Proper nutrition is the keystone of a healthy and productive life. When you take in the nutrients your body needs, you provide the raw material for all the processes your body performs on a daily – and nightly – basis. Your nutritional choices have a profound influence on the level of well-being you can achieve.
Plan ahead for healthy nutrition. Keep healthy snacks on hand so that you don’t make a poor choice, on the spur of the moment when you get hungry. If the healthy and nutritional choice is the easier one, it becomes a habit to pick that option instead of putting forth the effort to locate an unhealthy item.
Eat more soy containing foods for healthy bones. Many of the soy foods which contain soy, contain a lot of calcium, or they are fortified with calcium. Magnesium and borron, which work with calcium for optimum bone health, are also found in soy foods. Soy foods are great for strong, healhty bones.
It is tempting to blame the culture we live in for the fact that so many of us have poor nutrition habits. Yet the fact remains that we, as individuals, are ultimately in control of what goes into our mouths. In order to be in control, we must first be more aware of the societal forces at work that make it so easy for us to overeat.
Mom always said to eat your potato skins and apple peels. She was right. Though it’s unclear whether, as she used to say “all the vitamins are in the skin,” it is true that eating the peels of many fruits and vegetables provides the added nutrition of the food’s fiber. Of course, it’s important to thoroughly wash fruits and vegetables whose skin or peel you plan to eat – or better yet, if you can afford to, buy organic.
To have a healthy body it is important to watch the food that we eat. A good way to start the day in a healthy way is to eat fresh fruits. Food that should be avoided are donuts, pastries with coffee and croissants because all of these provide the body with a big amount of calories.
To eat healthier, you should avoid certain kind of meats. Meat is necessary to your diet, but you need to learn how to recognize what kind of meat is good. Stay away from fried chicken or rich sauces and gravy. Healthy meats include red meats such as beef, and poultry.
Foods marketed as health foods are not always as healthy as you may think they are. Be sure to always check the nutritional information on the packaged or prepared foods that you eat and pay attention to the serving sizes as well. A snack food may have small amount of fat per serving, but if you eat several servings at a time, the small amounts of fat can add up.
To improve your diet, you may want to consider reducing the amount of meat and dairy you consume. You don’t have to go completely vegetarian, but try cutting out meat from one or two dinners per week at first. There are lots of tasty and nutritious alternatives to meat available at any grocery store.
Focus on eating the whole fruit instead of drinking the packaged juice. The whole fruit gives you more complete nutrition than just the juice. It includes the fiber, which is healthy for digestion, and the skin, which contains many important nutrients. Packaged juices usually do not include the fiber and skin, and therefore, do not provide all the benefits of the fruit.
When you apply the basic principles of nutrition, you maximize the quality of the fuel you feed your body. This is an important step in your overall health and wellness plan. Like using the proper fuel in you car, proper nutrition can optimize the overall performance of your body. Remember, don’t live to eat, instead, eat to live!
