Simple, effective healthy
eating guidelines
Are you searching for healthy eating guidelines
that are simple and easy to use? Tired of healthy eating
"rules" that you feel you have to memorize and
follow exactly or you've failed? There are so many benefits
of eating healthy, but some of the "facts" about
healthy eating can seem complicated or unrealistic!
Easy healthy eating will be at your command
with these simple eating guidelines to use in making food
choices that improve your health and energy levels!
The key to healthy eating is knowing
what healthy food actually is. You don't need a
list of healthy or unhealthy foods to choose from if you
know what makes a food healthy or unhealthy.
Not all food is healthy - in other words,
not all food is nutritious meaning that
it helps your body by providing it with the material it
needs to build and repair itself. Healthy food contains
nutrients - substances that can be changed (metabolized)
into energy and build tissue after consumption.
In other words, "healthy
food" is nutritious food. These healthy eating
guidelines will help you determine nutritious food. All
you need to know for easy healthy eating is the difference
between whole food which is the healthiest and processed
food, the more processed, the more unhealthy.
Think of healthy food choices as a scale
with highly processed food at the least healthy or not healthy
end, and fresh food preferably organic or grown without
toxic substances at the most healthy end.
Foods that are grown, raised or manufactured
with chemical pesticides, unnatural additives and preservatives
for mass distribution and consumption, such as for fast
food chains or large chain supermarkets, is on the unhealthy
end of the scale.
This is called "food processing"
and what is meant by "processed food." Processed
food is any food product that has undergone physical or
chemical treatment resulting in a substantial change in
the original state of the food.
The more processed a food is, the less
nutrients it contains. "Junk food" is the name
for food that has calories but no nutritional value.
Let's take rice for an example. White
rice is processed from brown rice - the outer husk is removed.
The outer husk of rice is what makes it brown and is the
part of rice full of nutrients, essential vitamins and nutrients
that your body needs to function.
We'd know then, by our healthy eating
guidelines, that refined white rice would be the least
healthy and organically grown brown rice would be the most
healthy because it has the most nutrients.
Anything with "refined" ingredients
is less healthy than foods made with nutritious ingredients.
Even blueberry
muffins can be healthy!
This is where reading the nutrition
fact label, namely the ingredients part, will give you
plenty of useful information.
Foods that are grown and raised
locally with minimal processing and additives, are the healthiest.
This type of food is often called "whole food."
Food doesn't necessarily need to be labeled organically
grown to be the healthiest, although it's an important factor
in deciding on just how much a food will contribute to improving
health.
Getting organic certification can be an
expensive proposition, and often produce from a local farmer's
market or your own garden is even fresher and just as healthy
as an organically grown food in a market.
I do my grocery shopping at a great store
called "Trader Joe's" - they carry organically
grown products and products without toxic additives and
it's pretty easy to find food that meets the healthy eating
guidelines. Even though they also carry organic fruits and
vegetables, my husband and I get our produce at a little
local market. The quality and price is awesome!
If you think eating fast food isn't healthy,
you're generally right if you're thinking of traditional
fast food restaurants. Even the salads at these establishments
contain quite a bit of hidden sugar and the lettuce and
tomatoes are mass grown, sprayed with toxic pesticides,
have preservatives sprayed on them to keep them fresh from
the picking, warehousing, packaging, distribution (truck
rides!) and in-store storage.
But eating healthy on the run (or if you're
just not into cooking like I am!) is possible! It just takes
a little change of viewpoint and practice, in my experience.
For example, what's faster, healthier and economical than
grabbing a fresh, crunchy apple? Organic string cheese is
one of my favorites and it's pretty dang fast.
Now that you're armed with this understanding
of healthy eating guidelines, have fun and enjoy
the benefits of eating healthy - improved health and energy.
Cheers!
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