Why Eat Healthy?

Digestion is key
Everything we eat passes through our digestive tract. This is where food's goodness is extracted and prepared for delivery to our cells and tissues to nourish, replenish and repair. The more efficiently we can access those nutrients the more effectively our body will function on all levels.


Boost energy
The healthier our diet, the more energy we have. Foods that are easier to digest make energy more readily available to our body. Stimulants such as caffeine and sugar give us a lift but then we crash and our body craves more. Stable energy levels provided by high quality nutrition keep us going throughout the day.


Fight off disease
Our immune system is built and maintained from the food we eat. A diet of processed and convenience food not only lacks nutrients, it draws from our body's reserves for digestion and metabolism. This depletes vitamins, minerals andantioxidants necessary to ward off disease and fight infection. A healthy diet should contain all these elements in abundance to give our immune system the power to protect us.


Feel great
Our body has to process the bad as well as the good. Flooding it with unnatural chemicals from convenience foods places strain on digestion. The emotional comfort we feel when eating them is followed by tiredness and a foggy head. A healthy meal of fresh seasonal produce lifts us emotionally as well as physically.


Look great
Our skin, hair, and tissues are all built from what we eat. Supple, smooth and glowing skin requires vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and essential fatty acids, as does glossy hair, sparkling eyes and strong nails. A nutrient-rich diet gives us a natural glow.


Lose weight
The fats, carbohydrates and proteins we eat require many micronutrients to be effectively digested. Without these, energy levels drop and food is stored as fat until vitamins and minerals become available. Eating a micronutrient-rich diet helps our body digest food efficiently and metabolize stored energy, melting away excess pounds!
A diet comprising mainly fresh and raw fruits and vegetables provides the greatest quantity of nutrients our body needs to rejuvenate and enhance health. Other whole foods, such as nuts, grains and will legumes provide the balance and variety you crave. Eating well will leave you feeling more energetic, give you a healthy glow and help maintain weight for a longer, healthier and happier life.

Health

Health is the level of functional and/or metabolic efficiency of a living being. In humans, it is the general condition of a person in mind, body and spirit, usually meaning to being free from illness, in or pain. 

Personal health depends partially on one's active, passive, and assisted observations about their health in their everyday life. The information gleaned from such observations may be used to inform personal decisions and actions (e.g., "I feel tired in the morning so I am going to try sleeping on a different pillow"), as well as clinical decisions and treatment plans (e.g., a patient who notices his or her shoes are tighter than usual may be having exacerbation of left-sided heart failure, and may require diuretic medication to reduce fluid overload) for patients who share their observations with their health care providers. Hygiene is the practice of keeping the body clean to prevent infection and illness, and the avoidance of contact with infectious agents. Hygiene practices include bathing, brushing and flossing teeth, washing hands especially before eating, washing food before it is eaten, cleaning food preparation utensils and surfaces before and after preparing meals, and many others. This may help prevent infection and illness. By cleaning the body, dead skin cells are washed away with the germs, reducing their chance of entering the body. Health care is the prevention, treatment, and management of illness and the preservation of mental and physical well being through the services offered by the medical, nursing, and allied health professions.

Good Cholesterol Foods For the Health Conscious Individual

There are two forms of cholesterol, namely HDL or good cholesterol and LDL or bad cholesterol. Ideally you want to eat more good cholesterol foods to maintain a healthy and balanced lifestyle. Unfortunately, most of the things we love to eat are laced with bad cholesterol. In nature we would rarely have access to high sugar and fat content foods, but modern convenience has altered that fact.

Today it is quite easy to stock your refrigerator with delicious good cholesterol foods. Raw, fresh fruits and vegetables are a safe bet and with the wide variety on offer you need never be bored. Herbs and spices used in conjunction with your choice of vegetables can make for interesting and healthy combinations.Nuts are full of healthy fats and can easily be added to a salad or vegetable dish for a wholesome taste sensation. Dried fruits are also filling and delicious and contain no bad cholesterol. Mix dried fruits and nuts in various combinations and keep them close at hand for a high energy snack. Vegetables are low in fats and carbohydrates and are full of vitamins, minerals and nutrients essential for the proper function of our cells and organs.

As the saying goes, one mans meat is another mans poison. Red meats tend to contain bad cholesterol and are laden with unhealthy fats that can clog arteries and exacerbate health problems. Avoid red meats that are prepared in copious amounts of oil, as in deep frying and if you do occasionally indulge in a juicy steak, trim away any excess fat.

Most seafood is a source of good cholesterol and the sea offers up a cornucopia of textures and flavors for the enjoyment of all. Fish is a versatile medium that can be served in a variety of ways and can be seasoned with all manner of herbs and spices. White meat such as chicken and turkey are also healthy alternatives that are delicious and nutritious.

Healthy Meals

Creating a Healthy Digestive System

Most people have a general idea that a vegetarian diet is more healthy for them in many ways, but few realize how important it is to create a healthy environment in the bowels and stomach.

Our digestive system is designed to process vegetable matter, more than foods containing animal products. Our system needs the kind of dietary fiber contained in vegetables, legumes, nuts and fruits to function properly.

