Eating Your Way to Health

For many of us, our immediate thought when we hear the word diet is not about nutrition. However, diet actually refers to the total food taken-in by a person. Eating nutritious food helps us in many ways. Some are known but a reminder wouldn’t hurt while others may be less known.

Perhaps, the most well-recognized benefit of a healthy diet is maintaining your ideal weight. For those of that struggle to reach this weight, a healthy diet can help us to lose weight too. Reaching and maintaining an ideal weight can mean there is less stress on your heart and joints plus less likelihood of developing high cholesterol and diabetes. Although we might try to make excuses, our weight is definitely something we have control of, and having a nutritious diet is one way to exert our control.

Making sure you eat a well-balanced diet helps to naturally get the dietary minerals and vitamins it needs from food rather than from popping a supplement pill or pills as the case may be. Learn what minimal quantities your body needs to function then learn what foods or combination of foods will provide these to you. On the flip side, learn how an excess of a particular mineral or vitamin will impact the body and how the body might eliminate the excess because sometimes too much of a good thing is still too much.

Further to the well-balanced diet, make sure that you get the suggested amount of fruits and vegetables. Sometimes it seems like it might be impossible to eat that much, but snack of fruits or vegetables instead of the normal unhealthy and sometimes fried snacks.

We all want to reduce our risk of developing cancer and nutritional foods can help us do just that. There are some foods that also have additional benefits too. Apples help reduce the risk of developing cancer as well as much more. They decrease your risk of developing diabetes, helps lower cholesterol, helps you get a healthier teeth, helps reduce your risk of developing neurological disorders like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s and even control your weight. Apples are a super fruit! Most berries help you reduce your risk of developing cancer especially cranberries. Cranberries can also help in lowering cholesterol levels, help in fighting as well as preventing urinary tract infections (UTIs) and even help you to have healthier teeth and gums. The benefits of ensuring that you eat enough vegetables encompasses lowering your risk of developing cancer. For this, you need to include colorful vegetables in your diet, and those that are the most vibrant are also better for you. In addition, you should try to include as many dark, leafy vegetables as possible in your diet. They can reduce your risk of developing diabetes and even safeguard your heart from developing heart disease. Last on our list, eat everything you can that is orange. This is not difficult to do with ample variety including oranges, mangoes, carrots and pumpkins. Not only do they help reduce your risk of developing cancer, they have significant amounts of beta-carotene to help with eye health, delaying cognitive aging and even protect your skin from sun damage. Plus, they have Vitamin A which overall is pivotal for your immune system’s health.