Going
healthy on your diet should not bring about restrictions in your food choices
but rather enhance the variety of foods in your meals. Eating a variety of
foods makes available good amounts of different much needed nutrients for use
by the body.
_________________________________________
Definition
A
healthy diet is simple a diet that helps maintain or improve general health.
_________________________________________
WHAT MAKES A HEALTHY DIET?
Now let’s
look to describe a healthy meal.
Starting off,
pieces in the puzzle should be mainly fruits,
vegetables
and whole grains (the less processed the healthier).
These will
provide the body with essential nutrients (like vitamins and minerals),
phyto-chemicals, fibre as well as adequate calories to meet it needs for
healthy nutritional status.
Another way
of putting this is, a healthy diet is one made-up of less/no saturated fats,
sugars, cholesterol, trans-fats and/or sodium.
A healthy
diet in essence will appropriately satisfy your caloric (energy) requirements
and prevent toxicity as well as excessive weight gain.
Wait
we are not done yet!
The
accompanying make-up of your healthy diet should be low-fat dairy as well as
lean meat, and poultry but more appropriately fish.
These will
cater for the protein needs of the body and of course we need good protein to
continue to make cells that basically run the body.
Ok, now we
have all these in our healthy diet puzzle but we can’t complete it (puzzle)
without adding the ingestion of adequate among of fluids/water.
Next, let’s
see what a prominent institution say about our “healthy diet”.
WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION
The World
Health Organization (WHO) makes the following five (5) recommendations with
respect to both populations and individuals;
1. Eat
roughly the same amount of calories that your body is using. A healthy weight
is a balance between energy consumed and energy that is 'burnt off'.
2. Increase
consumption of plant foods, particularly fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole
grains and nuts.
3. Limit
intake of fats, namely saturated fats and trans-fats and replace with healthier
unsaturated fats.
4. Limit the
intake of granulated sugar. A 2003 report recommends less than 10% simple
sugars.
5. Limit
salt / sodium consumption from all sources and ensure that salt is iodized.
Other
recommendations include:
Avoiding
directly poisonous (e.g. heavy metals) and carcinogenic (e.g. benzene)
substances.
Avoiding
foods contaminated by human pathogens (e.g. E. coli, tapeworm eggs).
Good
physical activity (exercise) will not just help expend/burn-off consumed
calories but as well promote continues intake of a healthy diet.
You should
know that;
Total
Energy Consumed + Total Energy Used = Net Energy
You net energy should not be excessively on the +
or – count.
Back to our
local discussion;
HEALTHY PREPARATION
The
method used in preparing meals can ultimately render them unhealthy for
consumption. You should therefore limit (if you can’t avoid) the use of
saturated oils such as palm oils, groundnut oils and rather substituent these
with healthy plant oils like, sunflower oil, Shea-butter oil, canola oil, soy
oil etc.
Still
note that every oil is nutritionally considered to be made of fat and thus, all
oils are of the same caloric level.
So
we should generally avoid being too generous with our use of oils in our
kitchens (NOTE: Oils typically
contain 100 to 125 calories per tablespoon - all of them from fat, so use
sparingly)
Also
look to avoid frequent frying (especially deep frying) of your meals to prevent
the ingestion of the “Heart-hater” trans-fats.
As
you cook foods, the nutrients in them are depleted in small quantities. Thus,
make it a point to avoid over-cooking especially your vegetables.
WHAT TO AVOID/REDUCE
Sodas,
Alcoholic drinks, pastries and other highly processed foods are bad peers you
should avoid if you care about your health.
Also
the consumption of
white bread and white rice should be truants in
your foods.
As much as
possible avoid, eating red meat (especially those with white coatings) and limit consumption of saturated fats, and as
well avoid foods with trans-fat.
As well
lower your consumption of excess sodium-loaded foods such as overly salted
foods (eat only iodized salts) and go for fresh foods rather than processed
ones.
RESULTS OF EATING A HEALTHY DIET
Importantly,
a healthy diet will aid in ensuring that your body gets all the nutrients it
needs in required and healthy amounts to function optimally.
A
healthy diet also ensures easy as well as proper digestion and assimilation of
nutrients.
Eating
a healthy diet daily significantly reduces your risk of developing obesity,
hypertension, stroke, diabetes, heart disease as well as cancer.
“Your
weight is directly affected by your diet and physical activity, and the food
you eat greatly affects your body and how blood flows through your heart and arteries. High fat and high cholesterol diets
can cause a buildup of plaque in your arteries. A blockage in a heart artery
can cause a heart attack just as a blockage in your brain can cause a stroke. A
healthy diet will help prevent build-up in your arteries and blood vessels and
reduce your risk of acquiring weight-related health problems” writes
healthyforms.
NOTES FOR HEALTH COUNSELORS
1.
In explaining what a healthy diet is to a client, make sure to use a plate
diagram showing the emphasis on the consumption of fruits, vegetables and whole
grains.
2.
Making mention of fruits, vegetables and whole grains without outlining
peculiar examples is a vague counsel.
3.
Ensure to express your thoughts on the numerous health risks that can be
avoided with a healthy diet.
4.
The method of preparation of these vegetables and whole drains can render the
diet unhealthy. Therefore, stress on the use of healthy unsaturated oils (plant
oils), moderation of frying (especially deep-frying)/over grilling/toasting and
the general avoidance of over-cooking.
5.
Thread to the edges of making well-known that fact that, people already suffering
these health risks (obesity, hypertension, heart disease etc.) will benefit
enormously with a change to a healthy diet.
CONCLUSION
Wrapping-up
this issue, choosing to eat a healthy diet should not lead one to a one-way
meal-type but actually allow you try variety of healthy meals. There are
different types of fruits, vegetables
and whole grains, so trip-to the market/grocery store and make for your varied
meals daily.
FOR CONSULTATION
WhatsAPP Our Nutritionist -
+233277279565
Or inbox NUTALK on FACEBOOK
This article was reviewed on Monday, 26th
July, 20164 By Nu. Sallah
Stanley Kwesi (Nutritionist
at Nutritional Talk)
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