Healthy lifestyle nutrition requires a healthy, balanced and nutritious diet. It can only be attained through meeting certain nutrient requirements for the body. You just have to make a proper meal plan to decrease the chances of diabetes and cancer. You can either take help from your dietitian or go through some thorough research depending on your requirements.
We will thoroughly discuss all the factors and effects of balanced and healthy lifestyle nutrition.
What is healthy lifestyle nutrition or a balanced diet?
It is simply a meal plan that offers all the required nutrients to help your body be functional and active. Healthy lifestyle nutrition solely depends on how many calories you intake in your body. For the right amount of calorie intake, you need to consume a large variety of fresh fruits and other kinds of food rich in calories. That includes whole grains, proteins, and vegetables.
The right amount of calories for healthy lifestyle nutrition
Calorie indicates the energy content of the food. Consumption of not more than 2000 calories is alright for a person to maintain body weight. The amount can go down but not up. Physical activities, gender, and age are also very important factors behind calorie consumption. People who are into regular physical activities need more calories than normal people. The sources of calories are also very important to add nutritional value to your diet. But, you should not be consuming empty calories that don’t have any nutrient value. Empty calories are found in
- Cookies
- Butter
- Ice Cream
- Sugar
- Cakes
- Pizza
- Cheese
Almost all tasty junkies have empty calories and no nutrient value in them.
Why is healthy lifestyle nutrition so important?
If you’re on a balanced and healthy diet, you’re bound to feel good and have more energy than usual times. It improves your health and reduces the risks of illness, diseases, infections, and exhaustion. It is even more important to focus on nutritious food for the children otherwise they will not have proper and healthy growth which will increase all the risk factors.
The elements of healthy lifestyle nutrition
There are varieties of food that fall under the balanced diet group.
- Whole fresh fruits are very good for healthy lifestyle nutrition. You can also have frozen fruits but not canned ones as they are mostly sugar-coated.
- Toned milk or low-fat milk, cottage cheese, curd/yogurt, and soy milk are some of the healthy dairy products that you can include in your diet.
- Animal proteins like chicken, mutton, pork, fish, and beef can be added to your diet. But make sure you don’t have too much animal protein or it can affect your blood pressure and heart.
- Green vegetables, leafy vegetables, peas and beans, orange and red vegetables, and others such as brinjal.
Healthy Lifestyle Nutrition for good heart health
Lifestyle Nutrition changes and food habits can cause damage to the heart. You should carefully choose your food and also decide upon the amount of consumption.
- You should consume plenty of fresh fruits, whole grains, and vegetables to have a healthy heart.
- Low-fat or fat-free dairy products can be consumed.
- Fish, poultry, egg white, and olive oil can be included in your healthy diet.
- Minimizing trans fat like full-fat dairy products and red meat can help from hear-diseases.
- The sodium, potassium, magnesium, and calcium intake should be proper. Neither lesser nor higher.
- Consuming high-fiber food can keep the heart healthy.
Maintaining proper blood pressure reduces the chances of stroke. The salt intake should be minimized to control blood pressure. Not more than 1500 mg of salt should be consumed a day. If a person has high blood pressure it should come down to 300-400 mg a day. The processed food in the market has too much-added salt to it, and that is why doctors always ask patients to avoid such kind of food consumption.
Healthy Lifestyle Nutrition reduces the risk of cancer
Consuming food with antioxidants can help reduce the chances of cancer in a person’s body by protecting the cells. Antioxidants help remove the free radicals in the body which increases the chances of cancer. Antioxidant foods are,
- Blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, or any berries.
- Dark leafy greens like spinach, lettuce, cabbage leaf, etc.
- Seeds and nuts.
- Carrots and pumpkins.
Healthy Lifestyle Nutrition to protect yourself from diabetes
As mentioned earlier, sugar is a big no-no for a balanced meal plan. Sugar produces empty calories with no nutrient value. Moreover, if you consume more sugar, you can be affected with diabetes which is a fatal long-term disease. Opting for sugar alternatives such as honey or any branded sugar-free powder is even better.
- It helps to control the blood glucose level
- Keeps the cholesterol and blood pressure level within the perfect ranges.
- It helps to maintain a normal weight.
- Prevents the complications of diabetes.
Also Read: 10 Hacks of How to Neutralize Salt in Food
