Healthy Foods
The majority of your diet should consist of healthy fruits and vegetables.
Importance of Diet
Everyone has heard the old saying, "You are what you eat." Eating a healthy, nutritious diet is the most important thing we can do to keep healthy and fight disease. This can be very difficult, however, as our lifestyles and easily available food does not make eating a healthy diet easy.
Because many of us live busy lifestyles that leave very little time for food preparation, we shop for convenient, seemingly healthy food that can be prepared quickly. Unfortunately, by eating processed foods, which are not as healthy as unprocessed foods, we start having various medical conditions, some minor and some severe. When we find time to eat unprocessed, healthy food, we become healthier. Hippocrates was right. We truly are what we eat.
Also, many of our foods are grown in nutrient deficient soil. The human body needs 90 essential nutrients every day, including 60 minerals, 16 vitamins, 12 amino acids, and 3 essential fatty acids. In past generations, people received the nutrients they needed through the foods they consumed. In modern times, with foods grown in poor soils, meat products containing numerous antibiotics and other substances, and boxed foods having few nutrients due to overprocessing, most people are not getting the nutrients they need through food.
Changing your diet to get the optimal amount of nutrients and using supplements is the key to attaining optimal health.
Many people hear the term diet, and automatically think about weight loss. Diet is much more important and comprehensive than weight loss alone. Although weight loss may be a goal for some people, ultimately, being healthy is the ultimate goal, and weight is only one part of health.
As a society, we are learning more about the importance of a quality diet that includes nutritional, unprocessed food. We are also learning how to cook and prepare healthy meals quickly, an important factor in our increasingly busy lifestyles. Fortunately, there are many homeopathic doctors, integrative doctors, and naturopathic doctors, as well as many medical doctors, who understand the importance of diet and how food interacts with the body. Also, many new cookbooks, online or traditional books, focus on cooking for a healthy body.
What kind of diet is the best for you? In general, a diet that includes a lot of raw fruits and vegetables and unprocessed foods is the best diet for most people. However, each person must find foods suitable for their own bodies. Please see a few links below that provide some useful information about diet. As always, it is good to consult your health care professional before starting any new diet.
Problem with Sugar
Many people don't understand the problems associated with sugar except that it causes and/or contributes to weight gain and diabetes. There are many arguments that sugar is good for you, so the sugar problem becomes confusing and complex very quickly. There are different types of sugars and over 50 different names for sugar, so many people don't even know they are consuming sugar.
We all need sugar. It is required for our bodies to function correctly. It is the simplest form of carbohydrate, according to the Mayo Clinic. It is absorbed into the bloodstream and becomes a blood sugar or glucose. It gives us energy.
Optimally, we should get our sugar naturally through eating foods with natural sugars, like fruits that contain sucrose and frutose. According to the Mayo Clinic, fruits are the healthier option to eat and added sugars should be avoided. Also, whole fruits have fiber and other nutrients that your body needs to remain healthy.
Unfortunately, many of the foods we eat are laden with sugar. In fact, we consume much more sugar than we realize because manufacturers add sugar to just about every product they process. For instance, many vegetable broths contain sugar. There is no need to include sugar in vegetable broth. One brand, Imagine, does not include sugar in their vegetable broth.
Some article and video links below provide more specific information about sugar and the dangers it poses to your health if you consume too much sugar.
ARTICLE LINKS
10 Things You Don’t Know About Sugar (And What You Don’t Know Could Hurt You) https://www.huffingtonpost.com/kristin-kirkpatrick-ms-rd-ld/dangers-of-sugar_b_3658061.html
The 25 Key Reasons You Want to Dramatically Reduce or Avoid Sugar in Your Diet https://bodyecology.com/articles/25_reasons_to_avoid_sugar.php
Sweet poison: How sugar, not cocaine, is one of the most addictive and dangerous substances http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/white-poison-danger-sugar-beat-article-1.1605232