Living With A Balanced Diet
There is no doubt that following a balanced diet is a great way to key into longevity and a healthier lifestyle. It reduces the risks of developing life-impeding diseases and ensures great energy levels and lifestyle changes.
There is, however, for a lot of people reservations about the true possibility of living with and staying on a balanced diet, and whether it can be followed judiciously.
These doubts are what we’re here try to help you to rectify, and also provide you with some much-needed information on how to live your life to the fullest while staying with a healthy balanced diet.
What Is A Balanced Diet?
A balanced diet is simply a diet which consists of the necessary minerals and nutrients needed by humans in the appropriate portions.
Simply put, a balanced diet is not just about what you eat, but also the proportion in which you eat. To observe a balanced diet, you have to be very judicious about what you’re eating, when you’re eating it and the amount of food you eat.
The main food groups which should be included in the daily human diet are:
- Protein
- Carbohydrate
- Fats & Oil
- Dairy
- Fruits and Vegetables.
All five groups are equally important but the ratio in which they are to be added to your daily diet varies. It is common knowledge to make vegetables a staple in your daily meals, also including a fair share of protein and carbohydrates.
Dairy can be consumed at least once a day, but not more as most humans are partially lactose-intolerant.
Subscribing to a balanced diet also implies that you make use of fresh produce, and keep the amount of processed food to the minimum.
Try to incorporate as many fresh ingredients as you can into your diet as they contain the required nutrients and have not been altered by the addition of chemicals.
Tips on living with a balanced diet
Food Preparation
When working with fresh ingredients for a meal, it is important that they are washed thoroughly and properly with treated running water to remove any dirt left over from the farm of butcher’s.
Also, if you choose to cut your protein yourself, especially poultry, make sure you clean whatever utensils you use in the process before using them on another ingredient.
When frying, try to limit yourself to healthy oils such as vegetable and peanut oils, and ensure that they are fresh. This ensures that your food retains as much nutrient as possible, and makes it healthy for consumption in your diet.
Start With reductions
If you’re new to eating healthier and trying to cut down on unhealthy foods, don’t ban them outright. Instead, systematically reduce the amount in which you consume such foods.
This helps you wean yourself off them easily, and preventing you from feeling bad if you eat them.
When Eating Out
An important aspect of a balanced diet is portion control, and this control is quite out of your hands when you’re eating out.
To solve this problem, simply opt for a starter size meal instead of an entree, and if that isn’t available then there’s always love in sharing.
You can opt to share your meal with your companion and form an even stronger bond. Also, pay attention to the menu to ensure that the necessary food groups are included in the meal you want to order, and if you have doubts inquire from the waiter about the ingredients used and their sources.
It’s your meal, you’re paying for it, so you deserve to know.
Vegetables!!
Veggies really have so much to offer us, if only we’d let them. They are packed to the roof with vitamins and minerals which have a vast range of benefits for the human body from healthy skin to a healthy heart.
Make vegetable more interesting by mixing up multiple colours to make the meal more inviting. You can also switch up your vegetable preparation from the old blanching and boiling to grilling, roasting and pan-frying with choice spices.
Vegetables on the sweet side such as carrots and beets are also a great substitute for sugar-rich snacks which we take throughout the day. Use these instead, and you’ll be glad you did.
