You are built out of what you eat. Every cell of our body, every tissue in our organs, is made out of the food we eat. And our body needs food for its proper function. So, the necessity of having a healthy diet is crucial in every possible way you can think of. People nowadays have a common belief that it is hard to maintain a good diet. Especially in this busy era! But actually, that is not the case. Today, it is easier to maintain a healthy diet due to the easy availability of products. All you need is a bit of knowledge and mindful behavior towards your food. Eating healthy is also way cheaper than you may anticipate.
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In this article, we will discuss healthy diet, the benefits of a healthy diet, tips for maintaining a healthier diet. We also answer common questions people ask about this topic. Let’s start.
What is a Healthy Diet?
A healthy diet is a diverse diet consisting of different food options like cereals, legumes, vegetables and fruits, and animal protein sources according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Those foods protect from chronic diseases, reduce bodily stress, and provide a wide range of nutrients that are required for the body. Vegetables and fruits are especially essential as they contain some of the vital nutrients. They are vitamins, minerals, dietary fiber, plant protein, and antioxidants. WHO does not only tell you what to eat, but also tells you what not to eat. One should avoid eating too much fat, salt, and sugar.
A healthy diet is not a strict measure that you can apply to everyone. It varies depending on age, sex, culture, weight, and health conditions. For instance, healthy food for a newborn is just breast milk, but a toddler needs a wide range of food.
What are the Health Benefits of a balanced diet?
Let’s start with a one-line summary first: every health benefit you can get or imagine is directly linked to food. Therefore, a healthy diet is your master key to health and wellness. Now, let’s break down every health benefit and try to give you some idea.
Energy and Vitality
Energy is the life force of our daily life. Which we don’t understand until we lack it. Whole foods with complex carbohydrates, healthy fats, and fiber are the best source of energy and vitality. B-complex vitamins, iron, and magnesium are some of the nutrients that play an essential role in energy production.
Immune system
The immune system is our protector of the body. To have a healthy and strong immune system, you need to maintain a healthy, balanced diet. Vitamin C, E, D, zinc, and selenium are some of the nutrients that support the immune system.
Lower Risk of Chronic Disease
Diets that are high in fiber, antioxidants, and healthy fat protect against chronic disease. Today, chronic diseases cause more deaths than any other in the world. Diabetes, hypertension, obesity, and cancer are common chronic diseases. Nutritious eating can protect you from them. Help you lead a quality life.
Better Brain Function
Foods with Omega-3, B vitamins, magnesium, flavonoids, and antioxidants are important for brain health and protection. They also help with brain diseases like dementia and depression. A proper diet can improve your memory, focus, and overall mood.
Proper Sleep
Sleeping is your restart and repair button for health. Your overall health goes downwards when you don’t have quality sleep. Eating right with magnesium, B vitamins, lean protein, and melatonin affects your sleep positively.
Digestive Health
Foods with high fiber and probiotic components benefit your digestive and gut health. Everything other aspects of our health depends directly on digestive health.
Stronger Bones
Proper calcium, vitamin D, magnesium, and vitamin K are required for proper bone health. Eating a balanced diet with those nutrients provides you stronger bones and protects you from diseases like osteoporosis.
Heart health, and cholesterol
Food rich with soluble fiber and healthy unsaturated fats is essential for heart health. Omega-3 and foods with high antioxidants are also beneficial. Some foods also help maintain blood pressure, inflammation. A proper diet helps to take care of your heart & cholesterol.
Healthy Weight
A balanced diet reduces your chances of gaining weight. Food rich in fiber, nutrients, and lower calories helps you maintain a healthy weight.
Anti-inflammatory food
Eating nutritious anti-inflammatory foods that have a special ability can reduce inflammation or stress in the body. Such as ginger.
Beauty from within
Eating proper foods with vitamin A, C, E, and healthy fats keep your skin, hair, and nails healthy. Antioxidants also reduce aging and oxidative stress.
Longevity and healthy ageing
A quality and varied diet fulfills every necessity of your body. This is linked to a healthy and longer life, with better physical and mental ability.
Cost effective
Mindful healthy eating can often be a mindless satisfying of your taste buds. It wont cost too much!
