Healthy Skin, Hair and Teeth - Benefits of a Healthy Diet

Healthy Skin

The skin is the largest organ in the body, and the most exposed. Most people don't take proper care of their skin - either due to hectic work or due to pure ignorance.

Vitamins A, C, E, selenium, and zinc are especially important to maintain beautiful and healthy skin. Foods that are rich in these vitamins and minerals include:

Apricots

Cantalope

Carrots

Eggs

Broccoli

Citrus fruits

Tomatoes

Papaya

Almonds

Avocado

Olive oil

Walnuts

Sunflower seeds

Cabbage

Chicken

Liver

Onions

Seafood

Oats

Tuna

Cauliflower

This is just a partial list of foods rich in the vitamins and minerals you need for healthy skin. Foods and drinks you need to eliminate or reduce your consumption of include alcohol, sugar, and saturated fat. Coffee and tea should be limited to two cups a day.

Since the skin often mirrors the health of the whole body, eating a healthy diet provides you a healthy body and as an extra benefit, healthy skin.

Healthy Hair

Healthy hair depends on eating foods high in protein and certain vitamins and minerals. Inadequate protein intake over a lengthy period can force hair into the resting phase with shedding a few months later. Five amino acids are of particular relevance to hair growth - cystine, cysteine, methionine, arginine and lysine.

There a number of different specific hair vitamins and minerals that can play a major role in helping a person have a healthy head of hair. Vitamins necessary for healthy hair include vitamins A, B6, biotin, inositol, and folic acid. Minerals needed to good hair growth are magnesium, sulphur, silica and zinc.

Extra hair vitamins are likely to be needed if a person is generally unwell or is undernourished as their hair will show damage and may even stop growing. For example, brittle hair is an indication of iron deficiency while prolonged and severe hair loss can mean inefficient functioning of the liver or the thyroid.

Healthy Teeth

The health of your teeth and gums, the lack of plaque and debris, and the freshness of your breath can be a constant reminder of the status of your overall health. A healthy body generally means healthy teeth as well.

As with promoting healthy skin and healthy hair, eating healthy foods (such as lots of fresh fruits and vegetables) also helps encourage healthy teeth. These foods tend to help scrub the plaque off of our teeth before it can turn into tartar. It is tartar that can cause pockets in the gums where bacteria can take root and cause decay.

Vitamin C deficiencies can result in bleeding gums and loose teeth as well as mouth sores The Vitamin B complex is also essential to a healthy mouth as deficiencies can cause cracking and bleeding of the lips as well as open sores and lesions on both the inside and outside of the mouth.

Calcium is the super nutrient that keeps bones and teeth strong. Vitamin D is another important factor in keeping our teeth and bones healthy. Spending a total of about one hour each week in the sun will normally provide you all the vitamin D you need.

Besides causing other problems with our health, too much fluoride can cause permanent staining of our child's teeth. It can also cause brain degeneration and certain cancers. So be very careful to rinse completely after brushing your teeth with fluoride toothpaste and after a fluoride treatment at the dentist.

Conclusion

There's no way around it. The only way to have healthy skin, healthy hair and healthy teeth is to give your body the vitamins, minerals and protein it needs by heating a healthy and well-rounded diet.

Get some great healthy recipes and health tips at http://www.healthyrecipesandmore.com where you can find information on what your body needs to stay healthy and young. Carol and her sister Barbara have developed this Web site to provide the resources that you need to discover how to take care of your own health and that of your family.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Carol_Stack

Readmore »»

Healthy Weight Loss Solution

Most of the adult population has been or currently is on some type of diet. Diets are everywhere! Every place you turn, someone is talking about a new diet. A diet that is unlike any other that came before. A diet that will change your life forever and you won’t even have to exercise! The truth is there is no such thing as an easy diet. There is no such thing as a life-changing diet. If I was to be completely honest with you, I would even go so far as to tell you that there is no such thing as a healthy diet! There is a large variety of diets out there, and they all have many different aspects of how to lose weight. However, they all have one thing in common; as soon as you lose the weight and step off of the diet, (poof!) the weight comes back, sometimes leaving you with even more weight than you had before the diet! This is called the yo-yo effect, and it is true with any diet. The point I am trying to make is simply this: A diet is not a healthy weight loss solution.

There are many different ways to lose weight, but there is only one way to keep the weight from coming back. Now that we know a diet is not a healthy weight loss solution, we can move on to what is a healthy solution. The only antidote to losing weight and keeping it off while staying healthy is for you to make a change in your lifestyle. It’s not as hard as it sounds, and those who choose to make a lifestyle change, actually find it quite easy after the first couple of hurdles are passed, and they don’t even look back.

There are three important keys to making a lifestyle change, and they are:

* You must have a balanced and healthy dietary plan.
* You must adhere to a good, healthy physical activity plan.
* You must have a change in your behavior or attitude.

