Why a balanced diet is essental for our wellbeing. |
 Healthy
eating is a topic that is never far from our ears, since it has
been established that many illnesses are aggravated or even stem
from the food we eat. But what is a healthy diet and what advantages
will it bring me?
Healthy nutrition means eating a well balanced diet. For many people eating is one of lifes great pleasures, but as well as enjoying our food, we must make sure that what we eat is doing us good, a well balanced diet helps us to perform well and stay healthy. This means food that is rich in carbohydrates, low in sugar and not too much fat. Generally we need about 55-60% carbohydrates, 30-35% fat and 12-15% protein. Proteins are essential for the growth of our cells and muscles. Protein is made up of amino acids there are 20 of these and our boby isn’t able to make 8 of these, therefore we have to make sure that our diet includes these. There are two types of proteins, animal and vegetable. Animal rich proteins include lean meat, dairy products such as yoghurts, milk and quark, eggs, fish and game. Foodstuffs high in vegetable protein are potatoes, most nuts, pulses, vegetables and grains. Fat is important in our diet, it supplies energy and helps carry vital fat soluble vitamins round our body, but we must be careful. There are 3 main types of fat, unsaturated, polyunsaturated and saturated and often our intake of saturated fat is far too high, polyunsaturated is far better for us. Animal fats such as suet, lard and butter are high in saturated and unsaturated fat, these are often the hidden fats that are to be found in cakes, sausages, beefburgers etc. polyunsaturated fat is to be found in margarines, corn oil, sunflower oil and rape seed oil. Carbohydrates are important for our different metabolic processes. Carbohydrate rich foods include grains, fruit fresh and dried, vegetables, potatoes, cereals and pulses . Fibre is also important in our diet, today, with so much processed food our daily intake can be sadly lacking, we need fibre in our diet to help digestion. Foods rich in fibre are brown rice and noodles, brown bread, grains, fruits, vegetables and dried fruit. Vitamins and minerals are a vital part of
our diet, they are not responsible for energy but they regulate
many of our metabolic processes. We only need vitamins and minerals
in small amounts.Vitamins fall into 2 catagories water soluble
which are all of the B vitamins and vitamin C, because they are
water soluble, they must be replaced daily as they are always
being washed out of our bodies. The other category is fat soluble,
this includes vitamins A;E;D and K. Healthy eating shouldn’t be a chore, food is there to be enjoyed and there is plenty of choice, a good balanced diet makes us feel good, helps us cope with lifes daily ups and downs and adds extra protection against illness. Send us your recipes
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