Better Moods
Did you ever lie down on your couch and eat bags of chips and think Why am I so miserable! Healthy food is your path to a good mood and emotional wellbeing.
What are the Best Tips for a Healthy Diet?
It is such a vast topic, there can be a series of books on this topic.
Let’s try to cover the basics here :
Eat a Diverse Diet
Always try to make your diet as diverse as you can. Focus more on high fiber carbs, healthy fats like avocado, olive oil, and vegetables. Don’t buy the same vegetables and fruits. Try different ones every week. Making those small habits will help you to reach better health and wellness.
Consider Your Age and Sex
Everyone’s nutrient requirement is different depending on their gender and age. Women need certain nutrients more than men. But man’s overall nutrient requirement is slightly higher in general. People over 50 require more calcium and vitamin D for better bone health. There is a lot you can learn about it. If you want to check a more accurate nutrition requirement, you can check out our nutrition calculator.
Listen to Your Body’s Needs
There is no one fit ideal nutrition plan for everyone. Primarily, the best nutritionist for you is you! Pay attention to your digestion, mood, hunger cues, and wellness. Choose the healthy foods that you feel are right for your situation. You don’t need a super supercomputer to calculate this (although you can from our tools). Just trust your gut feeling and eat well. In case of a specific wellness goal you should take the professionals’ services.
Drink Water
This is so simple yet so vital a tip for good health. Every cell of our body, every function of every tissue requires water. It’s your ultimate detoxification broth, plain water. Make a good habit of drinking water. Keep a bottle close to you, whatever you are doing. Eat juicy fruits and drink tea.
Eat Enough Protein
Protein is one of the most important components of your food. It’s the building block and repairing cement of your body. All our hormones, immunity, and cellular function depend on it. Aim for consuming 0.8 to 1.2 grams per kilogram body weight per day. This also depends on your activity level and age. We also have multiple tools to assist you find out how much protein you need per day. Check out the protein calculator.
Eat more fiber
Fiber is a vital nutrient that has many roles in our body. It supports gut health, heart health, reduces blood sugar, and reduces cholesterol in the blood. Men should consume 38 grams and women should take about 25 grams of fiber per day.
How can you maintain a healthy diet in a busy lifestyle?
Maintaining a healthy diet in a busy lifestyle can feel like a big hassle, especially if you don’t know much. With a smart, timely effort, you can develop a healthy diet habit. Also, maintain it properly.
Let’s discuss the smart ways you can easily maintain your diet.
Prepare in advance:
Set aside a few hours in the week for preparation. Research and make a list of food that you want to buy that can be cooked and stored easily. Buy and cook all the ingredients. Focus more on grains, proteins, roasted vegetables, etc. Cook them in bulk and store them in a container for your busy days. This saves your money, time, and effort. Your life also becomes simplified. This is a less problematic way to deal and maintain healthy eating for wellness.
Make a Few Regular Meals:
Make a few go-to meals that you can accumulate and prepare quickly. Buy some oats, Greek yogurt, and berries, and you’ve got an excellent meal for breakfast. Cook whole grain, lean protein, with vegetables together. You will get a healthy meal for lunch. You can decide on some quick but healthy recipes depending on your taste and nutrition.
Stock Smartly
There are some nutritious foods that you can stock as much as you need. Eggs, frozen fruits, canned fish, canned vegetables, beans, nuts, oats, and whole grains are some of the foods that you can stock and eat with minimal effort. Remember, processed foods & some canned foods may not be a healthy choice.
Drink plenty of water
Keep a water bottle with you no matter what you are doing. This habit can keep your metabolism running smoothly, and you will also avoid mindless snacking.
Buy a Healthy Snack
Don’t pick up cookies, chips, and processed snacks. Keep some nuts and seeds, edamame, carrots, or healthy options. For some people, snacking habits make all the difference.
Please note : You should take advice from professionals like nutritionists, wellness coaches. Their support will help you achieve your wellness goal. Without bragging, You can get professional services from our specialists as well.
What are time-saving healthy meal planning techniques?
We already discussed some of the techniques that will save your time. Let’s discuss it more from a time-saving perspective.
