The
Necessary of a healthy diet
Diet is a particular pattern of eating and a balanced diet
provides the correct amount of all nutrients without excess or deficiency to
maintain health. There are many reasons why someone is interested in their
diet, for example to improve health, lose weight or increase performance. All
nutritional plans need to be designed to suit individual goals, differences and
requirements and so there is no one diet that will suit everyone.
It is important that changes to a diet are long term changes
because individuals with the highest weight fluctuations have the greatest
health risk independent of obesity (1). Every diet should have health in mind
because even if you’re thin you can be unhealthy. If you are overweight but
physically fit you have a much lower risk of getting cardiovascular disease
than if you are lean and unfit (2).Choose your best healthy product
The role
of the diet
Health
Many studies have shown that the diet is important in the
prevention of diseases such as cancer, coronary heart disease, birth defects and
cataracts. Many individuals in the United States have poor diets and it has
been shown that with an improved diet there is an increase in disease
prevention (3).
Body composition
A calorie and nutrient controlled diet is shown to have a positive
effect on reducing body composition (4). If looking to manipulate body
composition the diet plays a very important role regardless of activity.
Energy
The energy to partake in daily activities comes from our diet. The
amount of energy depends on the macronutrient content of what we eat in terms
of carbohydrates, fats and proteins. Carbohydrates provide the most energy and
they can be stored as glucose in the blood or glycogen in the muscles and the
liver. Fat provides stored energy that can be metabolized into glucose and
glycogen (5). Energy is one of the reason why it is important to consume
carbohydrates in your diet.
Recovery
If recovering from injury, illness or fatigue the diet plays an
important part of providing full recovery. Important issues in the recovery
from sport or physical activity include restoration of liver and muscle
glycogen stores, and the replacement of fluid and electrolytes (6).
The two
most important factors in a diet are
1. correct
calories intake
2. appropriate
nutrient levels
To work out your calorie and nutrient requirements please see
the article on How
to work out my calorie and nutrient requirements.
General
dietary advice
·
Base meals on starchy foods such as
pasta, rice, cereal, potato and whole meal bread
·
Reduce intake of fat and sugar
·
Eat 5 a day of fruit and vegetables
·
Use good cooking methods e.g. grilling
and steaming
·
Reduce alcohol intake as is high in
calories
·
Consider portion sizes
·
Eat slowly and you will feel fuller
·
Concentrate on what you’re eating not the
TV and you will feel fuller
·
Consider healthier options such as a
grilled chicken ceasar flatbread that has 73cal instead of a big mac burger
that has 493cal
·
Read the label of what your buying
because some bought sandwiches that look healthy can have up to 1000cal in
them
