Nutrition is crucial to daily health, so you need to be sure you’re not sacrificing it for processed foods. You don’t have to break your budget on organic or specialty foods to improve your daily diet.
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.
If you need to lower LDL cholesterol -that’s the unhealthy kind- you might consider increasing your intake of something that’s not usually known for healthy living: Beer. Studies have recently shown this benefit from beer also increases the good kind of cholesterol, HDL. Those with problems with alcohol shouldn’t take this approach, and moderation is always in order for everyone.
Vegetables contain many healthy antioxidants. If you are looking to get as many of these antioxidants as possible out of your vegetables, steam them or eat them raw. Boiling and microwaving vegetables can account for at least a 66 percent loss of the healthy antioxidants that raw vegetables contain.
One fundamental starting point for good nutrition is to take a daily multivitamin. Although you should not rely on multivitamins for all your nutritional needs, it’s helpful to think of a multivitamin as insurance against the nutrients you may not have taken in that day. Also, be aware that multivitamins are available for a wide variety of ages and needs (kids, teens, seniors, prenatal, etc.) and choose one that’s right for you.
While high-protein meats and poultry can be part of a healthy diet, many nutritionists suggest including at least one meat-free meal into your weekly diet. Instead of meat, add in additional servings of low sodium cooked beans, soy products, or a variety of unsalted nuts like pecans, peanuts, and walnuts.
If you avoid beef because you think it’s unhealthy, try grass-fed beef as a healthier alternative. The fats it does have, are the more healthy kind and it’s higher in certain vitamins, like E and A. Many people also think it tastes better than grain-fed beef, which is the more common kind.
Try to make all of one day’s meals completely vegetarian. This will help you build your meal around your vegetables and grains. It is a great way to eat healthy. You may find that you enjoy the vegetarian style of eating and may plan to continue to do so. This will provide you with a reason to try different preparation options for vegetables.
Eat oatmeal for breakfast. Oatmeal is a great source of fiber, protein and whole grains. It will fill you up, keep you full and help to clean the cholesterol out of your system. Oatmeal can be eaten plain, or with whole fruit added to sweeten it up.
Eat more tinned baked beans. Baked beans are a cheap food source and they are packed with nutritional benefits. They are full of protein, iron, fiber, calcium and vitamins. There is also some scientific evidence that the antioxidant, lycopene, is found in the accompanying tomato sauce that can prevent heart disease and prostate cancer.
Try to eat foods that are high in fiber right before eating full meals because they will help you to eat much less than you would have otherwise. A good example of that is eating an apple before each meal, since apples are very high in fiber.
The best way to ensure your foods are healthy is to grow them yourself. Hanging containers for strawberries and tomatoes and various patio containers for peppers, beans, lettuce, and more can yield large amounts of produce for a healthy salad.
