Health food advice can cover a lot of different topics. It can explain what a healthy diet is, the facts about nutritional and human nutritional requirements. It can show us what foods fulfill our various nutritional requirements and how much of each we should take. It can also show us how to schedule our food intake, what kinds of food we should have at each stage of the day and how much. Health food advice can also give us a clear idea of what kinds of food is considered “health food” – which is to say foods particularly good for our health and where we may get them. Therefore this guide will be divided into separate sections each detailing an important part of healthy food advice.
Nutritional needs
The human body has certain notional requirements that we must be aware of. The average human energy requirement per day is 2000 calories just for existing. There are three types of nutrition that are important to the human body. These are carbohydrates, proteins and fat. Additionally we also require a range of vitamins and minerals for the various purposes such as skin elasticity, eyesight, nerve signals, fitness etc.
Carbohydrates provide quick energy; they are the foods which may be broken down directly by the body in order to provide energy. This energy we use to power our daily activities and body’s functions. Foods which have high carbohydrate content include fruits, sugar based foods (chocolate, sweets, soft drinks, etc), cereal based foods (such as rice, bread, maize, etc), etc. We should get the bulk of our daily energy requirements from carbohydrate foods; however we should not take more carbohydrates than we need. This is due to the fact that the human body has a daily limit of carbohydrates it can break down (this differs from person to person) and any carbohydrate intake above this is stored as fat. Increasing fat in this way is very unhealthy and should be avoided at all costs. Those of us who are trying to reduce weight should avoid foods high on carbohydrate content. This is because one of the best ways of losing weight is to get your daily energy requirement by burning fat stored in the body. You lose fat faster this way but you cannot burn fat if your daily requirements are met by carbohydrate intake. We should be particularly careful about eating chocolate; a single chocolate biscuit gives enough energy for us to cycle for 80 minutes. Chocolate we eat are normally burned off during the day.
Proteins are used to build body tissue; they may be considered our body’s building blocks. Protein can be used to bulk us up and build muscles. Food sources with high protein content include egg whites, lentils, milk, meat and fish products, etc. All forms of red meat (which includes beef, mutton, pork, lamb, venison, etc) have a lot of fat in it and therefore are not very advisable to eat. White meat (chicken, turkey, duck, etc) have less fat and are better sources of protein. Fish is even better than the other two. Milk is a very good option because not only does it have protein it also has calcium which is needed for healthy bones and strong teeth. In the case of milk, we should try and get fat-free skimmed milk if possible. Egg yolk does have a lot of different minerals, etc but it is egg whites which provide protein. This protein is best preserved by boiling the eggs. If you work out a lot in the gym or get a lot of athletic exercise, you should be on a high protein diet since protein is needed to build up muscle mass. Growing children, adolescents, teenagers, young adults, etc (people who are growing) should also have a high protein diet, since the body needs protein to grow.
Fat (in small amounts) is important for the body. The nervous system and the lymphatic system both need fat and fat also gives the body buoyancy and insulation. Too much fat intake will, however, make you overweight (and then obese). It may also clog your blood vessels with cholesterol which will impede blood flow. Fat can be found in any oily or fatty foods and cheeses, we should avoid these assiduously because the amount of fat we need in our daily diet is already provided by our protein sources.
The best healthy food advice we can give is to be careful how you structure your daily food intake. Breakfast should be heaviest meal of the day, since you will get all day to burn that off. A good breakfast should include most of the carbohydrates you will be having in the day. Common breakfast items include cereals, fruit juice, egg, milk, etc. Lunch should be considerably lighter and have more protein in it than breakfast. Dinner should be the lightest meal of the day. It is not a good idea to eat later than 6:00 pm due to the fact that you really do not get a chance to burn that food off before sleeping. Eating less than 3 hours before sleeping is considered unhealthy, unless it is something like a glass of milk. Having an apple, orange or banana (any fruit) in between means is good for balancing the sugar in your blood. These above healthy food advices should cover the nutritional information that you need quite well.
