7 Keys To A Healthy Diet

Healthy eating habit is not as difficult as many people think. The essential part of how to develop a healthy eating habit is by consuming organic foods (Foods processed with fewer artificial methods, materials and conditions, such as chemical ripening, food irradiation, and genetically modified ingredients). Today, I am going to share some tips on how to build a healthy diet.

Eating a Variety of Foods

Eating many combinations of food makes it easier to get a balanced diet. Not all foods have the amount of nutrients needed for your food to be balanced, so when you consume or choose from a wide variety of foods you're more likely to get all the essential nutrients you need every day.

Keep an Eye on Portions

 

A portion can be thought of as the amount or size of food you choose to eat at a particular eating occasion. It could be breakfast, dinner, snacks and all but when it comes to higher-calorie foods; this is where portion control is needed.  Health professionals say in recent years, portion sizes have become "supersized" – double or triple times bigger than they used to be. And because we automatically seem to want to fill our plates with food, a bigger plate also leads us to eat more.

Go for Variety

When next you go to the grocery store, ensure that you take you time to check all those fruits and vegetables. See their different colours? That's essential because the compounds that give fruits and vegetables their colour also contain beneficial antioxidants that may have health benefits. So if you eat fruits and vegetables with variety of colours, you will sure get lots of different antioxidants.

Same goes with whole grains. Instead of eating just wheat all day, try out other grains. Oats are high in fibre that specifically lowers cholesterol, and quinoa is higher in protein than wheat.

Enjoy More Fish and Nuts

Nuts, fatty fish, avocados and vegetable oils supply healthy unsaturated fats. Recent research has it that nuts, vegetable oils, fatty fish supply healthy unsaturated fats. These foods are high in calories but don’t promote weight gain because they are satisfying. As far as your meat and protein sources, be sure to add in some fresh fish that's high in omega-3 fatty acids and experiment with plant-based protein sources, such as legumes, nuts and seeds that are also high in fibre and other nutrients.

Cut Down on Animal Fat

Saturated fats, especially from red meat and processed meat, boost LDL (“bad”) cholesterol. To limit your intake, choose lean meats, skinless poultry and non-fat or low-fat dairy products. It’s also a good idea to replace saturated fats with “good” fats, found in nuts, fish and vegetable oils, not with refined carbohydrates such as white bread and snack foods.

Cutting Back On the Sodium, Upping the Potassium

Salt is made up of two substances, sodium and chlorine, and it's the sodium that can affect your blood pressure. This is because the sodium you eat affects how much water your kidneys extract from your blood.

The more sodium you have in your blood, the less water your kidneys will extract. As a result, your blood volume increases and because your circulation is essentially a closed system of tubes then up goes your blood pressure.

Potassium can actually help to control blood pressure so it's a great substitute for sodium. Low-sodium salt brands often contain relatively high levels of potassium. So these are good options if you still want to use salt. Great natural sources of potassium include: bananas, oranges, tomatoes, apricots and currants

Watch Your Calcium and Vitamin D

The bones contain lots of calcium. Calcium and Vitamin D are very crucial and vital for bone health. Get calcium from low-fat dairy products and fortified foods such as some orange juices and soy drinks. Calcium is the nutrient that helps us build new bones, so if you want to have healthy bones, you need enough calcium. However, Vitamin D is equally needed because the body requires that to properly absorb the calcium. If there is no enough vitamin D, most of the calcium you have taking in won’t be put into use. As you watch your bone health, it is important to keep an eye on how much calcium and vitamin D you are getting.