The food you consume each day impacts your health; both physical & mental. A nutrition-based dietary approach always boosts up a healthy lifestyle. Including it with your consistent physical activity even leads towards maintaining a healthy weight and lower the possibilities of chronic diseases. Planning and following a healthy eating habit is not that difficult. Start incorporating small changes in your daily lifestyle, and you can develop everlasting good body health. However, one can feel a little bit confused by the differing nutrition advice present in the public domain. Let’s try to understand what constitutes a healthy diet, what are its benefits and how can one stick to it.
A healthy diet constitutes all the nutrients, your body need to function properly. It’s not depriving yourself of the foods you cherish. Instead, it’s about consuming those foods that help you feel great and improve your overall health. While some particular food items do impart some great benefits, it’s the dietary pattern in wholesome that is most significant. The focus point of a healthy diet includes replacing processed food with real and healthy food at most times. Consuming food that is most closer to nature can truly make a great impact on how you feel, look and think.
All you need to constitute a healthy diet is a perfect balance of carbohydrates, proteins, fats, fibre, minerals and vitamins. Let’s discuss them one by one in this section.
There are many benefits associated with the practice of family-centered care. Nurses should not only establish rapport with the patient but also with the family. This allows for optimal collaboration and collaborating with the family maximizes each child’s growth and well being. Working together parents and health care workers can make more personal and informed decisions regarding what the best treatment is for a child. Parents also receive support and encouragement that the old philosophy of care neglected. Supporting a parent in coping with their child’s illness allows them to provide better care for their child and enhances the stability of a parent child relationship. The nurse has a greater understanding of the family’s capabilities and strengths allowing the nurse to further build upon and enhance those skills ensuring the patient is provided the best care even after discharge. Together the family, nurse, and healthcare staff are empowered to provide the most optimal care for a child.
They are the primary sources of energy. Ensure you receive them from unrefined carbs like whole grains, fruits, and vegetables, and no refined carbs and sugar. Lower your intake of white bread, starches, sugar, soft drinks, etc. to prevent hikes in blood sugar and build-up of fat.
They are responsible to regulate the mood and cognitive function of your body. While proteins help to get up and keep going, excessive protein can harm people with kidney diseases. As we age, our body requires quality protein. It does not indicate that you have to consume animal-based products. A range of plant-based products can help your body gets all the protein it needs. However, plant proteins are incomplete proteins & therefore vegetarians need to take proteins from multiple sources to complete their dietary protein requirement.
Fats may reflect a negative connotation, but not all of them are the same. Bad fats can augment the risk of specific diseases while good fats shield your brain and heart. Incorporating healthy fat in your diet improve your health, enrich your mood, and even slim your waistline.
Consuming food such as fruits, nuts, beans, grains, etc. which are rich in fibre, can help you reduce the risk for diabetes, stroke, heart diseases, etc. High-fibre products can also improve your skin and help you lose weight.
Minerals have various roles, such as building calcium in teeth, bones, or sodium and potassium in fluid balance and muscle contractions. One can get minerals from both plant and animal-based sources.
They help to convert food into energy and assist your body to utilise fat, carbohydrate and protein. They also help in maintaining growth, producing red blood cells, and shielding the body from harmful microbes. Include foods that are as fresh and unprocessed as possible. Moreover, pick fruits and vegetables which are grown locally and not those which have to travel from far.
Here is a compilation of effective tips which you must incorporate into your diet.
Read the nutrition facts label to pick the low sodium versions in soup, bread, frozen food items, etc.
Cut down on food products that contain solid fats. These include cakes, biscuits, cookies, pizza, processed meats, etc.
PUFA or Polyunsaturated fatty acids are source healthy lipid molecules. Walnut, sunflower seeds, flaxseeds and poppy seeds are enriched source of PUFA. On the other hand, Monounsaturated fatty acids or MUFAs are another type of healthy fat which too can be replaced with unhealthy fats. Olive oil, nuts, such as almonds, cashews, pecans and macadamias, canola oil, avocados, nut butters, olives, peanut oil are good source of MUFA.
Energy drinks, soda, etc. are a primary source of high sugar and calories. Hence, try to drink water to quench your thirst and not the drinks mentioned here. You can even add a slice of lemon or fresh herbs like mint or basil to add taste to the water.
Think about your food as nourishment and not just something you eat for taste. Hence, eat slowly and stop before you fill full.
Eating home-cooked food is the best way to avoid unhealthy fats, chemical additives and unhygienic ingredients. It would be better to cook your own meal as you can have more control of what you are consuming and can also have better monitoring on all the ingredients easily.
Healthy eating is the basic requirement for healthy living. Therefore, reflect on your dietary patterns, replace the unhealthy eating habits with healthier ones, and reinforce those healthy eating habits in the days to come.