When the digestive system does not function effectively as it should do, we incur a host of digestion problems such as constipation, irritable bowel syndrome, colitis (inflammation of the colon, the usual symptoms are diarrhea). These diseases are less evident in people following vegetarian eating habits than in others who persist with a meat-eating lifestyle.

A vegetarian diet is naturally low in saturated fat, high in fiber, vitamins and antioxidants, that help to prevent cancer. Recent studies that included tens of thousands of men and women have shown that regular meat consumption increases colon cancer risk by roughly 300 percent. Meat-based diets have also been linked to other forms of cancer including breast, ovarian and prostate. When you consider the risks that come from a diet that includes meat and animal products, then compare the benefits of a vegetarian lifestyle, there is no doubt that the health benefits derived from vegetarian meals are life prolonging.

If you find it difficult to cut meat from your diet altogether, try making it the smallest part of the meal with greater portions of vegetables. In this way you will gradually reduce the amount of meat you crave and eventually will be able to totally eliminate it from your diet.

How To Eat Healthy

There are many popular diets on the market today, but most of them are unhealthy and sometimes even dangerous. This article will explain how to eat a healthy, balanced diet for life and avoid unhealthy diets. Determine how many calories your body needs to function each day. This number can vary wildly, depending upon your metabolism and how physically active you are. If you're the kind of person who puts on 10 pounds just smelling a slice of pizza, then your daily caloric intake should stay around 2000 calories for men, and 1500 calories for women. Your body mass also plays a part in this: More calories are suitable for naturally bigger people, and fewer calories for smaller people. If you're the kind of person who can eat without putting on a pound, or you're physically active, you may want to increase your daily caloric intake by 1000-2000 calories, a little less for women. Also consider that the more muscle mass you have, the more calories you need to function. The bad fats are saturated and trans fat. Someone on a 2000 calorie diet should consume fewer than 20 grams of saturated fat a day, and trans fat can and should be avoided all together. The good fats are poly- and monounsaturated fats, which you should eat about 30% of your calories in. Don't fear fatty foods. You need to consume fat from foods for your body to function correctly. However, it's important to choose the right kinds of fats: Most animal fats and some vegetable oils are high in the kind of fats that raise your LDL cholesterol levels; the bad cholesterol. Contrary to popular belief, eating cholesterol doesn't necessarily raise the amount of cholesterol in your body. If you give your body the right tools, it will flush excess cholesterol from your body. Those tools are monounsaturated fatty acids, which you should try to consume regularly. These are the good fats, and they help lower the bad cholesterol in your body by raising the good cholesterol. Foods that are high in monounsaturated fatty acids are olive oil, nuts, fish oil, and various seed oils. Adding these "good" fats to your weekly diet can lower your cholesterol and reduce your risk of heart disease. Consider sautéing vegetables in small amounts of olive oil, and grabbing a hand-full of mixed nuts for a snack instead of a candy bar. There are also various supplements that contain these good fats that you can take daily. Eat plenty of the right carbohydrates. You need to eat foods high in carbs since they are your body's main source of energy. The trick is to choose the right carbs. Simple carbs like sugar and processed flour are quickly absorbed by the body's digestive system. This causes a kind of carb overload, and your body releases huge amounts of insulin to combat the overload. Not only is the excess insulin bad on your heart, but it encourages weight gain. Insulin is the main hormone in your body responsible for fat storage. Eat plenty of carbs, but eat carbs that are slowly digested by the body like whole grain flour, hearty vegetables, oats, and unprocessed grains like brown rice. These kinds of food not only contain complex carbs that are slowly digested by the body, but are usually higher in vitamins and other nutrients that are beneficial to the body and they are higher in fiber which keeps your digestive system running smoothly. Eat larger meals early in the day. Your metabolism slows down towards the end of the evening and is less efficient at digesting foods. That means more of the energy stored in the food will be stored as fat and your body won't absorb as many nutrients from the meal. Many American families tend to have their big meal at dinner time. The problem with this is your day is basically over, and your body's need for energy isn't as great as it is early in the day. This large meal, late in the day, can also make you feel tired, and who wants to feel too tired to have fun now that the workday is over? Try eating a medium-sized meal for breakfast, a large meal for lunch, and a small meal for dinner. Better yet, try eating 4-6 small meals over the course of your day. That keeps your body fueled for the whole day without dumping a large amount of food into your stomach, which your body might have a hard time digesting.

10 Tips To Healthy Eating

Experts agree the key to healthy eating is the time-tested advice of balance, variety and moderation. In short, that means eating a wide variety of foods without getting too many calories or too much of any one nutrient. These 10 tips can help you follow that advice while still enjoying the foods you eat. 

1. Eat a variety of nutrient-rich foods.
2. Enjoy plenty of whole grains, fruits and vegetables, 
3. Maintain a healthy weight,
4. Eat moderate portions,
5. Eat regular meals,
6. Reduce, don't eliminate certain foods,
7. Balance your food choices over time,
8. Know your diet pitfalls,
9. Make changes gradually,
10. 10.Remember, foods are not good or bad.