Order online: Order your ingredients online from reputed brands. This can save a few precious hours from your weekend!
Cook and stock: Cook and stock in bulk for a week or 2-3 days. This will remove a lot of hustle from your life. Just make sure the food you are cooking is part of your diet plan.
Shop Wisely: Stock healthy food like eggs, dried fruits, pickles, grains, beans, etc.
Use supplement: When life gets too busy, there are some nutrients you might miss easily. Multivitamins or supplements can be a viable option for you.
Ordering food: This one is a lazy option, but sometimes it is necessary. Choose grilled items with fewer ingredients. More vegetables are always good for you. But ordering food is a risky game for foodies or people with eating disorders.
How can you eat healthy while dining out or traveling?
When you are traveling, eating healthy or maintaining your diet can be hard sometimes. But with a bit of planning, you can easily deal with this with minimal effect on your body. If you are traveling a short distance, you can pack food from home. If you have to eat somewhere, look for grilled, steamed, baked, roasted, or fresh food from the menu. Avoid crispy, creamy, and high-calorie foods. Balance your plate with protein, fiber, and healthy fats.
You can also keep some healthy snacks with you, which may help you to stay away from food curiosity. You should, of course, try the foods of new places, but try the famous ones. Don’t fall for random foods. This is how you can stay healthy while you are traveling.
Should you consult a professional to improve your diet?
Yes, consulting a professional nutritionist or dietitian can be your best step towards good health. Everyone’s body is different. And there are factors like age, sex, activity level, health conditions, and even genetics that affect the requirements of your body. A dietician can plan your meal with great accuracy. You can trust a professional who knows your body requirements.
Managing diet is not the same for everyone. People with health conditions need a more accurate diet plan that will not worsen their health condition.
If you have a wellness goal like losing weight, gaining weight, or improving your beauty from within, a nutritionist, wellness coach can help you. So, consulting a professional for a diet plan & achieving a wellness goal is a smart choice. They will help improve your wellbeing almost every time.
What can a registered dietitian help you achieve?
A registered dietitian can analyze all the factors of your health, wellness and lifestyle. And they will come up with a diet plan or suggestion that will help to improve your wellness goals. Let’s discuss what you can achieve from a registered dietitian.
Help you get a personalized diet plan.
A registered dietician will discuss your medical history, lifestyle, and other factors like age, sex, weight, etc, and give a proper diet plan that fits with you.
Healthy weight
If you are aiming to lose or gain weight, a dietitian will help you with a safe and effective plan to do that.
Prevent Health Conditions
All chronic diseases have an impact on what you eat. A dietitian can balance your diet, which will minimize the risk of chronic diseases. If you have existing diseases like diabetes, heart disease, or high blood pressure, it becomes more crucial to maintain a healthy diet.
Overall Wellbeing
Having a good diet is often the other name for having good health. It will improve your digestion, mental health, energy level, work performance, and more. It will also help you develop lifelong eating habits tailored for natural wellbeing.
How do personalized nutrition plans compare to general advice?
General advice is targeted to a general audience, while personalized advice is more accurate. As general advice, professionals don’t know people’s individual wellness factors and lifestyles. So it consists of risk-free, generalized advice. It is common for everyone.
But a personalized nutrition plan contains all the factors like age, sex, lifestyle, taste, and other factors. Personalized ones are more accurate, and nutritionists can suggest deeper advice.
General advice is not goal-oriented; it leads to a general well-being. But personalized nutrition plans lead to your personal wellness goals. Personalized plans are adjustable and something you can develop by trial and error with professionals. You are also secured under a professional.
Final Thoughts
When it comes to a healthy diet, there are healthy foods & mindful eating. Understanding a balanced diet is all about maintaining all the essential nutrients. Also adjust meals according to your physical condition & wellness goals. A healthy person can make their diet healthier by a bit of research. But for an accurate and sustainable diet plan, professional advice is a must.
Want to consult with our dietician? Schedule here.
Mr. Shariful Alam Pavel believes in natural living. To live a healthy conscious living, we need to eat green, live green. MyOrganic Bd is a green wellbeing brand, educating millions to live a better life with mother nature.
