What Constitutes a Healthy Diet?

A well-balanced diet is one that helps in maintaining good health and prevents the body from chronic health problems. Maintaining good health is essential to hale and hearty living, while also being the cause of a healthy old age. It is, therefore, important to know how to eat well and live well.

People often indulge in severe and unsupervised exercise to lose weight. This tends to cause the risk of medical problems not envisaged at the beginning. However, if the regime continues unchecked, the consequences could be quite severe. So, what are the constituents of a healthy diet? If you consult a nutritionist, you would be informed that a balance of macronutrients or energy, comprising fats, proteins, carbohydrates, and micronutrients ensures that proper nutrition is supplied, without any excessiveness of any foods. According to the World Heath Organization (WHO), a balanced diet is achieved with a healthy weight and a balance of energy. Maintaining good health is as integral to a person’s lifestyle as is breathing.

Excessive consumption of foods with too much saturated fat is also not advised. Moreover, one should consume greater amounts of fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts and grains. Consumption of sweets and specially the intake of sugar should be limited. Furthermore, the salt consumed should only be one that is iodized. Other essentials that the WHO recommends are foods that contain amino acids, as well as vitamins and minerals – all of which provide micronutrients. Specific diets also become the need in the case of certain health conditions. For instance, for people with high blood pressure, a diet with low level of sodium intake, sweets and red meat is advised.

Similarly, those with low blood pressure are advised greater intake of sodium and sweets. Then, there also exist weight control diets, wherein low levels of fat, carbohydrates, sweets and calories are recommended. Cancer patients are advised diets consisting of large amounts of vegetables and asked to strictly limit the consumption of red meat,  beverages, sodium, sweets, pulses and foods dense in energy. Heart patients are advised to avoid fatty foods and follow a diet rich in fiber. Fruits and vegetables are highly recommended to them. Many youngsters indulge in eating less, or eating the wrong kinds of foods, without any medical or dietary supervision, resulting in poor health conditions. Unhealthy diets are also a practice when being thin is considered the trendy thing to do.

On the whole, a balance of fruits, vegetables, pulses, cereals, dairy, poultry and meat products constitute a healthy diet. These ensure the body is supplied the necessary amounts of minerals and vitamins. They also ensure that most chronic conditions are avoided and ailments are reduced to a minimum. Unhealthy diets, on the other hand, can lead to excessive weight gain, harmful living habits, poor health or medical condition, and various forms of mental predicaments.

Some of the most dreaded diseases such as heart problems; cancer and so on are often the result of an unhealthy diet. Following a proper nutritional eating pattern can be effective in providing healthy living if accompanied by complementary healthy habits, such as limited consumption of smoking less or not at all, and eating at the proper time everyday. While proper dietary practice is essential, some of the other constituents of good health are a disciplined lifestyle, adequate amount of exercise and sufficient sleep.

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