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HEALTHY EATING HABITS: A Balanced Plate
Healthy eating means eating a variety of foods that give you the nutrients you need to maintain your health, feel good, and have energy. These nutrients include protein, carbohydrates, fat, water, vitamins, and minerals. We need to be deliberate about our daily eating habits. This is so essential in the selection of foods, we take for promoting health, preventing disease and maintaining or losing weight.
Healthy eating provides the sustained energy you need to be physically active. Basically, for you to actively partake in a healthy eating habit, you must be familiar with your body system. Knowing what to eat in the morning, noon and night that makes you stay fit and active.
Here are some tips to building healthy eating habits:
- Eat varieties of vegetable (3 or more servings a day).
- Eat varieties of fruit (2 or more servings a day).
- Eat whole-grain, high-fiber breads and cereals (3 to 6 servings a day).
- Choose from a variety of low-fat sources of protein — including eggs, beans, poultry without skin, seafood, and soy products.
- If you eat meat, eat white meat at least four times more often than red meat.
- Use vegetable oils.
- Restrict or eliminate “junk food”.
- Restrict or eliminate sodas and other sugar-added drinks that are high in calories and contain few or no nutrients.
- If you drink alcoholic beverages, do so in moderation.
5 Reasons you should drink a glass of water first thing in the Morning
1. Increase Your Energy Levels
Water increases our red blood cell counts, and also increases the oxygen we receive to the brain. The increase in oxygen will create more alertness and energy so you can start your morning off right. By starting your morning off with water instead of coffee or tea, you are also saving your stomach from acid build up or reflux. It is recommended to drink water before having food and coffee.
2. Boost Your Metabolism
For some, weight loss can be a very slow and daunting process. By boosting your metabolic rate, you are increasing the rate at which calorie. Water also makes you feel full and can remove the by-products of fat cells.
3. Help Ease Aches and Pains
Drinking water helps to lubricate and cushion joints. Drinking enough water daily can also help to remove acid wastes that can build up in the body. Drinking water in the morning can help with back pain, joint pain and even arthritis so you feel better throughout the day. Water helps with chronic headaches. Typically headaches are caused by unintentional dehydration. It can also be as a result of electrolyte imbalance. By drinking the appropriate amount of water, you can help balance out your fluids and aide in easing headaches and other pains.
4. Clearer Complexion and More Radiant skin
Drinking water on an empty stomach will help retain the elasticity of your skin and prevent wrinkles. It also hydrates skin so it looks brighter, softer and more radiant throughout the day.
5. Fight Toxins
Drinking water can help flush how harmful toxins in your body. When you urinate and sweat, you are ridding the body of toxins that build up in your system. Water cleanses out the colon, which makes nutrient absorption easier. It also helps kidneys in producing hormones, absorbing minerals, filtering blood and producing urine.
What are you eating ?
For several years, James suffered from obesity which later led to type 2 diabetes. Little did he know that his long term unhealthy dietary habits would lead to an attack on his health.
A healthy diet helps to protect against diseases such as diabetes, stroke, ulcer, heart diseases, cancer and so on.
Healthy eating also provides strength, vitality and prevents malnutrition in all its forms. One of the major global risk to health is unhealthy diet
Here are some tips to eating healthy
- Include fruits and vegetables in all meals
- Eat a balanced diet always
- Always balance Energy intake (calories) with energy expenditure.
- To avoid unhealthy weight gain, total fat should not exceed 30% of total energy intake .Intake of saturated fats should be less than 10% of total energy intake, and intake of trans-fats less than 1% of total energy intake.
- Keep salt intake to less than 5 g per day ( to prevent hypertension, and reduces the risk of heart ).Take only iodized salt
- Limiting intake of free sugars
- Do not skip breakfast and eat dinner early
- Diet should consist of fruits , vegetables ,legumes (e.g. lentils and beans), nuts and whole grains (e.g. unprocessed maize, millet, oats, wheat and brown rice).
- Eat at least 400 g (i.e. five portions) of fruit and vegetables per day.
