Friday, June 19, 2009

Healthy Diet - Healthier Body

By Spencer Gabato

The health value of food that we eat must be of high concern to us. We need foods that are healthy to help us carry out our daily tasks efficiently. Knowing the health value of foods help us to choose which foods are beneficial for our bodies.

Each food have different levels of strength if we talk about nutritional value. Some are just superior to others. Knowing the strengths of nutritional value from food coming from different food groups makes a difference in making us choose what's best for us. Below are some foods to consider.

Vegetables are packed with lots of vitamins and minerals. Dark colored ones have more antioxidant content than lighter ones. Worthy of note are kale, celery, asparagus, green beans, peas, and spinach. Even though lighter colored vegetables have less antioxidants, they are still packed with health promoting nutrients. Other vegetables worthy of mentioning are eggplant, carrots, potatoes, mushrooms,squash and yams.

As with vegetables, dark coloured fruits have higher antioxidant content. Some examples are bananas, apples, fig, oranges, pears plums, graphs, watermelon and lemon. Acai berry have the highest antioxidant content among the berries while also having other beneficial nutrients. Acai berry is one of the top superfoods.

For dairy, choose low fat cheese, eggs and yogurt. The guideline here is to choose the ones that are low in fat and cholesterol. The same goes for meat: lean beef, lamb, turkey, venison and chicken breast. For seafoods the best choices are shrimp, cod, scallops and tuna.

Nuts and grains are very important to include in your diet. The extra protein and carbohydrates found in these foods are needed by your body. Almonds, flaxseeds, extra virgin oil, peanuts, and pumpkin seeds are good choices. They are flavorful too so you can enjoy eating and have needed nutrients at the same time. Good choices for grain products include buckwheat, bread, barley, whole wheat, corn, oats and rye. Refrain from having white bread because they are nutritionally inferior to brown ones.

Stay away from sugar. Many delicious food are sweetened by sugar to make it sweet and savory. Sugar can make more harm than good to your body so choose foods that have natural sweeteners like honey, molasses and maple syrup. These naturally sweetened food still tastes good and is beneficial for your health.

You don't need to add sugar or fat to make the food delicious. Combine it with spices such as black pepper, basil, dill, cilantro, oregano, peppermint, black pepper, sage, rosemary, and thyme.

Water is the best when it comes to hydrating your body. Refrain from soda as it contains sugar and most of them also contain caffeine. If you need a beverage, choose green tea as it is very health promoting and contains a lot of antioxidants to give you healthier and younger looking skin.

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