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Healthy Food
It’s very important to choose the right food
nowadays. Healthy and balanced diet is useful
for every person. We depend on food as well
as the cars depend
gas, for
example. It’s
by on
Helena
Cherno
our natural fuel, which
gives
our body
Group
442
physical strength and health.
Healthy diet
A healthy diet is one that helps maintain or improve general health. A healthy diet provides the
body with essential nutrition: fluid, adequate essential amino acids from protein, essential
fatty acids, vitamins, minerals, and adequate calories. The requirements for a healthy diet
can be met from a variety of plant-based and animal-based foods.
Where lack of calories is not an issue, a properly balanced
diet (in addition to exercise) is also thought to be
important for lowering health risks, such as obesity,
heart disease, type 2 diabetes, hypertension and
cancer.
The World Health Organization (WHO) makes the following 5
recommendations with respect to both populations and
•
individuals
•
Eat roughly the same amount of calories that your body is using. A healthy
weight is a balance between energy consumed and energy that is 'burnt off'.
•
Increase consumption of plant foods, particularly fruits, vegetables, legumes,
whole grains and nuts.
•
Limit intake of fats, and prefer less unhealthy unsaturated fats to saturated fats
and trans fats.
•
Limit the intake of sugar. A 2003 report recommends less than 10% simple
sugars.
•
Limit salt / sodium consumption from all sources and ensure that salt is iodized.
Other recommendations include:
•
•
Essential micronutrients such as vitamins and certain
minerals.
•
Avoiding directly poisonous (e.g. heavy metals) and
carcinogenic (e.g. benzene) substances.
•
Avoiding foods contaminated by human pathogens (e.g.
E. coli, tapeworm eggs).
American Heart Association / World Cancer Research Fund /
American Institute for Cancer Research
The American Heart Association, World Cancer Research
Fund, and American Institute for Cancer Research
recommends a diet that consists mostly of unprocessed
plant foods, with emphasis a wide range of whole grains,
legumes, and non-starchy vegetables and fruits.
This healthy diet is replete with a wide range of various non-starchy
vegetables and fruits, that provide different colors including red, green,
yellow, white, purple, and orange. They note that tomato cooked with
oil, allium vegetables like garlic, and cruciferous vegetables like
cauliflower, provide some protection against cancer. This healthy diet
is low in energy density, which may protect against weight gain and
associated diseases.
Finally, limiting consumption of sugary drinks, limiting energy rich foods, including
“fast foods” and red meat, and avoiding processed meats improves health and
longevity. Overall, researchers and medical policy conclude that this healthy diet
can reduce the risk of chronic disease and cancer
Harvard School of Public Health
The Nutrition Source of Harvard School of Public Health makes the following 10
recommendations for a healthy diet:
•
Choose good carbohydrates: whole grains (the less processed the better),
vegetables, fruits and beans. Avoid white bread, white rice, and the like as
well as pastries, sugared sodas, and other highly-processed food.
•
Pay attention to the protein package: good choices include fish, poultry,
nuts, and beans. Try to avoid red meat.
•
Choose foods containing healthy fats. Plant oils, nuts, and fish are the best
choices. Limit consumption of saturated fats, and avoid foods with trans fat.
•
Choose a fiber-filled diet which includes whole grains,
vegetables, and fruits.
•
Eat more vegetables and fruits—the more colorful and
varied, the better.
•
Calcium is important, but milk is not its best source.
Good sources of calcium are collards, bok choy, fortified
soy milk, baked beans, and supplements which contain
calcium and vitamin D.
•
Water is the best source of liquid. Avoid sugary drinks, and limit intake of
juices and milk. Coffee, tea, artificially-sweetened drinks, 100-percent
fruit juices, low-fat milk and alcohol can fit into a healthy diet but are best
consumed in moderation. Sports drinks are recommended only for people
who exercise more than an hour at a stretch to replace substances lost in
sweat.
•
•
Limit salt intake. Choose more fresh foods, instead of processed ones.
Moderate alcohol drinking has health benefits, but is not recommended for
everyone.
•
Daily multivitamin and extra vitamin D intake has potential health
benefits.
Other than nutrition, the guide recommends
frequent physical activity (exercise) and
maintaining a healthy body weight.
For specific conditions
In addition to dietary recommendations for the general population, there are many
specific diets that have primarily been developed to promote better health in
specific population groups, such as people with high blood pressure , or people
who are overweight or obese. However, some of them may have more or less
evidence for beneficial effects in normal people as well.
Diet and possible reduced disease risk
There may be a relationship between lifestyle including food consumption and
potentially lowering the risk of cancer or other chronic diseases. A healthy
diet may consist mostly of whole plant foods, with limited consumption of
energy-dense foods, red meat, alcoholic drinks and salt while reducing
consumption of sugary drinks, and processed meat.
A healthy diet may contain non-starchy vegetables and fruits,
including those with red, green, yellow, white, purple or orange
pigments. Tomato cooked with oil, allium vegetables like garlic,
and cruciferous vegetables like cauliflower "probably" contain
compounds which are under research for their possible anti-cancer
activity.
Unhealthy diets
An unhealthy diet is a major risk factor for a number of
chronic diseases including: high blood pressure, diabetes,
abnormal blood lipids, overweight/obesity, cardiovascular
diseases, andcancer
The WHO estimates that 2.7 million deaths are attributable to a diet
low in fruit and vegetable every year. Globally it is estimated to
cause about 19% of gastrointestinal cancer, 31% ofischaemic heart
disease, and 11% of strokes, thus making it one of the leading
preventable causes of death worldwide
Fad diets
Fad diet usually refers to idiosyncratic diets and eating patterns. They are diets
that claim to promote weight loss or treat obesity by various mechanisms,
provide little to no scientific reasoning behind their purported health
benefits, and have little or no proof to support them.
Physical Activity
In addition to the above factors, physical activity in itself is identified as the best way to keep onself
healthy. WHO develops a global recommendation for health basically for three age groups namely 5–
17 years old; 18–64 years old; and 65 years old and above. For 5–17 years old, at least 60 minutes of
physical activity such as games, recreation daily is highly recommended. For the ones between 18–64
years and above 65 years old age group, at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise
or at least 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity is recommended.