Healthy Eating - Tips for a healthy diet

Healthy Eating

Tips for a healthy diet

COURTESY: Maha Jamal

We all are probably already aware that it is important to be eating healthy, and that it prevents weight gain. But not everyone knows how important it really is to make the right food choices.

There are many life threatening consequences that may be a result of living with an unhealthy diet, but by making smart choices they can be prevented. Consuming wholesome foods is essential to keep our bodies functioning properly. We need to fuel our bodies with a variety of healthy foods in order to fulfill our daily nutrient requirement."

When you choose to eat healthy balanced meals and snacks, the high nutritional value will provide a sustainable amount of energy for you to move, grow and concentrate on work. When people eat a lot of junk food, they are basically consuming what is considered “empty calories” because the unhealthy junk is loaded with fat, sugar, salt and calories but has no nutritional value and therefore, it causes energy levels to spike and crash, leaving them feeling tired and lethargic without any of the nutrients that their bodies need.

You can check Canada’s Food guide, or a food pyramid to see how many servings of each of the food groups you need to fulfill your daily requirement. On average, everyone should aim to get around 2-3 servings of fruits, 4-5 servings of vegetables, 3-4 servings of milk and alternatives, 6 servings of grains and 1-2 servings of meat and alternatives. The amount of servings varies for different age groups and genders. You can make simple smart choices by swapping foods like white bread, chips, cookies, donuts, and fried foods for healthier options like whole grain bread and crackers, baked chips, low sugar homemade granola bars with fruits and nuts or a few chocolate chips and bake or grill foods instead of frying them. Also, it’s important to have reasonable sized portions of food instead of huge ones. Stick to filling half your plate with veggies, one quarter with protein and the last quarter with a starch/carb.

Using smaller plates will help you stick to a reasonable portion size. If you think you may need seconds, wait about 15 min and if you are still hungry, get a second helping of veggies. It takes around 15-20 minutes for our brain to register we our full. So if some people eat fast, their brains may think they are hungry while their stomachs are actually full. You should chew your food slowly and take time to savour it. Don’t eat while watching television or reading because that leads to mindless munching and again your brain is too distracted to register when you are becoming full. Eating healthy does not mean you can’t have occasional sweets, chips or candy. Once in a while it’s alright, but it is not good to have them all the time. It’s very important to make healthy choices from a young age otherwise it can lead to obesity which is a major factor of many diseases including: diabetes, high blood pressure, obstructive sleep apnea, artery or kidney disease and other illnesses. Maintaining a healthy diet including foods from all of the four food groups, as well as getting daily physical activity will not only keep your weight controlled but also keeps you feeling healthier and more energetic all the time.

What if you’re built skinny, and never get fat?

You may think that people who can eat all the fatty, sugar loaded foods and still not get fat are the luckiest people in the world. But that is not entirely true. While their bodies are not built to become physically larger, a diet of unhealthy foods and lack of exercise still has them open to many life threatening diseases. Just because they don’t get fat, does not mean they are immune to these illnesses. The bad fats, and excess sugar and salt can get stored in their bodies and eventually clog arteries, or cause high blood pressure.

Eating healthy and getting daily physical activity is important for everyone.

Exercise and Metabolism

Daily physical activity keeps you healthy and helps burn excess calories to aid in maintaining a healthy weight. Exercise does not mean spending hours at the gym, any form of exercise even if it’s a 30 min walk or playing sports, is beneficial. Regarding when and how much you should eat; people should eat every 3-4 hours. Waiting any longer than that slows down our metabolism and brings our body into starvation mode which causes it to start storing fat.

Instead of eating two or three large meals all day, we should eat smaller balanced meals as well as healthy snacks every three to four hours. This way, your body knows that it will frequently be given food and so your metabolism speeds up and burns more calories to get ready for the next meal or snack. It is recommended to eat a bit of protein with each meal. Protein keeps you feeling full longer and it burns more calories just to digest it than it would to digest carbs or fat. By maintaining a healthy eating style and getting daily physical activity, it helps boost your metabolism and therefore your body burns more calories every day, which means you won’t become fat and overweight.

Fad Diets and Starvation - ARE NOT GOOD

People who follow fad diets, starve themselves or eat very little in order to lose weight are actually bringing harm to their bodies. By doing all this, yes you will lose weight, but you will most likely lose it in the form of lean muscle tissue, not fat. Your body will be lacking protein and other nutrients that you are not giving to it, so it starts to break down lean muscle for fuel. You lose weight because muscle weighs a lot, but now even if you look skinny, you are mostly made of fat, and have slowed down your metabolism. Muscle burns three times more calories than fat, therefore the more muscle you have, the higher your metabolism and the more calories your body burns. Now when you start eating normally again, since your body doesn’t have that calorie burning muscle anymore, you will start to gain the weight you lost right back.

Therefore, dieting, or fasting methods to lose weight are not healthy for you nor are they effective in the long run, instead they can lead to illnesses. If you need to lose or maintain weight, you should try to boost your metabolism. Your metabolism is the rate at which your body burns calories without doing any exercise. A high metabolism means your body burns calories quicker, therefore you can eat more without gaining weight. Ways to boost your metabolism are by eating healthy, nutritious foods, getting daily adequate exercise, eating more frequently (appropriate portions for meals and snacks every three to four hours), strength training to build or strengthen muscles and most importantly by getting enough sleep.

How Important Is Sleep?

We all know that getting enough is important. But, not everyone is aware that the amount you get can affect your weight. People should aim to get around at least 7-9 hours of sleep. If you drop below seven hours, your body releases high levels of ghrelin (the hormone that makes you hungry) and decreases the levels of leptin (the hormone that allows you to be satisfied). Lack of sleep causes you to crave unhealthy foods, and makes you eat even if you are full, since there isn’t enough leptin to tell your brain that you are satisfied.

Also, without enough sleep you probably won’t have much energy to exercise and will gain weight from the extra calories you have consumed. Apart from maintaining or losing weight, sleep is important for your overall health as well. Getting enough sleep improves brain function, concentration and memory. So hit that bed early, and get plenty of rest each night!

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

To keep your bodies healthy, energetic and in shape, people should maintain a healthy, balanced and nutritious diet with the acception of occasional treats. You should aim for at least 30 minutes to an hour of physical activity daily and try to aim for at least 7-9 hours of sleep each night. By making small changes, you can begin a journey in to a great, healthy lifestyle.