Healthy Food

Most of us are aware of the benefits of a balanced diet and healthy eating. But being aware of the benefits is only half of the solution. You also need to know how to choose the foods that will be best for your health. Depending on your daily routine, you may or may not eat at home most of the time.

Start your day with a healthy and well balanced breakfast. Studies have shown that people who don’t eat a full breakfast tend to seek carbohydrate snacks all throughout the day, and are more prone to gaining weight.

Eating at home usually involves more meal preparation time, this is important because preparing a good meal takes a lot more time than simply eating some junk food. If you can afford to prepare your meals at home, this can dramatically increase the quality of your meals, not only can you choose exactly what you eat, but you can choose how it is prepared and pick out the quality of the items yourself.

Any meal you eat, whether at home or while out should consist of all the basic food groups, balancing proteins, starches, greens and vegetables is a key factor to a healthy diet. Your body needs all the different food groups in order to function properly, by balancing your meals you are ensuring your health and the quality of your life.

Choosing the food you eat based simply on the label at the supermarket is not always the best choice. Sure, a low fat or diet version of a favorite snack, treat or dessert may be a better option than the regular version, but is it the best option. Look for healthier alternatives for snacking in between meals, low fat cereal bars and natural products, fruit and juice. It is not so much the amount you eat but rather what you eat that makes the difference.

Avoiding fatty foods and food with high quantities of sugar is also very important. Choose baked food instead of fried food, and adopt this healthier alternative when cooking at home as well.

When away from home and eating out, look for healthy alternatives. Fast food offers speedy advantages but often has no real nutritional value. Stuffing yourself with useless calories will fill you up momentarily, but you will soon find you are hungry again, and this can often lead to a vicious cycle, leading to high levels of junk food intake per day. Choose full meals whenever possible; look for whole wheat and organic products whenever you can. If you are on the run and need to eat as quickly as possible, look for the healthier alternatives to hotdogs and burgers. Try natural sandwiches made on the spot, there are many natural fast foods that can be just as quick as the conventional ones, while providing much better quality to your diet.

By Wisam Abdulaziz

Labels: eat healthy food, eat healthy foods, fast healthy food, healthy eating food, healthy fast food, healthy food, healthy food eating, healthy food pyramid, healthy food recipes, healthy foods, the healthy food

When you have no time to cook your own food, what do you do? The answer is obvious, of course. You go out to your local fast food outlet (in deference to your kids’ preferences), you go out to the food strip at the mall, or you order take out. It is convenient and you can eat your fill at these joints. What’s not so obvious, however, is what such a practice is doing to you and your children’s health.

Healthy eating habits are crucial to achieving a healthy mind and body. Healthy eating habits refer to eating meals regularly, eating well-balanced meals, and eating only what’s necessary. Healthy eating habits do not involve eating burgers and fries for lunch.

The Fast Food Culture

Unfortunately, some people do think that it is healthy to have burgers and fries for lunch. Advertising spiels have a lot to answer for this. In a world filled with fast food and restaurants, it is but natural that the companies serving up this food have to undermine people’s preference for home-cooked meals or they will become redundant and not make any profit.

As such, big food corporations put millions of dollars into TV commercials that assert in not so many words that a meal eaten at a fast food is special while eating at home with your family the meal your mother cooked is nothing but ordinary.

Such a reversal of values was helped along by the faster pace of life, where people have no more time to devote to preparing home-cooked meals. People are always driving or commuting to work, attending business meetings, or maybe holding one or two jobs. You cannot expect someone who has already been working 12 hours straight to come home and prepare a lengthy meal. It makes more sense to buy some take-out or bring the family out for a meal.

People are aware that they need to eat healthy food. However, what do you do if you are misled into thinking that restaurant fare and fast food taste better than home-cooked food? Sadly, there’s also an underlying effort to make people think that food in restaurant and fast foods are all healthy, that there’s really not much difference when you eat in or out. It’s all the same, but eating out is more convenient.

As people continue to be bombarded with mass media advertisements advocating the value of fast food and eating out, and as people become even more busy trying to hold on to their jobs, more and more people stop cooking and begin taking these commercials to heart. People have deserted home-cooked and nutritious meals that need hours of preparation for big servings of calorie- and fat-rich food that gets served up within minutes.

