What Constitutes a Healthy Diet?

 

These days, we all know one thing for sure: what we eat is important, and it needs to be healthy.  But there’s a lot of debate on what constitutes a healthy diet these days.

Should we do low-carb or no-carb? Low meat, no meat, or lots of meat? Is fruit good or bad? What about healthy vs unhealthy carbs?

Certainly, if you’re looking to lose weight, you might want to experiment with different ways of eating and see what works best for your body. But if you’re just trying to maintain your weight and eat a little healthier, here are some basic guidelines.

Carbs

Carbohydrates are foods that convert to glucose once they are in your system. The difference between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ carbs tends to be that ‘good’ ones are those that take longer to convert into glucous, and do not cause a dramatic spike in insulin, which facilitates the creation and storage of fat. ‘Bad’ carbs tend to turn very quickly into glucous and cause a big, fast spike in insulin levels.

In addition to the issue of fat storage however, eating the right carbs in essential also because ‘good’ carbs have lots of fibre and other nutrients that will fuel your body for an extended time, rather then giving you quick, false energy caused by a rise in blood-sugar levels that will then drop dramatically and leave you feeling exhausted. This a called ‘crashing’, and it happens when you eat overly-processed carbohydrates that are primarily glucous and not much else.

Generally speaking, carbs (speaking primarily of grains here, although vegetables and legumes are technically carbohydrates as well, but because they are primarily water and fibre most do not tend to cause surges in blood-sugar and can be considered ‘safe’ foods. There are exceptions, of course, such as potatoes) that are ‘good’ are whole, unprocessed grains.

Most of the time,  the more unprocessed the grain, the better it is for your body.  Good carbs include:

• Bread: whole wheat or whole grain. Don’t be fooled by white bread that has a few whole grains in it!
• Pasta: eat in moderation, and buy whole wheat or brands that make ‘white-tasting’ pasta that is enriched with fibre and nutrients
• Rice: brown
• Other grains: barley, millet, kasha (buckwheat), coucous, etc. Any whole, unprocessed grain is suitable

Vegetables

Eat lots! The only veggies you should moderate are potatoes, which have so much starch that most people consider them in the carbohydrate family.

Juicing is a great way to get more than the recommended servings of veggies each day.

Fruit

I personally try not to eat more than 2-3 servings of fruit per day (that’s fresh or frozen fruit, not canned crap full of sugary syrup). Fruit does turn into sugar once it hits your blood-stream, and although it’s much better sugar than refined ‘sugar’ sugar, and does contain important nutrients, it should still be eaten in moderation.

Most fruit also has a fairly high acid content, which can be rough on your stomach, throat, and even teeth enamel! So stick with 2-3 serving per day max.

When I am trying to lose a few pounds, I cut fruit out almost entirely, or at the very least limit to one serving per day!

Protein: Meat, Beans, Legumes

Avoid red meat more than once per day. Chicken, turkey and other fowl, and fish and seafood are pretty healthy options as long as they are prepared in a healthful manner.

Ideally, if you can access it and afford it, look for organic, free-range meat. The animals are treated more humanely, have real lives, and the meat is not pumped full of hormones and other nasty things.

I personally try to have at least one vegetarian meal per day. Except for lean fish and seafood, I find that even eating lean meat like chicken or turkey at three meals at day leaves me feeling unpleasant.

Human teeth constitute primarily molars, which are designed for crushing grains. Out of 32 teeth, we only have four canines, the teeth designed for tearing flesh. I believe this is an indication that we are not intended to eat meat at every single meal or even every single day!

Regardless, I do believe it’s important to get enough protein. I am well aware that a healthful vegetarian diet or vegan diet can include enough protein, but it does require paying a lot more attention to what you eat.  This is simply because, mass to mass, meat has considerably more protein than does the same amount of beans or legumes.

So if you prefer to eat not meat, you must eat considerably more beans and legumes. Stocking up on cheese or milk, or simply eating small amounts of beans will not give you enough protein.

There is a lot of vegetable and soy-protein based foods available now, like veggie burgers, dogs, etc. Most of these have whopping amounts of protein and iron, so if you eat at least one serving of these in addition to beans and legumes, you can easily get enough protein.

For normal sized adult women, 30 grams is considered to be a decent amount. For normal sized men, more like 40. I also think this depends on individual body composition. I find that I need much higher levels of protein to feel healthy and energized. Others may feel differently.

Dairy

Don’t eat too much! Milk is designed for cow stomachs. Most people are at least mildly lactose intolerant because of this. Natural, plain yogourt is an exception, because they bacteria makes it easier on our stomachs. Other than that, limit milk and cheese to 2-3 servings a day.

Weight Loss

If you are trying to lose weight and are looking for information about weight loss, rather than simply healthy eating guidelines, you might like to check out some of the weight loss resources and information on this site, including  apidexin reviews.