Eating a balanced diet may sound cliché. Who doesn’t know that every meal should have carbohydrates, proteins, and vitamins? Even the laziest of people can whip up a healthy balanced meal.
Here are 5 tips you can use today to start transitioning your lifestyle to a healthier balanced diet.
5 Important Elements of a Balance Diet
While it may seem easy to push the thought of reading anything about a balanced diet, the truth is that lifestyle changes and diseases continue to prey on many people. A balanced diet and Health kits, give you the nutrients to keep you healthy and free from diseases.
- Choose High Fiber Foods
Carbohydrates should only take up a third of your plate of nutrients. Choose whole grain and higher fiber potatoes, rice, cereals, and pasta. Whole grain contains more fiber and less refined sugar than white or refined starch. Brown or whole grain makes one feel fuller for longer than the refined version. High fiber also helps clean out the digestive pipes.
- Eat More Fruits and Vegetables
Eat at least 5 portions of a variety of fruits and vegetables each day. You can chop a banana in your morning cereal and take a slice of watermelon at midmorning tea and avocado at your midday meal. You can make a smoothie from a variety of vegetables and selected fruits. The fruit can be frozen, canned, fresh, dried, or juiced – but of course, fresh is always the best.
Check the sugar content in your glass of juice because too much of it can damage your teeth, and juice tends to concentrate all of that sugar into a small, easy to over-consume glass. Watch out for the dried fruit as well, as it tends to pack a sugary punch in a much smaller package.
- Add More Fish and Healthy Fats to Your Diet
Fish, especially the oily type, is a good source of protein, vitamins, and minerals. Oily fish is rich in omega-three, which can help prevent heart diseases and boost nerve performance. Most nuts and seeds also are rich in healthy fats. Mixed nuts, natural peanut butter, and sunflower seeds are good choices, but keep the snack size down to 1-2 servings because the calories can add up quickly.
Consume at least 2 portions of fish a week on your healthy balanced diet. You can try salmon, trout, sardines, mackerel, haddock, and tuna. The fish can be fresh, canned, frozen, or smoked. Consume a serving of nuts and seeds per day or 4-5 times per week as part of a healthy snack.
- Reduce Intake of Saturated Fats
Some fat is necessary for your balanced diet, even when you’re trying to lose some excess weight. There are two types of fat: saturated and unsaturated. The intake of too much-saturated fat can increase cholesterol levels in the blood, increasing the risk of heart diseases.
Aim to each no more than 30g of saturated fat a day, although less is definitely preferred. Children under 5 can have a rich fat diet in their meals to boost their mineral intake. All types of fat are rich in energy and should be taken in small amounts depending on an individual’s dietary requirement.
Saturated fat is found in sausages, cakes, butter, pies, and cream. Aim to cut down on saturated fats and increase unsaturated fat foods such as oily fish, avocadoes, and vegetable oils. Reduce the spread in your food and use a small amount of vegetable oil in your food.
- Lower Your Added Sugar Intake
Snacking is an unhealthy habit because it increases the chances of tooth decay and obesity. Most snacks tend to be either high in fat, high in added sugar, or both. Refined sugar in drinks and food items adds a whole bunch of extra calories in the form of quick energy, which if not immediately burned for energy is just going to be stored as fat.
It is healthy to reduce sugar added to food and drinks. Read the food labels to determine the sugar content on items. Nowadays ‘added sugar’ is commonly found on nutrition labels. We want that number to be zero at all times.
Final Thoughts
Eating a healthy balanced diet is a deliberate choice to pick the right food items that nourish the body, helping you stay healthy. Make some targeted changes to your lifestyle based on the tips above to kickstart your journey to a healthier, more balanced diet.
Tags: Diet, food, health, healthy diet, healthy food, nutrition
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