Health nutrition

The human body is an extremely complex unit that must function around the clock. Therefore, to continue normal life, it needs to get a certain amount of water, protein, fat, carbohydrates, trace elements and vitamins that come from the breakdown of what we eat and drink every day. There is a large branch of medicine that deals with the study of food, food products, components and processes of their assimilation in the human body. This is nutrition.

Thanks to that, it became known that the quality and composition of the products that each of us puts on a plate during the day directly affects not only the appearance, body weight or skin, but also well-being, mood, susceptibility to many viral and infectious diseases. and the impact on the work of all organs and systems (bones, muscles, brain, heart, liver, stomach, kidneys, reproductive organs, etc.).

What does a plate of healthy food look like?

Recently, the global medical community, based on research and analysis of the impact of the most commonly used groups of products, has created basic recommendations on how to distribute and what exactly is better to fill your plate of healthy eating. So, based on that:

• 40% should be vegetables and fruits of different colors. It is important to note that they do not include potatoes in any way of cooking. It is best to make a choice according to the seasonality of a plant. So the plate will always be filled with useful and affordable ingredients. Among fruits, it is better to give preference to those that contain less sugar (raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, grapefruit, lemon), but not more than 300 g per day in two doses.
• 10% is allocated for useful oils (rapeseed, corn, sunflower, peanut or others).
• 25% - protein. The products of choice are fish, poultry, legumes or nuts. They can be served alone or in combination with other ingredients in the form of salads. It is recommended to eat less red meat, as well as its offal (bacon, sausages and others).
• 25% - fiber, the sources of which are best taken from whole grains (wheat, barley, buckwheat, oatmeal, quinoa, unpolished rice at the rate of 70 g for women and 90 g for men per day). It is also allowed to use pasta from the presented varieties.

Among the drinks, special preference is given to pure water, coffee or tea with minimal or no sugar. Fresh juices or raw milk should not exceed 1 small glass per day.

Grocery basket

To limit the use of unwanted and harmful products, you should exclude them from your shopping list and include in it what should always be at home. 

Namely:

• Seasonal fruits and vegetables (cucumber, tomatoes, spinach, mushrooms, Brussels sprouts, oranges, apples, blueberries)
• Various cereals and pasta from durum wheat
• Lean poultry or rabbit meat
• Fish (fresh or frozen). Useful oily river or herring, but not salty.
• Nuts and unroasted seeds (up to 2 tablespoons per day): hazelnuts, almonds, pistachios, walnuts.
• Frozen berries or vegetable sets
• Lactic acid products (low-fat kefir, yogurt, cheese and sour cream)
• Natural spices, garlic, lemon.
• Vegetable oil (choose unrefined sunflower, olive, flaxseed or pumpkin)
• Eggs (1 or 2 per day)

Advices

There are also a number of general recommendations that can help everyone better understand the rules of healthy eating and adapt it to themselves.

• Drink 8-10 glasses of fluid daily. Water is involved in regulating body temperature, digestion, delivers nutrients and helps cleanse the body.
• Use less salt (no more than a teaspoon a day), sugar and a variety of snacks with their high content (chips, crackers, sweets).
• In the first half of the day should receive 60-70% of the daily calorie diet. During this period of the day the metabolism is much more active and assimilation is easier.
• Keep intervals between meals so as not to eat small snacks. Each subsequent meal should be after the onset of hunger. For people with busy schedules, students or children, it is convenient to use lunch boxes, which can be pre-assembled according to the rule of a plate of healthy food.
• Do not eat in front of the TV or telephone. By diverting the brain to other things, it will not be able to signal saturation in time. The taste of food is felt less and as a result, there is overeating.
• Minimize canned and highly flavored foods that are irritating for a long time and stimulate you to eat more than necessary.
• You should stop getting stressed. To get rid of the hormones that are formed as a result, engage in physical activity or walking with friends.
• Do not ban sweets because it will provoke overeating. It is better to choose a simple and healthy fruit or delicacy that is made from natural ingredients and does not contain sugar. It is also recommended to eat dessert after, and not instead of a full meal, because it will saturate as a fast carbohydrate only for a short period of time.
• Alcohol consumption should not exceed the maximum allowable per day. For women it is 1 serving - 30 ml of strong drinks, 100 ml of wine (preferably dry or semi-dry) or 300 ml of beer, for men - twice as much.
• The method of cooking also matters. Baked, boiled, and steamed foods are healthier than fried or deep-fried foods. In general, it is better to prefer simple dishes without the use of emulsifiers and preservatives.

Who to turn to for help?

It often happens that even following all the rules of healthy eating, a person still feels some discomfort or digestive disorders. A visit to a nutritionist is the right decision to understand your individual characteristics. This specialist will be able to gather an accurate history of all previous and existing problems or diseases and, based on their results, appoint a number of additional tests (eg liver and kidney tests, blood glucose, lactose, gluten or other intolerance tests, ultrasound of the abdominal cavity).
Also, for the correction of nutrition will be informative tests for vitamins, hormones and trace elements (thyroid hormones, insulin, Ca, K, Fe, Zn, Mg, vitamin D). After receiving the results, the nutritionist will advise what to add to the diet and what to exclude specifically for you.

Conclusions

In general, a balanced diet does not require a lot of time to prepare and is not financially costly, as is often thought. To believe this, you should learn the rule of a plate of healthy food and start from it when buying products in advance.
Of course, the territory and region of residence have a significant impact on the specific choice of a particular cereal or type of meat, depending on their availability. In one region the basis will be rice, in another buckwheat or corn. The same situation with types of vegetable oil, seasonal fruits and vegetables. And this is not a problem, because proper nutrition does not limit, but only directs to discover a new diverse palette of flavors and their combination to maintain a healthy state of your body at any time of life.

https://www.cdc.gov/healthyweight/healthy_eating/index.html