How do the benefits of a healthy diet apply to you?

To answer the question, "What are the benefits of a healthy diet?" we need to clarify what a "healthy diet" actually is.

There are innumerable benefits of healthy eating, but if we're not clear on what "healthy diet" or "healthy eating" are, it's going to be challenging to know if we're experiencing any benefits!

What's the relationship between food, nutrition and health? Excellent question Cricket! If we truly wish to enjoy the benefits of a healthy diet, we need to understand these facts about healthy eating.

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From the article Nutrition Data:

The reason and purpose for nutrition is incredibly simple:

• You have a body.
• The body needs certain basic things in order to function properly.
• The most fundamental requirement of the body is to be nourished.

To nourish means "to feed or sustain with substances necessary to life and growth."

Nutrition is "the act of being nourished; especially, the processes of taking in and assimilating food for promoting growth and replacing worn or injured tissue."

We get nutrition from what we eat and drink. There are foods and drinks that are healthier than others though - some foods have hardly any nutrition and can even be harmful to our bodies (junk food for example) and on the other hand, many foods are packed with nutrition - sometimes called "superfoods" because they're very nutritious.

Eating a healthy, balanced diet means giving your body all the nutrients it needs to be totally nourished and minimizing or avoiding food that isn't nutritious so it can function properly.

For more information on exactly what the essential nutrients that your body needs to be healthy, see the article on the nutrition of foods.

And although different foods are either more or less healthy and nutritious, the article on healthy eating guidelines will give you one simple tool for making healthier food choices!

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One of the primary benefits of a healthy diet (diet meaning simply what you usually eat and drink) is that you're giving your body what it needs to grow, repair itself and enjoy positive health and energy!

We know that a balanced healthy diet is essential for our bodies to function optimally and enjoy health. Another one of the key facts about healthy eating is the principle that food is medicine.

This concept was known and practiced well before the current Western culture trends that emphasize only drug and surgery treatments for health care.

"Let your food be your medicine and your medicine be your food" - Hippocrates 460 - 359 BC

(Hippocrates was an ancient Greek physician and was considered one of the most outstanding figures in the history of medicine.

He is referred to as the "father of medicine" in recognition of his lasting contributions to the field as the founder of the Hippocratic School of medicine. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippocrates)

" Vitality and beauty are gifts from nature for those who live according to its laws." - Leonardo DaVinci

Both approaches to health are valid and work together.. If you break an arm, it is emergency medicine that you need. I sure want a pain medication if I break something! But if you also have a balanced healthy diet, another one of the benefits of that healthy diet is that the broken bone will usually heal faster and more fully.

How these basic benefits of healthy eating apply to you is an individual matter.

We all have our own personal reasons why we want to achieve the benefits of a healthy diet.

In other words, why do you personally want to be healthier? Participate in a sport? Have more energy? Play with your grandchildren or your pet? Feel better physically than you do right now? Live longer and have a better quality of life?

For me, I wanted to improve the quality of my life after a stroke and heart attack and drugs alone weren't cutting it. In fact, I felt pretty lousy and most of my attention was on how crappy I felt physically... I wanted to resume doing things in my life that I needed and wanted to do.

As I learned about the relationship between food, nutrition and health and the main guideline for choosing healthy food, it became much easier to apply what I learned in order to recover much of my health. As I continue eating a healthier, more balanced diet because I finally understood what that actually meant, I experienced (and continue to enjoy) the benefits of a healthy diet because I am able to do things that require a healthier body!

Cheers!

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