Balance Your Diet by Knowing What You Eat
There is much information everywhere about eating the right way, eating the right foods, mindless eating, dieting, more dieting and more dieting.
Even so we continue to defy the odds and bury our heads in the sand when a major solution to preventing heart disease simply involves changing the way we eat.
Eating is a major part of our lifestyle.
The simple fact that we receive our nutrition, our energy if you will, from food , makes eating most relevant and rather basic.
Add to this the fact that as we get older it becomes more difficult for many of us to absorb the nutrients we are eating, our metabolism changes and impacts the end results of our eating, and many of us are on medications that may or may not mix well with what we are eating.
Eating impacts our health and one of the smartest things we can do to prevent disease and illness, is to eat foods that work with our body; foods that are in balance with who we are and what we do.
The problem is the American diet is off kilter.
We eat more animal products and by products, more convenient foods and restaurant meals, more salt and more sugar.
By the same token we eat less beans, legumes,fresh fruits and vegetables.
To make matters worse we made huge increases in the portion size of what we eat so that two-thirds of our calories come from fat, sugar and alcohol and the other 33 percent are supposed to meet our nutritional needs.
That does not make sense.
Our diets were not always like this.
In 1910 the average adult consumed about 70 pounds of refined sugar a year.
Today we consume about 150 pounds and our children about 275 pounds of sugar.
That is a lot of sugar.
No wonder we have obesity problems and prediabetes is being diagnosed with younger and younger kids.
Obviously, the American diet is hazardous to our heart health.
We know that and thesame messages keeps coming.
So why, then, do so many of us make poor food choices? I am convinced that it is our way of life that causes us to make lousy nutritional choices.
First, our lives are more stressful now than ever.
Technology and all the gadgetry that goes with it has made it worse.
We can do more but there is more to do.
We eat on the go, we eat in the car, we eat at our desk, and sometimes we do not eat, especially breakfast.
Fewer families sit around the table for family meals.
As a result the amount of junk food has risen and junk food does not have the nutritional values we need to keep us going and keep us healthy.
In fact, our diet is linked to many chronic illnesses.
People who are stressed eat more and make poor choices.
People who exercise and know how to manage their stress are less responsive to depression and anxiety and colds and flu.
Besides, our own smaller worlds are imbedded with fragmented family schedules.
We have traded nutrition for convenience.
We have traded our appetites to the advertising world.
Changing the way we eat goes a long way to prevent cardiovascular problems.
For example, dieticians tell us we need food rich in complex carbohydrates such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts and legumes.
The complex carbs should make up about two thirds of our total number of calories.
In spite of all the studies, the published studies, the programs about nutrition, only one in five Americans eats the recommended five cups of fruits and vegetables even though the Harvard Nurses Health Study found that those who did eat at least five servings lowered their risk of hear attacks by 25 percent.
In fact, the deeper the color of the food, the more effective is the protection against heart disease, cancer and other chronic disease.
That is because the bright and deeply colored fruits and vegetables, like green kale, or red peppers or yellow squash, or the orange of carrots.
have the most vitamins and minerals and the plant pigments themselves are high in antioxidants.
For those who want to lose weight, keep in mind that plant foods also contain fiber and fill you up even though they are usually low in calories.
Foods that need a lot of chewing, such as apples or carrots, also take longer to eat providing time for the digestive system to start working so that you can feel completely satiated.
Finally, too much animal protein in the diet tends to leach calcium from the bones so that relying on fruits, whole grains, vegetables and legumes also decreases your risk of osteoporosis.
Another bonus for future birthdays.
Even so we continue to defy the odds and bury our heads in the sand when a major solution to preventing heart disease simply involves changing the way we eat.
Eating is a major part of our lifestyle.
The simple fact that we receive our nutrition, our energy if you will, from food , makes eating most relevant and rather basic.
Add to this the fact that as we get older it becomes more difficult for many of us to absorb the nutrients we are eating, our metabolism changes and impacts the end results of our eating, and many of us are on medications that may or may not mix well with what we are eating.
Eating impacts our health and one of the smartest things we can do to prevent disease and illness, is to eat foods that work with our body; foods that are in balance with who we are and what we do.
The problem is the American diet is off kilter.
We eat more animal products and by products, more convenient foods and restaurant meals, more salt and more sugar.
By the same token we eat less beans, legumes,fresh fruits and vegetables.
To make matters worse we made huge increases in the portion size of what we eat so that two-thirds of our calories come from fat, sugar and alcohol and the other 33 percent are supposed to meet our nutritional needs.
That does not make sense.
Our diets were not always like this.
In 1910 the average adult consumed about 70 pounds of refined sugar a year.
Today we consume about 150 pounds and our children about 275 pounds of sugar.
That is a lot of sugar.
No wonder we have obesity problems and prediabetes is being diagnosed with younger and younger kids.
Obviously, the American diet is hazardous to our heart health.
We know that and thesame messages keeps coming.
So why, then, do so many of us make poor food choices? I am convinced that it is our way of life that causes us to make lousy nutritional choices.
First, our lives are more stressful now than ever.
Technology and all the gadgetry that goes with it has made it worse.
We can do more but there is more to do.
We eat on the go, we eat in the car, we eat at our desk, and sometimes we do not eat, especially breakfast.
Fewer families sit around the table for family meals.
As a result the amount of junk food has risen and junk food does not have the nutritional values we need to keep us going and keep us healthy.
In fact, our diet is linked to many chronic illnesses.
People who are stressed eat more and make poor choices.
People who exercise and know how to manage their stress are less responsive to depression and anxiety and colds and flu.
Besides, our own smaller worlds are imbedded with fragmented family schedules.
We have traded nutrition for convenience.
We have traded our appetites to the advertising world.
Changing the way we eat goes a long way to prevent cardiovascular problems.
For example, dieticians tell us we need food rich in complex carbohydrates such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts and legumes.
The complex carbs should make up about two thirds of our total number of calories.
In spite of all the studies, the published studies, the programs about nutrition, only one in five Americans eats the recommended five cups of fruits and vegetables even though the Harvard Nurses Health Study found that those who did eat at least five servings lowered their risk of hear attacks by 25 percent.
In fact, the deeper the color of the food, the more effective is the protection against heart disease, cancer and other chronic disease.
That is because the bright and deeply colored fruits and vegetables, like green kale, or red peppers or yellow squash, or the orange of carrots.
have the most vitamins and minerals and the plant pigments themselves are high in antioxidants.
For those who want to lose weight, keep in mind that plant foods also contain fiber and fill you up even though they are usually low in calories.
Foods that need a lot of chewing, such as apples or carrots, also take longer to eat providing time for the digestive system to start working so that you can feel completely satiated.
Finally, too much animal protein in the diet tends to leach calcium from the bones so that relying on fruits, whole grains, vegetables and legumes also decreases your risk of osteoporosis.
Another bonus for future birthdays.
Source...