Importance of a Healthy Diet

Hi there! Welcome to this post. First of all, well done on taking the time to read this post and becoming a little more educated on why a healthy diet is important.

I'm sure we all know that healthy eating habits are beneficial to our health even though we, more often than not, don't live accordingly. Taking up healthy eating habits can be beneficial to your health in so many ways. Healthy eating can improve your heart health. Why? Regularly consuming fruits and vegetables can lower cholesterol, lower blood pressure and lower the chances of heart disease. More so, fruits and vegetables can improve your metabolism and take good care of your intestines. We need all the healthy vitamins and minerals that fruits and vegetables contain. They also contain healthy fibers to help with digestion and healthy proteins. A Healthy diet can improve digestion, get rid of chronic problems such as IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome), High Blood Pressure, Low Blood Pressure, Pcos (Polycystic Ovary Syndrome), Kidney Problems, High Cholesterol, Diabetes, SBS (Short Bowel Syndrome), Gout and Osteoporosis to name just a few.

Many people have a huge misconception on healthy eating. Most of the time, healthy eating sounds like eating blunt and tasteless food all the time. This is wrong in so many ways. When you know the basic guidelines to which foods are healthy and which are not, you can easily cook deliciously healthy meals! The main reason we eat UNHEALTHY foods, are because we tend to add a lot of refined salts and sugars to our meals, which are both horrible for your health.

Why should we limit salt intake?

Table salt as we know it, is bad for your health for a number of reasons. Salt can increase blood pressure and cause dehydration, it also causes an increase in thirst. Salt also causes water retention because salt binds with water and sits right under your skin. This is commonly known as "water weight". Table salt is also more heavily processed to eliminate minerals and usually contains an additive to prevent clumping. Most table salt also has added iodine, an essential nutrient that helps maintain a healthy thyroid. The recommended amount of salt per day is 1 teaspoon. Remember that processed foods such as viennas and cold meats have a high salt tendency, so they're not too good for your health! Other products you can use to flavor your food include natural herbs and spice, such as sage, parsley, spring onion, ginger, curry powder, paprika, cinnamon and thyme to name a few.

Why should we limit refined sugar intake?

Added or refined sugars (like sucrose and high fructose corn syrup) contain a whole bunch of calories with NO essential nutrients. For this reason, they are called "empty" calories. Sugar is also very bad for the teeth, because it provides easily digestible energy for the bad bacteria in the mouth. Eating refined sugars mean adding unwanted, empty calories to your diet. Take note that calories are essentially energy molecules. When you don't use the energy these empty calories put into your system, they store as fat, which obviously causes weight gain. Refined sugars include plain white and brown sugar (the sort you use to sweeten foods and drinks such as cakes and coffee), sweets, biscuits and cold drinks such as Coke and Fanta.

Remember that a healthy balanced diet is always recommended! It is very important to add enough of both your Macro-nutrients, such as carbohydrates, protein and fats, and Micro-nutrients such as your vitamins and minerals, to your daily diet!

There are a number of other things we should try to avoid in our daily meal plans such as refined or simple carbohydrates and high amount of saturated fats. That chunky piece of fat you have on your steak, that's bad because it causes a risk of high cholesterol. You can consume healthy fats, which your body needs to aid in proper digestion, through eating foods such as nuts, beans and legumes, as well as things like avocados olives and salmon.

Think twice before buying your foods, we'll add a post on how to read food labels properly, very soon, to help you effectively make better food choices when you shop!!! And remember that a healthy amount of exercise is great when you follow a healthy diet, it is recommended that you train at least 3 times a week for 1 hour!

Make the healthier choice and look out for your health. Living a healthy lifestyles will prolong your life and help you become a happier version of yourself in no time!!!

Thanks for reading my post! Look out for new posts, and hit the 'Subscribe' button to receive regular updates on specials as well as have all my blog posts delivered right to you mail box!!!

Yours Truly

A