Your Health
is in your Diet
All nutrients - carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, minerals, water and fibre - are essential to the body, but they cannot work for us if we don't actually eat them or drink them.
There is so much publicity nowadays about how we should be eating several portions of fruit and vegetables a day, but how many of us really achieve this?
Meal-skipping is on the increase. If we skip meals, we cannot obtain the nutrients we need.
Many people don't eat breakfast, so they start the day with a total lack of nutrients.
Many of us overdo the stimulants, such as coffee, tea, alcohol, cola drinks, chocolate, smoking, all of which play havoc with our blood sugar levels and cause food cravings, bursts of energy followed by energy slumps, fatigue, mood swings, irritability, depression, anxiety. When we eat good food, the effects of the stimulants inhibit the natural absorption by our body of the nutrients from the food, so our body becomes malnourished.
Many of us live on processed foods and fast foods, full of additives, preservatives, chemicals and trans-fats, all of which are non-foods, nutrient-deficient, and harmful to the body. They interfere with normal body processes and influence weight gain, hunger and food cravings.
A big problem nowadays is low-cost food. In difficult financial times, it is tempting to buy promotional food, such as packet salads which have reduced in price but no longer look fresh, but we buy them anyway because they are cheaper than the others. Remember that when food is stored for a long time, the nutrients begin to destroy.
There are cheap 'low-cost, good-value' tinned foods. One wonders just how much real food is in them, and what happens to all the chemicals, additives and preservatives they contain. These are non-foods and provide no nutrients, but does their storage render them even more harmful to the body. Could their properties change over time and become poisonous? Many of these chemicals have been withdrawn from the market since their introduction, because they have proved to be harmful to health.
We are to blame for nutritionally-deficient food. We increasingly demand cheap food, fast food, quick ready meals, food that lasts longer, tastes better, looks good, fruit and vegetables that have the 'correct' shape. So these are all provided for us, because there is money to be made for companies who give us what we demand. But something is lost in this mass production of nutrient-deficient food, and that essential something is the benefit to our health.
If you read the label of a tin or packet of food, you will notice that the actual food content is very little compared to the quantities of chemicals and non-food substances.
Reading a food label is quite a revelation. It's like the game we all used to play called 'hunt the thimble' only in this case it's 'hunt the real food'.
so what should we eat?
a healthy diet is
♦ plenty of complex carbohydates
♦ with a balance of protein and good fats
♦ and lots water
♦ plus plenty of fibre
If we stick to these, we'll be doing the best we can for our body and our health.
Nutritional changes can be exciting, when planning and preparing a new style of eating, followed by seeing and feeling healthy results. Together with other positive lifestyle changes which focus on improved health and well-being, anyone suffering ill health will achieve more energy, and the necessary motivation to keep moving onwards and upwards. With a positive attitude, life can only get better.
more about nutrition:
Home-Study Course: Nutrition for Life
Good health and managing stress begins with the type of food we eat and the way in which it is used by the body. Our personal food choices determine our ailments, but also our health, well-being and quality of life.
Home-Study Course: Nutrition for Stress
It is never too late for some self-help in reducing or eliminating the causes and symptoms of stress and ill health. Medication doesn't always have the solutions, and no medication comes without side effects, some of which create added stress and health problems. Sometimes even a small change in the diet can bring amazing results in the way you feel.
Home-Study Course: Nutritional Healing
If you regularly feel ill, have no energy, can't think straight, don't know what the problem is but just don't feel right, then get your diet right and you'll improve on all these and more.
