While we eat or drink anything, our body digests it and absorbs the simple yet vital carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins and minerals, and even the water from the food and drinks and releases them into our blood and replenishes us with the energy to keep growing and live a healthy life.
The number of particular nutrients in our food and drinks is essential to our health. It directly affects both our body and health both. Hence, it is high time everyone is aware of the need and importance of nutrient-rich foods so that we all lead happy and healthy life.
What makes Nutrition so Important?
Good nutrition plays an important role in health and development. Healthy nutrition is proven to improve infant, child, and maternal health, effective immune systems, safer childbirth and pregnancy, decreased risk of non-infectious health risks (such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease), and longevity.
Good food choices and clean water are salient for a healthy body and mind. All healthy food is termed so for they must contain key nutrients such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, minerals, and water.
All these play several different roles in keeping a healthy body and actively develop new cells. Several diseases occur only because of bad and unhealthy food choices. Certain food and food groups aid diseases or often divert the course of some diseases like diabetes in the wrong direction.
How to Ensure Good Nutrition in your Daily Diet Chart?
Every food group nourishes with various nutrients and welfare hence, consuming a balanced diet is crucial to absorb all the five key nutrients from all food groups. Below listed are what should comprise a balanced diet:
1. Whole Grains
Whole-grain foods such as bread and brown rice are rich sources of unrefined carbohydrates. These nourish our body with energy, healthy fibre, vitamins and minerals, and antioxidants, aiding digestion as well.
If you are someone diagnosed with coeliac or non-coeliac gluten sensitivity, you must consume carbohydrate alternatives to make sure your abstention from wheat does not rob your diet of essential nutrients.
Gluten-free carbohydrate alternatives include rice products, buckwheat (actually a pseudocereal), starchy vegetables (such as yam, sweet potato, corn), and quinoa.
Abiding a gluten-free diet might lead to inadvertent deficiency, a registered dietitian is recommended for a balanced diet.
2. Fruits and Vegetables
Several kinds of products are forms of vitamins and minerals that facilitate the regular functioning of the body and provides immunity against chronic health risks. Eating whole fruits and vegetables provides the most out of the essential nutrients present. For example, munching whole fruits instead of juicing them.
3. Protein
Protein is the key nutrient behind developing and replacing muscle in the body. Although animal meat is the commonly available source of protein, a multitude of plant-based options exists to choose from such as legumes and nuts.
If you are on a plant-based diet, it is necessary to follow and consume the right combination of plant protein so that your dietary needs are adequately fulfilled.
4. Dairy
Dairy products are abundant in essential minerals such as calcium, phosphorus, vitamins A, B12 and D, and potassium. Milk, and the product of milk like cheese, yoghurt are the most commonly consumed produce of dairy widely available in practically every grocery store.
5. Fat and Sugar
Dietary fat is so much important for better health as they manage cholesterol levels while facilitating healthy cell functioning. Saturated, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated fats are each greatly significant for overall good health.
Moreover, the extra fat generally found in fried food should be cut off to negligible amounts since they are mostly polyunsaturated fat extracted from processed vegetable oils like rapeseed and soybean.
Because of their low threshold levels for oxidization, too much consumption of polyunsaturated fat often leads to inflammatory health risks and the production of free radicals.
Artificial trans-fat must be strictly ruled out of your diet as well. Sugar amounts consumed must be regulated – while the natural sugars found in fruits and whole grains are healthy, the processed kind often used to make cakes and pastries and snacks can make you gain weight that might further result in metabolic diseases if consumed in excess amounts.
How good Nutrition Affects your Health?
Whatever approach you choose to achieve good nutrition, below listed are its healthy and beneficial effects:
- Protection from Chronic Diseases
Several chronic diseases such as heart disease and type-2 diabetes are outcomes of bad nutrition and obesity.
Applying a preventive approach paired with a healthy food-based diet plan greatly alleviates the risk of developing further related health risks such as kidney failure.
- Strengthening your Immune System
Our immune system requires crucial vitamins and minerals so that they can function and provide optimal immunity.
Consuming a wholesome and motley diet assures your immunity systems function with boosted performance and peak protection against various health risks and immunodeficiency issues.
- Weight Management
We mustn’t mistakenly equate weight loss with trendy but harmful dietary plans. Consuming an all-nutritious diet is the best chance at maintaining a healthy weight and supplying the vital nutrients simultaneously, ensuring a healthy body functioning.
Cutting off unhealthy food habits such as consuming junk food and snacks and opting for nutritious food instead is the foremost step to achieve so. Howsoever many people recommend it to you, you should always be wary of jumping on the fad-diet trend.
- Delay Aging
Particular kinds of food such as berries and tomatoes are proven to add to body vigor and furnish a better cognitive performance, whilst defending your body against the onset and effects of aging.
- Mental Well-Being Support
It might be hard to believe but consuming the right foods does make you happier – nutrients such as omega-3 fatty acids and iron found in protein-rich food sources are proven to better your mood.
This results in better overall mental well-being, making you less prone to mental health issues.
A Final Note
Whether or not it’s advice from a professional or your inner conscience, having good nutrition is something that every individual should strive towards. Good nutrition positively affects your overall health and well-being and should always be a priority.
Healthy eating is not just about consuming balanced proportions of nutritious foods amongst the diverse food groups, but also adapting to a routine of various healthy eating habits.
