Balanced diet for sound health

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Health is wealth. So, every one of us should take care of health properly. In this regard, a balanced diet is most important to maintain our health.

But, in this busy lifestyle, can we take proper care of our health? Most probably not. We are getting fat to obese. Various diseases have surrounded us, just because of our bad food habits. Junk food is there in our everyday life from morning to night.

Therefore, it is important to maintain a balanced diet from now to keep your body fit and healthy.    

Now, what is a balanced diet? A diet that contains different types of foods in exact amount and proportions, from which you can get required amount of proteins, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, minerals and required amount of calories for your health [1].

Mainly, a balanced diet fulfills all the nutritional needs of a healthy person. Some bioactive phytochemicals like dietary fiber, antioxidants are also found in proper amount in a balanced diet [2]. 

From a balanced diet, you should get around 60-70% total calories from carbohydrates, 20-25% calories from fats and 10-12% calories from proteins [3].

For example, your daily calories should come from fresh fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, whole grains, legumes and nuts. Calories from food means, the amount of energy stored in that food, transferred to your body and your body uses those calories for all the important functions.

To maintain the current weight, an average person needs about 2000 calories per day (it will depend on age, sex, height, physical stature and activity level). Whereas males need little more calories than females. 

So, this article brings you some knowledge about the balanced diet you can avail to remain healthy.

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Maintaining a balanced diet

Without going over the level of recommended calorie intake for a healthy person, if anyone can get all the required nutrition from the daily food consumption, that is a balanced diet. Maintaining a balanced diet, you remain energetic throughout the day.   

During maintaining a balanced diet, anyone should not consume the junk food or the food with very less or no nutritional value. 

Nutritionists prefer five groups of foods to build a balanced plate for a healthy person. Those five food groups are:

Fruits

Vegetables

Grains

Proteins

Dairy 

It is recommended that, half of the plate should be filled with fruits and vegetables and the other half should be filled with the proteins and grains. Each meal should comprise of low-fat dairy products [4].

Now, coming to the description of five important food groups:

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Fruits

A balanced diet consists of lots of fruits. But, here is an important step; you should consume the whole fruits instead of fruit juice. Fruit juices contain less nutrition in comparison to the whole fruits [5].

If you depend more on commercial fruit juices available in market, then it will be great mistake towards your healthy diet, because, it contains added sugar and preservatives also, which are very harmful to your body. You just get extra calories for no reason.

So, go for a fresh fruits or canned fruits in water, not in sugar syrup. Add as much fruits you can eat on a day to your plate. At least four servings of fruits in a day are very much healthy.

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Vegetables

Vegetables are most important food groups in respect of balanced diet. Here is another five groups in vegetables like:

• Leafy green vegetables
• Red or orange vegetables
• Starchy vegetables
• Legumes vegetables (Beans and peas)
• Other vegetables (Eggplant or Zucchini)

Nutritionists recommended that, everyone should eat those vegetables from each group in every week [6].

Don’t overcook the vegetables as it’s nutritional values get disintegrated. Enjoy it raw or slightly cooked. 

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Grains

Grains are on the third list of the food groups those help to build a balanced diet plan. Grains have also two groups. i.e. whole grains and refined grains [7].

Some healthy whole grains are as follows:

• Quinoa
• Oats
• Brown rice
• Barley

In the whole grains, all three parts of the grains like bran, germ and endosperm are incorporated. Whereas, refined one does not contain all the three parts as it is processed. Beside this, whole grains contain much fiber and protein than refined grains [8].

Whole grains breaks down slowly in the body, so, it tends to show less effect on a person’s blood sugar. On the other hand, body breaks down refined grains very fast and it showed a peak on blood sugar. So, opt for the whole grains as much as you can and avoid the refined grains [9].

Here, one should eat the grains as a quarter of their plate based on new guidelines of nutrition, not most of the calorie of daily meal. Our most of the daily calories are based on the grains, which we should change to stay healthy a bit more.

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Proteins

As per dietary guidelines, proteins too should fill the quarter part of the plate for balanced diet. Intense, nutrient-dense protein is very necessary to stay healthy.

Quality proteins you can opt to eat regularly are as follows:

• Lean mutton or other meats
• Chicken and turkey breasts
• Fish (especially fatty fish), shrimp
• Eggs
• Beans, lentils, peas, and legumes

Avoid processed meats as it contains artificial preservatives and added salt, it can cause cancer as well. Red meat is not safe for all, consult your physician before eating.

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Dairy

Dairy is an essential component of daily balanced diet. Whenever possible take low-fat dairy products over high calorie one. Fortified soy product is an alternative source of dairy products.

These are all high source of calcium. Try to incorporate following items in your diet regularly.

• Cottage cheese
• Soy milk
• Low-fat milk
• Yogurt

Regarding Fats

During maintaining a balanced diet, always keep an eye to regulate the fat consumption. It is important but, too much fat can increase calories and leads to weight gain [10].

Avoid saturated fat and trans fat totally, if possible, it will help to fight with different cardiovascular diseases. Limit the intake of butter, heavy cream and cheese [11].

Researchers now advised to use olive oil, which is number one food on earth, and if possible use extra virgin olive oil, because it is least processed [12]. 

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ConScience

All the food groups mentioned above should give you the proper nutrition, but you have to balance it. Decorate your plate as per your choices. Guidelines regarding diet may change over time, but for now this is the primary diet you have to maintain.

Here is an easy way to eat correctly:

i. Fill half your plate with fruits and vegetables

ii. Fill over one quarter with grains

iii. Fill under one quarter with protein foods

iv. Add dairy products as side dish (or a nondairy replacement)

Practice a balanced diet and stay tuned for my next article comprising some healthy cooking and eating tips. Stay healthy, have a happy life.