What Healthy Eating Truly Means

Healthy eating is recommended for maintaining proper health of the body system and proper weight, but what exactly is 'healthy eating.' With the population of obesity on the rise and obesity being among the major cause of death in America, a good number of people have switched to healthy eating to save their lives.

Definition of Healthy Eating

Healthy eating entails consuming foods that have a balanced proportion of all the required food groups and nutrients, and those are protein, carbohydrates, fats and oils, mineral and vitamins. Each of these food groups offer their unique benefits to the body and eliminating one of them is depriving the body of that.

What is unique about each food group?

Proteins

Proteins are otherwise called bodybuilding foods because they perform the function of developing your organs, blood cells, immune system and repairing the body tissues a deficiency of which could result to muscle weakness and decreased body immunity. Foods that are a good source of protein contains minerals like zinc that aid in this function. Examples Include: meat, fish, beans, milk, legumes, and whole grains. Understand those plant proteins do not contain full protein minerals so combining them will be necessary.

Carbohydrates

Many people think carbs are bad for them. A healthy amount of carbohydrate content in our daily diet is necessary because they are the body's source of energy. Simply think of carbohydrates as fuel for the body. The body needs carbohydrates to function and removing it from your diet for weight loss could cause you to feel hungry more and consume more food which reverses your goal. Instead opt for healthy sources of carbohydrates like whole grains, beans, and legumes, low-fat dairy. When choosing your carbs, it is healthier to choose whole foods and vegetables.

Fats and Oils

Consuming this food group in large quantities can result in health issues; however, not all fat is bad fat. Unsaturated fat is gotten from sources like nuts, fish, olives, sunflower, soya while saturated fat usually comes from animals and over processed plant oils. Consuming unsaturated fat is good; however, consuming excess saturated fats can be detrimental to your health. Understand that most of our body organs are surrounded by fat and they help with the body's absorption of vitamins providing healthy energy levels. It's best to stick to non-saturated fat. Saturated and trans fat could cause heart and kidney problems and low-fat content in the body causes hormonal imbalance, poor brain function, weight irregularity and poor heart health.

Vitamins and Minerals

There are different vitamins and minerals needed by the body in different quantities, some of these minerals are calcium, magnesium, zinc, potassium and irons and each is responsible for unique body functions. Primary vitamins needed by the body are vitamins A, B, C, D, E, K and lots of others are beneficial. A deficiency of any vitamin and or minerals denies your body of the functions that vitamin particular one serves. People in different age groups and with special health conditions require vitamins and minerals in unique quantities to suit their body daily needs. Some good sources of the minerals are dairy, whole fruits and vegetables, fish, peas, beans, lentils, nuts, whole grains and so on.

Remember whole unprocessed foods are recommended rather than processed ones as sources of these food groups and combining it with adequate physicality is also advised.