What is a balanced diet? Simply put, it is a diet that gives your body the right amount of nutrients to function at its optimal. Also, the nutritional value of each person’s diet is different, for example, if you are active in sports, you will need more energy to function as compared to the average person. A diet that has a large variety of different types of foods is the most likely to provide all the needed nutrients for a balanced diet.
So, what is the importance of a balanced diet? Eating a healthy diet helps your body feel good, have more energy, improves your health, and boosts your overall mood. Some children who do not get enough healthy foods may end up facing growth and developmental problems, poor academic results, and be prone to being sick. Some common health problems that come from a lack of a balanced diet are heart diseases, cancer, stroke, and diabetes. Additionally, being physically active also helps to manage many health problems and improves mental health by reducing stress and depression.
Moving on, what falls under a balanced diet? A balanced diet includes specific food groups such as vegetables, fruits, grains, proteins, and dairy products. A variety of different foods from the different food groups may provide a similar amount of key micro and macro-nutrients to meet the body requirements. A basic balanced diet contains about 50 to 60 percent of carbohydrates, 12 to 20 percent of proteins, and 30 percent fat. Your body requires carbohydrates, lean protein, essential fats, and fluids accompanied by regular exercise in maintaining physical health and well-being. By following a balanced diet, we can prevent excess weight gain or counting and maintain a calorie deficit to lose weight.
But how do we have a balanced diet? One can simply start by increasing his or her intake of fluids as fluids are essential for the human body to function properly. The human body is 80 percent filled with water, thus by increasing the fluid intake we also increase our metabolism rate. Thus, to start off we can start drinking one or two more litres of water per day.
Additionally, we must not forget about chewing our food properly. Do not just swallow your food after chewing four to five times. If you do so, your food will not get digested properly. You must also be cautious of eating food in excess, you must be able to tell when to stop eating when you do not have the appetite.
All in all, all foods can be part of your diet. You need not give up your favourite meat or dessert. What is essential is attaining the right balance and the right variety of the different food groups so as to live a healthier lifestyle.
References
B,K. (2020, June 29). Balanced Diet. Healthline. Retrieved from https://www.healthline.com/health/balanced-diet#bottom-line