Being healthy is a big deal

A healthy lifestyle requires balance in the foods we eat, beverages we consume and the way we carry out our daily activities.
A healthy diet is one that helps improve overall body health. It provides the body with essential nutrition like essential amino acids from protein, adequate calories, essential fatty acids, vitamins, minerals and fluids. A healthy diet provides human nutrition without exposure to toxicity or excessive weight gain from consuming excess amounts.
A balanced diet includes avoiding too much of some foods and making sure you get enough of others. Properly balanced diet is important for lowering health risks such as obesity, heart disease, hypertension, diabetes and cancer. Stock up on healthy foods.
When you shop or plan to cook each day, make use of the nutrition fact label to eat healthier. The label makes it easy to determine the amounts of nutrients in a product compare to the other. Strive for a diet that emphasizes fruits, vegetables, whole grains, low fat or fat-free milk, fish, poultry, beans and nuts. The label is not only to limit fat and sodium but also to increase nutrients that promote good health and protect from diseases.
Whether you are consuming protein, fats or carbohydrates, they all contain calories. So, if your diet focus is on any one of them alone, you are missing it. The new approach to eating healthily means we’re positively encouraged to eat a wide range of food as no single food provides all the calories and nutrients we need to stay healthy. If you need to gain weight or lose weight, you will need to balance the scale in one direction or another to achieve your goal.
To follow a healthy eating plan:
1. Eat breakfast everyday. Eat fresh fruits, oats or yoghurt for healthy breakfast.
2. Use fat and oil sparingly. Eat only small amount of mayonnaise, cakes, biscuits, crisps and confectionery.
3. Limit foods and beverages with added sugars. Watch out for hidden sugars.
4. Reduce sodium for your health to help reduce risk of heart disease.
5. Reach for healthy carbohydrates like whole grains to improve digestive functioning.
6. Eat more fish. Fish is a rich source of protein
7. Eat fruits and vegetables. They provide a range of vitamins and minerals, low in calories and fats but high in fibre.
8. Have no more than 6g of salt per day to decrease risk of hypertension.
9. Drink plenty of water to prevent dehydration, helping the body get rid of waste products, transport nutrients and oxygen around the body in the blood.
10. Go for high fibre foods like oats, potatoes and cereals where available. They provide fibre, vitamin B and small amounts of calcium and iron.
Regular physical activity is also important for our overall health and fitness. It helps one control body weight by balancing the calories one take in from food with the calories one expand each day. Do exercise regularly to strengthen the muscles. You don't have to be an athlete to benefits from regular physical activity. Start by walking briskly for 10mins a day, 3 days a week and build up slowly from there.
Communities can affect people’s health decisions. Food high in fat, added sugar and calories are easy to find and often cost less than healthier food like fruits and vegetables. Also, people may lack access to safe places where they can be physically active.
Be good to yourself by getting enough sleep, surrounding yourself with people whose company you enjoy, practice deep breathing while relaxing your muscles, eat healthy foods and try new exercise that spark your interest.
A good balance between exercise and food intake is important. It helps to maintain muscle strength and a healthy body weight.
You are what you eat or do for better or for worse. Make it a lifestyle and not a duty!!!