Tag Archives: healthy diet

What’s Good About Nutrition

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Nutrition is a hot topic in all places, with differing opinions and approaches all around us. For some honest, straightforward advice, there is still nothing that beats the current USDA guidelines. They are something everyone should know!

USDA Key Recommendations For All The General Population

Adequate Nutrients Within Your Calorie Needs

• Try to consume a variety of nutrient-dense foods and drinks within the basic food groups whilst choosing foods that limit the intake of saturated and trans-fats, cholesterol, added sugars, salt, and alcohol.

• Meet the recommended intakes within energy needs by adopting a balanced eating pattern, such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food Guide or the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) Eating Plan.

Managing Your Weight

• To maintain your body weight within a healthy range, balance the calories from foods and beverages with calories expended.

• To prevent gradual weight gain over time, make some small decreases in food and beverage calories and increase physical activity.

Physical Exercise

• Try to engage in regular physical activity and reduce your sedentary activities to promote health, psychological well-being, and a healthy body weight.

• To reduce the risks of chronic disease in adulthood: try to engage in at least 30 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity, above usual activity, at work or home on most days of the week.

• For most people, greater health benefits can be achieved by engaging in physical activity of more vigorous intensity or longer duration.

• To help you manage body weight and prevent gradual, unhealthy body weight gain in adulthood: Engage in approximately one hour of moderate- to vigorous-intensity activity on most days of the week whilst not exceeding caloric intake requirements.

• To sustain your weight loss in adulthood: Participate in at least 60 to 90 minutes of daily moderate-intensity physical activity while not exceeding caloric intake requirements. Some people might need to consult with a healthcare provider before participating in this level of activity.

• Achieve physical fitness through including cardiovascular conditioning, stretching exercises for flexibility, and resistance exercises or calisthenics for muscle strength and endurance.

Safety With Food

• To avoid micro-bacterial food borne illness:

• Always clean hands, food contact surfaces, and fruits and vegetables. Meat and poultry should always be washed or rinsed.
• Separate raw from cooked and ready-to-eat foods while shopping, preparing, or storing food.

• Cook your food at a safe temperature in order to kill micro-organisms.

• Put perishable foods in the fridge promptly and defrost foods properly.

• Avoid raw (unpasteurized) milk or any products made from unpasteurized milk, raw or partially cooked eggs or food which contains raw eggs, raw or undercooked meat and poultry, unpasteurized juices, and raw sprouts.

 

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.

Facts On Fast Food Nutrition

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Fast food is a convenient and fun way of eating. But can it be healthy eating?

Are too many ‘Happy Meals’ one of the reasons more kids today are overweight?

The increase in families substituting a family meal with a trip to McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, etc. is very likely one of the causes for the increase in overweight kids, but it’s not the only cause. Other factors also play a role, including an increased time watching TV and playing video games and a decreased time in physical activity as well as unhealthy food choices.

The choice you make when eating fast food can also determine how healthy or ‘unhealthy’ it will be.

How can you make fast food healthier?

One of the easiest ways to make fast food healthier is to be careful of your portion sizes and understand how many calories and how much fat you add to a meal when you ‘super-size’ your order. It might seem like better ‘value’ to go with the special or large meal sizes, but you must also think about what the extra calories will cost you later as your child tries to burn them off in order to lose weight.

Healthier Eating Choices

Further to choosing smaller portion sizes, checking the menus at your favorite fast food restaurants will likely help you to find other low calorie, low fat alternatives to traditional fast foods which are really healthy. This could include a salad, baked potato, or grilled chicken salad.

With other sorts of fast food, such as pizza, choose a thin crust cheese pizza and try to avoid adding lots of cheese or extra meat toppings.

It can also help your child to be healthier if you avoid ‘fast food’ at more traditional restaurants that you visit. It unfortunately seems like almost every restaurant, whether Italian, Chinese, Mexican, etc. has a kids’ menu with high fat and high calorie foods, like chicken nuggets, french fries, etc.

Instead of always relying on the kid’s menu, why not consider getting a half order or child plate of a more traditional and healthier item at the same restaurant?

 

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.

Are Liquid Supplements For You?

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Until recently such products as Ensure ™ and Boost ™ were primarily used to meet the special needs of patients in hospitals and in nursing homes. Lately, we have seen companies marketing these sorts of drinks to people of all ages and states of health.

Supposedly, liquid supplements are the answer for busy moms with a tight schedule, business people running out without time for a sit-down breakfast, and older adults wanting to guarantee that they’ll be able to enjoy their grandchildren. What are the benefits liquid supplements reportedly offer?

Generally, these supplements are composed of water, sugar, milk and soy proteins, oils, vitamins, and minerals. A typical 8-ounce can contains 250 calories, and the Aplus@ version may contain as many as 355 calories. Most are lactose free, some have added fibre, and some are specifically designed for children or adults with certain health problems.

Companies are also selling supplements in the shape of pudding or bars, with a varying nutrient content.

What nutritional needs are these companies trying to help consumers answer? Here are some of the reasons companies give for buying their products.

Advertisers sometimes use fear tactics to make you worry that you’re not getting proper nutrition through ordinary foods. Although some people are consuming less than the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) for certain nutrients, this does not mean they will develop a deficiency disease. If you truly feel you’re not getting enough nutrients from your food, consult a registered dietician or a KSU Extension Specialist in nutrition. They will be able to help you evaluate your need for supplements.

“Too busy to eat properly” – Liquid supplements may be a fast way to get vitamins, minerals and protein, but there’s more needed for good health! Scientists continue to discover new compounds in certain foods that provide health-protective benefits. Whereas the canned supplements may lack fibre and other healthy components, they may be high in sugar and calories. Although this was ideal for the original intent of these products, most healthy consumers do not want or need all the extra calories that these supplements provide.

“Difficulty preparing meals or no appetite” –  Liquid supplements can provide an answer for occasional use, but a continued use may lead to boredom and even less interest in eating. For a consumer with a poor appetite or impaired ability to fix meals, the solution might be found in home-delivered meals or eating at a group meal site. These meals can offer more variety and may be available at little or no cost to the consumer.

“Nutrition after surgery, during an illness or a chronic disease” –  Liquid nutritional supplements can prove to be beneficial for people with special nutritional needs brought on by serious illnesses. For example, people with AIDS or cancer have some increased nutritional needs, and liquid nutritional supplements are appropriate and valuable in this situation.

To summarize it all, whereas there is a need for liquid nutritional supplements in certain medical conditions, these products are unnecessary for the average, healthy person. The cost for a 8-ounce can of standard formula, and more for specialized formulas must be part of a decision if a person is considering to use a liquid nutritional supplement.

 

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.