With the excitement of Thanksgiving and the upcoming holidays just around the corner, it can be difficult to control an appetite longing for junk food and home-cooked deserts.
However, it's essential that we all continue to practice maintaining good health.
Good health comes with eating the right foods. It's important to eat right in order to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
Eating right greatly reduces the risk of many diseases that are quickly becoming epidemics in the United States including cancer, diabetes, heart disease, stroke and gallbladder disease. Alarmingly enough, recent statistics suggest that 65 percent of Americans are overweight. As our diets are becoming increasingly fatty and unhealthy, that trend is expected to continue.
Overeating and obesity are clearly becoming epidemics in our nation but as an individual it is never too late to start eating right. Even among those who maintain a healthy weight, it's often difficult to keep a conscious record of our diets. Furthermore, a healthy diet decreases the risk of common illnesses such as influenza from the consumption of vital nutrients and energy.
Similarly, a healthy diet will aid in the recovery from such illnesses.
A healthy and balanced diet is typically defined as one in which nutrient intake is maintained and cholesterol, sugar, salt and fat intake is reduced.
To maintain a healthy and flexible nutrient intake, it is important to eat different kinds of foods to take advantage of the nutrients from the variety of foods.
The body requires more than 40 different nutrients for good health and there is no single food that will supply them all. Daily food selection should include breads and whole-grain products, fruits, vegetables, dairy products, meat, poultry, fish and other foods rich in protein.
Numerous surveys show that Americans do not eat enough whole-grains or fruits and vegetables. It's generally recommended that the average adult should consume 6-11 servings of bread, rice and pastas with at least three of those servings from the category of whole grains. Furthermore, it's important to eat two-to-four servings of fruit and three-to-five servings of vegetables.
Along with eating the right foods and the right amounts, it's important to keep portion sizes reasonable to eat foods you want. Contrary to our cravings or any current dieting habits, it's always important to eat foods in healthy portions. A recommended serving of meat is typically three ounces, the size of a deck of playing cards and a medium piece of fruit is a serving. A pint of ice cream, on the other hand, typically represents four servings.
Meals should also be eaten regularly to maintain a healthy metabolism or out-of -- control hunger, which typically leads to overeating.
It's typical when you're very hungry to forget about good nutrients and indulge in unhealthy snacks. Snacking is useful to curb hunger between meals but it's important to not allow snacks to become entire meals, especially junk foods.
It's recommended to eat about six small meals that are evenly spread out through the day starting with a healthy breakfast to jumpstart your daily metabolism.
It is also important to understand that certain unhealthy foods do not need to be completely eliminated in any diet. If you take pleasure in indulging yourself in foods high in sugar or fat, the key is moderating the intake of these foods and how often you consume them. As long as you make sure you don't overindulge and continue to eat healthy, it's much easier to maintain a healthy diet than completely eliminating certain foods from your diet.
If you find it is difficult to eat healthy or if you find that your food choice becomes bland and unappetizing, there are other ways to give them another chance.
Look through cookbooks or ask friends about tasty ways to prepare foods. If you don't enjoy them at first, this is an excellent way to introduce yourself to different dishes with high nutritional value.
