Who doesn’t wish for a long and healthy life? While there are many factors contributing to your health, maintaining a good diet is one of the important factors for overall good health. Eating a balanced diet rich in fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, healthy fats, whole grains, nuts, and legumes will provide you with the essential nutrients for optimal energy levels, for a strong immune system and healthy internal organs. In addition, consuming the right foods can help protect you from a plethora of the most common chronic diseases. Below we shall see a list of healthy foods which you should consume and a list of unhealthy foods which you should definitely steer clear from.
Healthy Foods
These foods are sure to boost your willpower, help you slim down, and shape up for good.>
- Include all the 6 food groups comprising of grains, vegetables, fruits, milk, meat and beans and oils.
- Limit your servings based on your age, body frame and the level of physical activity of each person.
- Choose whole grains because they are rich in fiber, vitamins, and minerals, (3 servings daily is a must!)
- Eat lots of fresh vegetables because they are very rich in vitamins, minerals and fibers which will make you feel full.
- Eat a variety of fruits from each color to get the different vitamins that you need.
- Consume lean meat (beef or veal, skinless chicken breast, fish filet)
- Use low-fat milk (1% fat) or skimmed milk. Also, have low fat yogurt and cheese; these contain fewer calories and the same amount of calcium.
- Include legumes in your diet (lentils, chickpeas, beans) 2 to 3 times per week because they are nutritious and rich in fiber.
Unhealthy Foods
Steer clear from these foods if you want to walk on the path of getting a healthy body.
- Bread. Due to the high Glycemic Index, these foods affect your blood sugar levels. Do not get tricked with ‘whole wheat’ or ‘healthy-grain’ labels.
- Processed Meat. These foods just have excess salt, fat, cholesterol, and very few nutrients, like fiber.
- Colas. Artificial sweeteners spike the production of insulin and that is not good for the body.
- Fruits Juices. Many fruit juices are actually little more than fruit-flavored sugar water. In fact, fruit juice contains just as much sugar as a sugary drink like Coke or Pepsi, and sometimes even more.
- Gluten-Free foods. The problem with many gluten-free diets is that people replace the gluten-containing foods with processed junk foods that happen to be gluten-free. These refined starches lead to rapid spikes in blood sugar and are extremely low in essential nutrients.
- Coffee drinks. It is loaded with liquid, empty calories, and will be just as unhealthy as any other sugar-sweetened beverage.
- Junk foods. These are little devils in disguise! The more you consume, the more it will lead to major diseases.
A good rule to remember is that real food doesn’t need an ingredients list, because real food IS the ingredient.