The Diseased Nation

The success of the fast food industry in establishing a culture that thrives in fast food and meals eaten out, our people’s health has been placed on the balance. Thus, America is now an ailing nation. Incidence of heart disease, diabetes and high blood pressure continues to rise as obesity becomes even more prevalent.

I am not saying that fast food is to be avoided at all costs. What I am saying is that a trip to the fast food should be made only very infrequently, not three times a week as most people now are wont to do. A change should be instituted to bring back the days when there’s no doubt about what healthy food is and where to find it.

By A Bohart

Labels: eat healthy food, eat healthy foods, fast healthy food, healthy eating food, healthy fast food, healthy food, healthy food eating, healthy food pyramid, healthy food recipes, healthy foods, the healthy food

The American Academy of Dermatology advises us that, “A healthy diet is important for improving raw materials for healthy skin.” The basis for having healthy skin is a well-balanced diet that includes essential vitamins that aid in the important functions of your body's system.

The following are food for healthy skin...

Vitamin A is one of the vitamins you need to maintain good skin. This vitamin minimizes oil (formally known as sebum) production, makes the protective tissue of your skin stronger and aids in the repair of tissues. Vitamin A can be found in foods such as carrots, spinach, parsley, tomatoes, peaches, mangoes and apricots.

A complex of B vitamins can help to maintain a healthy skin tone, with the added benefit of reducing stress. Vitamin B complexes are in foods such as eggs, meat, liver, fish, whole grains, leafy green vegetables, avocados and peanuts.

Another important vitamin for your skin is Vitamin E, which is an antioxidant and prevents certain cell damage. This vitamin can be found in foods that include almonds, broccoli, wheat germ and vegetable oil. Vitamin C is another antioxidant and is in citrus fruits, such as oranges and grapefruits. An additional antioxidant is Zinc, which can be found in whole grains, brazil nuts, pumkins seeds and brewers yeast.

An essential part of a well-balanced diet is drinking plenty of fresh, clean water. Drinking six to eight glasses of water per day aids in transporting fluids throughout your entire body to maintain healthy, hydrated skin.

Foods to avoid include fatty foods, white flour, sugar and caffeine. This foods contain little nutritional value and can aggravate your skin.

Incorporating a fitness routine into your schedule three times per week or more can improve your circulation and aid in having healthy skin, especially when combined with proper diet choices.

A well-balanced diet and lifestyle will reflect on your skin and give you a healthy complexion.

By Ryan Cote

Labels: eat healthy food, eat healthy foods, fast healthy food, healthy eating food, healthy fast food, healthy food, healthy food eating, healthy food pyramid, healthy food recipes, healthy foods

It is possible for people to make healthy food choices even if they only have a short time in which to prepare their meals. The first thing to realize is that it is often that healthy choices do not always mean a need for two-hour meals. A person can choose healthy foods that are quick and easy to prepare at home or to pickup from a takeout place. Cities often provide restaurant guides in their telephone books that display full-page menus indicating what a particular restaurant or drive-thru offers. Many of these food vendors now include healthy alternatives to their usual fast-food selection.

At places like McDonald’s and Hardee’s, it is possible to find consumers who are concerned about their carbohydrate consumption. This has prompted the restaurants to provide other options in their hamburger choices. Hamburgers can be ordered without the bun, for example, and fruit and yogurt are included on the menu along with fresh salads. Many restaurants provide salad choices either as side orders or as complete meals. Often, a salad of fresh vegetables with chopped ham, roast beef or chicken is more attractive than regular menu items. Salads are especially appealing in the summer months because they are lighter on the digestive system.

Restaurants that feature foods in season cultivated by local farmers offer very healthy and affordable choices. Some of these kinds of restaurants will create their own recipes for healthy food options. This provides the consumer with a totally new choice and encourages them to visit the restaurant again.

If home preparation of food is preferred, the options for healthy choices increase. Visiting a local grocery store or supermarket emphasizes the number of healthy choices that are available. Fresh fruits and vegetables are more varied than ever before due to improvements in transportation and preservation methods. All types of cuisine can be prepared quickly because of the choices of fresh goods rather than frozen foods. There are numerous choices among frozen foods as well. The demand for healthy frozen dinners and other meals has increased along with demands for more variety in frozen food offerings. Any frozen food aisle in any supermarket will show as many healthy food options and poor choices. The decision is up to the individual.

People can either choose to eat a healthy diet or an unhealthy one. Time and availability of healthy choices are no longer problems for a person who is trying to eat better and healthier foods.

