The importance of a balanced diet can not be emphasized enough for a healthy lifestyle.
A healthy lifestyle can be attained by maintaining a balanced diet and keeping into consideration to meet all the essential needs and required nutrients which are demanded by one’s body.
A proper meal plan helps to attain ideal body weight and reduce the risk of chronic diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular and other types of cancers.
What is a Balanced Diet?
But now the question is – what exactly is a balanced diet?
In simple terms, it is just a diet that offers the nutrients to help your body function properly.
The importance of diet lies in the intake of the right amount of calories.
Your body gets the right nutrition when you consume a wide variety of food rich in calories such as fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and proteins.
Calories
Calories are an indicator of the energy content in the food.
Once you intake the food, the calories are consumed when you walk, think, or even breathe.
On average, a person may require approximately 2000 calories per day to maintain their body weight.
Generally, a person’s calories may depend on their gender, age, and other physical activities.
Moreover, men need more calories than women.
Again, people who are more indulged in exercising or doing workouts in gyms and all, require more calories in comparison to people who do not.
It is also very important to remember that the source of calories is equally important as the number of calories.
Stuffing your food with empty calories, that is, those that do not contain any nutritional value does not help in any way.
Empty calories can be found in foods such as:
- Sugar
- Butter
- Cookies
- Cakes
- Energy Drinks
- Ice Creams
- Pizzas
Importance Of A Balanced Diet
Eating a healthy diet is all about feeling great and nice from within, feeling more energetic and enthusiastic, improving your health, and boosting your mood too.
Good nutrition, physical activity, and healthy body weight are all essential parts of a person’s overall health and well-being.
There is no questioning the importance of healthy food in your life.
Unless you maintain a proper diet for a healthy body, you may be prone to infections, diseases, or even exhaustion as well.
The importance of nutritious food for children especially needs to be highlighted since otherwise they may end up being more prone to several growth and developmental problems.
Some of the most common health problems that may arise from lack of a balanced diet are heart diseases, cancer, strokes, or diabetes.
Being physically active manages much health regarding issues and improves mental health too by reducing stress, depression, anxiety disorders, and pain.
Regular exercise, though it might be in any form, and it may also be inside your home or even outside too, helps to prevent metabolic syndromes, strokes, high blood pressure, arthritis, and anxiety.
What falls under a balanced diet?
A balanced diet includes some specific healthy food groups under it.
- Vegetables such as leafy greens, starchy vegetables, legumes like beans and peas, red and orange vegetables, and others like eggplant.
- Fruits that include whole fruits, fresh or frozen fruits but not canned ones dipped in syrup.
- Grains such as whole grains and refined grains.
For instance, quinoa, oats, brown rice, barley, and buckwheat.
- Protein such as lean beef and pork, chicken, fish, beans, peas, and legumes.
- Dairy products such as low fat milk, yoghurt, cottage cheese, and soy milk.
A wide variety for the selection of food choices should be from each of five food groups in the specific amounts that have been already recommended.
These food sources from each food group should provide a similar amount of key micro and macronutrients to meet the requirements of a body.
A balanced diet typically contains 50 to 60 percent carbohydrates, 12 to 20 percent protein, and 30 percent fats.
All the organs and tissues need proper nutrition to work effectively by consuming the right amount of nutrients and calories to maintain ideal body weight.
The overall health and well-being of a person are dependent on good nutritional values, physical exercises that an individual performs, and healthy body weight.
A proper meal pattern is a complete combination of food ingredients, food items, and quantities required for breakfast, lunch, snacks, and dinner for each specific age group.
All you need is protein for your muscle mass and blood cells which brings oxygen and other nutrients to your muscles.
The body requires quality carbohydrates, lean protein, essential fats, and fluids accompanied by regular exercise in maintaining physical health and well-being.
These are effective in preventing excess weight gain or in maintaining weight loss but healthier lifestyles are also associated with improved sleep and mood.
Physical activity particularly improves brain-related functionality and outcomes.
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