A Simple Guide to Healthy Nutrition
Are you at your ideal weight or striving to reach your weight goal? Is good health achieved simply by burning more calories than you take in? The answer, I would suggest, is no! Overall health improvement must be factored into the equation as well as weight management. Otherwise, you could be heading for problems. Correct nutrition can help reduce the risk of a multitude of health-related problems such as diabetes, heart disease and some cancers. Proper nutrition is not just a case of counting calories. The best diets offer balanced nutrition that promote the reduction of bad cholesterol, maintenance of good blood pressure, and helps with weight control. This is achieved by eating a variety of foods, monitoring the ratio of food types as well as counting calories. To function properly, your body must have the correct combination of nutrients: Carbohydrates. They are the primary source of fuel in your diet. The body uses carbohydrates to build glucose which can be used immediately or stored in your body for later. Too much glucose, however, is stored as fat. There are two types of carbohydrates – simple and complex. Sugars are simple carbohydrates whereas starch and fibre are classed as complex carbohydrates. Proteins. Proteins help your body build and maintain muscles and other tissues. They also function in the creation of hormones. Like carbohydrates, excess protein is stored as fat. Animal and vegetable are the two major types of proteins. Fat. Strange as it may seem; fat is another nutrient your body requires. It comes in both saturated and unsaturated forms. Saturated fat puts you at risk of health problems. Unsaturated fat is healthy, but if it goes through any type of refinement process, it can become unhealthy fat known as trans-fats. Vitamins. These are also required nutrients. Different vitamins perform…