By Ken Snodin

Labels: eat healthy food, eat healthy foods, fast healthy food, healthy eating food, healthy fast food, healthy food, healthy food eating, healthy food pyramid, healthy food recipes, healthy foods, the healthy food

Healthy food grown without the use of synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, antibiotics, hormones, chemical preservatives or genetically engineered DNA is Organic. It is more labor intensive. Organic farming doesn’t use herbicides and other chemicals. So the yield is much smaller and to buy, more expensive. But organic foods are high in vitamins and minerals, tempting a good population to include these diets in their lifestyle.

Benefits of Organic food

• No pesticide, fungicides residues on food
• No synthetic residuals built into plants
• No genetically engineered organisms
• Realistic flavors
• High in vitamin
• High in minerals
• Higher in anti oxidants

The ‘Organic-certified produce’ is grown, harvested, stored and transported without the use of any synthetic chemicals or fumigants. They are processed according to uniform standards and USDA accredited organizations verify it.

Organic farming vs. Conventional farming

• Traditional farmers use chemical fertilizers in the soil to grow crops. Organic farmers build soil with natural fertilizer

• In traditional farming, insecticides are used to kill the insects and diseases. Organic farmers use insect predators and barriers

• Traditional farmers control weed growth by applying synthetic herbicides but crop rotation, tillage, hand weeding and mulches control weeds in Organic fields

Organic foods are not completely chemical free, but the pesticide residues will be much lower than those found in produce manufactured with synthetic chemicals.

By Barbara Camie

Labels: eat healthy food, eat healthy foods, fast healthy food, healthy eating food, healthy fast food, healthy food, healthy food eating, healthy food pyramid, healthy food recipes, healthy foods, the healthy food

A well-balanced diet and lifestyle shows on your complexion and aids in giving you skin that looks and feels healthy. Experts, such as the American Academy of Dermatology, state that, “A healthy diet is important for improving raw materials for healthy skin.”

The cuisine that we choose to consume should give us all of the essential vitamins to assist in the necessary functions of our bodies. Foods such as carrots, peaches, mangoes, parsley, tomatoes, apricots and spinach all contain Vitamin A. This vitamin minimizes oil production and aids in tissue repair. Oranges have Vitamin C, an antioxidant which helps to flush toxins out of your system. Zinc is another common antioxidant that can be found in foods such as pumpkin seeds, brazil nuts, whole grains and brewers yeast.

Dietary choices such as fish, meat, liver, eggs, whole grains, peanuts, avocados and leafy green vegetables all have Vitamin B complexes. Making sure to include Vitamin B complexes in your healthy skin diet helps to maintain skin tone and has the additional benefit of reducing stress. A complete diet that contains a full range of vitamins and antioxidants will help to make your skin look and feel much better.

Another healthy skin diet suggestion is to try to avoid foods that are made with sugar, white flour and caffeine, such as cakes, cookies, soda and coffee. Most of these foods provide little nutritional value, have a high calorie content, can aggravate your skin, increase the production of oil and even cause blemishes to appear.

Finally, a fitness routine that you participate in three times or more per week can improve your circulation, which reflects positively on your skin. Proper circulation allows nutrients to be more easily transported to all the organs in your body, including its largest organ – your skin.

With some extra attention to developing healthy skin diet and lifestyle choices, you can dramatically improve the tone and condition of your skin over time.

By Ryan Cote

Labels: eat healthy food, eat healthy foods, fast healthy food, healthy eating food, healthy fast food, healthy food, healthy food eating, healthy food pyramid, healthy food recipes, healthy foods, the healthy food

Eating regularly is not all we want, eating healthy is important. While going for healthy eating the most important thing to keep in mind is to make sure of what you are eating and, whether your diet is meeting the nutritional requirements of your body or not.

Since birth till death, complete life span of any living being, is a process of growth and development and various functions keeps on taking place within our body. And for proper functioning of our body we need proper nourishment as very specific nutrient has its role in the development of our body.

Healthy food guide will help you to analyze you diet and its nutritional requirements.

First of all you need to be well aware of types of nutrients. There are six types of nutrients responsible for the development.

Calories: - calories provide energy, but too much calories lead you nowhere other then gaining useless weight. You need to switch to low calorie diet as complete stoppage of calorie intake will be hazardous to your health. Lo calorie diet includes low fat milk and dairy products, lean meat, fishes and poultry with added calories. You can monitor the amount of calorie you are taking by regulating the method of preparation as you can avoid too much of added calories and also by regulating the portion size of you meal intake.

Proteins: - protein helps in the development of the body. It is very important for the formation of tissues. They contain a great amount of amino acids that are essential for our body. Essential amino acids are those amino acids that are not synthesized inside our body and are taken from outside as apart of our diet. If they are not taken in the diet results in poor development of our body. Animal meat, eggs, fishes and poultry provides huge amount of essential amino acids. These amino acids are not present in the cereals hence proteins from cereals cannot alone support the development. However dries beans etc have these amino acids and can supplement animal protein.

Fats: - fats are the store house of energy in the body. When we eat fats, they burn inside the body and act as fuel to keep you working. They also help in development of nervous tissues. Some fat is also deposited in the body so that it can be used in future when needed. If the fat metabolism fails in our body then this fat is deposited in the cells and causes obesity and other problems like atherosclerosis, arteriosclerosis, hypertension etc.

Minerals: - different minerals have different role in our body. Minerals are important for the development of bones, teeth, the help in normal functioning of heart by maintaining the heart rhythm and muscle contractibility, they regulate the acid-base balance of the body and accelerates normal neural conduction. They facilitate cellular metabolism and are an essential part of hormones and enzymes. The intake of minerals should be regulated. They are not produced inside the body and excessive intake can exhibit toxic effects.

Vitamins: - vitamins are not synthesized inside our body and are taken from outside. They are important and vital in almost all the functions of our body. Be it immune system, hormonal or nervous system vitamins plays important functions in all the processes of our body.

By K Purdenn

Labels: eat healthy food, eat healthy foods, fast healthy food, healthy eating food, healthy fast food, healthy food, healthy food eating, healthy food pyramid, healthy food recipes, healthy foods, the healthy food

I'm wondering if you're already aware of what I'm about to share with you? There is some good news for people trying to lose fat and slim down to a healthier and more attractive lifestyle: there are actually foods you can eat with will burn fat for you with any effort on your part. Even better, they can easily be assimilated into any diet; in fact, you may already be eating them on a regular basis and not even know it.

These types of foods actually burn more calories than their own caloric content. They are natural plant food and certain dairy items, and they are as follows:

Foods That Help Burn Fat #1: Citrus

These foods include limes, lemons, grapefruit, tangerines, and oranges. To get the most benefit from them you need to eat them in their freshest form, which means all by themselves. Don't attempt to cut them up and use them for a marinade because you will lose the calorie burning benefits. In addition, don't assume drinking them in juice form will work. Most juices bought at the store are filled with preservatives that negate the calorie burning benefits.

Foods That Help Burn Fat #2: Fruits and Vegetables

Not just any fruits and vegetables though, but fruits and vegetables that are rich in Cellulose. These include watermelon, cabbage, asparagus, carrots, broccoli, apples, and blueberries. Again, remember that certain food preparation can negate the calorie burning benefits of these foods, especially when it comes to the vegetables. To fully achieve the best benefits from vegetables you should only steam them. In addition, don't slather them in butter for taste.

Foods That Help Burn Fat #3: Dairy

Unlike the other foods mentioned above, which you can eat as much of as you want, you have to ingest dairy in moderation. These products include low-fat milk, low-fat yogurt, and white cheese. Make sure and follow the recommended daily allowance on the package closely. Dairy products can be helpful in burning calories, but they also contain other nutrients that you don't want to get too much of, such as carbohydrates.

While eating these foods alone will help you burn calories, if you really want to exacerbate their effects you should combine an exercise routine with the diet. This way you get twice the calorie burning effects. In order to lose one pound per week it is a scientific fact that a person must cut their caloric intake by as much as 500 calories per day. This can be hard to do, but if you work out at least 30 minutes a day and eat these fat burning foods, the process becomes much easier. You'll find that you're less hungry and that you also feel much better about yourself.

Living healthy and looking attractive are goals that everybody can obtain. It is not food that is the enemy, but the food choices people make. And by making the food choice above, people are making the right decision for reaching these goals.

By Yuki Shoji

Labels: eat healthy food, eat healthy foods, fast healthy food, healthy eating food, healthy fast food, healthy food, healthy food eating, healthy food pyramid, healthy food recipes, healthy foods, the healthy food