All three of these things are crucial to living a healthy and long life. If you want to lose the weight and keep it off, making a lifestyle change is the only way to do it effectively. A lifestyle change is a healthy weight loss solution

Let us start with number one: having a balanced and healthy diet. Take a good, honest look at the foods you eat on a regular basis, and the amount of it that you eat. Most of us would have to answer that we are eating a lot of the wrong foods, and not in moderation! Fast foods, salty foods and baked goods are all okay – in moderation. When we are eating them everyday or several times a week however, they are not okay. Probably the most important key to learn in having healthy weight loss is moderation. Most things are okay and healthy in moderation, but everything, when turned into an extremity, is certainly not okay, and not healthy to the body, the mind or the spirit! Moderation is a must when it comes to healthy weight loss.

When your stomach starts telling you that it is time to eat, carefully consider your choices. Make sure you surround yourself with good and healthy foods that are low in calories and high in vitamins and protein. When it comes time for a snack, have some veggies and dip or an apple instead of that bag of chips. Or snack on some cheese and crackers in the place of that chocolate bar. Making these kinds of choices is the first step to maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Also, make sure your meals aren’t left out when it comes to making those good choices. Instead of ordering a pizza or going out for a burger and fries, cook a balanced meal. If you find it hard to do this, I suggest making a meal plan at the beginning of week. That way, half of the work is already done for you. Yes, usually half of the work in preparing a meal is deciding what to prepare! Remember, cook and eat in moderation, and you are well on your way to a healthy weight loss solution.

For those whose main reason in making a lifestyle change is to lose weight, there are some options open to you that there never were a few years ago. One of these options is Proactol. This healthy and clinically proven weight loss pill is not a miracle worker, but it is certainly one of the most beneficial tools for healthy weight loss in the world today. Proactol not only helps the body lose weight, but it also maintains other health problems such as high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol and cardiovascular disease. This doctor recommended medication has also been proven to increase joint flexibility, lessen aches and pains and improve concentration and energy levels. Proactol helps with healthy weight loss by lowering the body’s food cravings and decreasing your appetite, making it easier to control your food intake. This also helps you in the learning to eat with moderation. Take Proactol after each meal and you will find that it greatly helps with achieving a healthy lifestyle.

The next step to changing your lifestyle is making a good physical activity plan and sticking to it. This goes hand in hand with one part of the third step, which is setting achievable goals. Too many people want to reach the stars right away when it comes to exercising and losing weight. However, like we have already talked about, everything must be in moderation. Exercise is good, but when it is turned into an extreme, it is not good. Pace yourself. Start off slow, and work your way up from there. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and if the builders had had the attitude that most people have towards exercise, Rome would never have been finished! Achieving healthy weight loss is not done too quickly either, or it is not beneficial to the body. Make a reasonable exercise plan for yourself, and try to include someone else as well. Studies have shown that when we exercise with other people. We are much more likely to stick with it, than if we exercised by ourselves. Encouragement is the key to getting into a good physical activity habit. Surround yourself with people that will encourage you and hold you accountable to your lifestyle change. Try out a few different fitness programs and see which one fits your life the best.

The third and last step to improving your lifestyle and reaching a healthy weight loss solution is a behavior or attitude change. We have already talked about setting achievable goals, and the next part of this step is education. Instead of eating all of the wrong foods and then feeling awful about what you are doing to your body, educate yourself with information such as the energy value of the foods you eat and what kind of nutrients they possess. Making a lifestyle change is more than just choosing the right kinds of foods. You must also change your mind. This simply means that you have to change the way you think when it comes to food, your health, and your lifestyle. Sometimes this also means that you have to figure out why you eat, what you eat, and when you eat. Keeping a journal is a great way to do this. Write down everything pertaining to eating. Keep a track of what foods you eat at what times, but also write about why you ate those foods at those times. Sometimes it may be just because you were hungry, but many people eat when they’re stressed or emotional, and discovering this about yourself is the first step to changing how you deal with stress and other problems in your life. Change your mind. Change how you eat, when you eat, and what you eat. Change how stress affects your life, and learn how to deal with it more effectively. Eating doesn’t make any problem go away permanently.

One more key to changing your lifestyle and maintaining your goal of healthy weight loss is to conduct regular self “check-ups.” By this I don’t mean the kind of check-up that a doctor would give, but a check-up of lost weight, periodical BMI checks, and of how much you body itself has shrunk since making these changes. Some people like to take measurements of themselves in the areas like the waist, hips and thighs, on a continual basis, such as weekly or monthly. One of the best encouragements is progress. When you see how far you’ve come already, it is a wonderful boost of confidence and motivation to keep you going. It won’t all be a bed of roses however, but when you find yourself feeling down, remind yourself why you are doing it, and how much you have already done. Remember, once your lifestyle change is complete, you will be well on your way to reaching healthy weight loss.

A webmaster of Proactol Weight Management Through Dietary Fat Binding website. http://proven-fat-binders.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Nahar_Efendy_Noordin

Readmore »»

Healthy Eating

The confusion about eating healthy and dieting will now be cleared up, all in one easy sentence. Dieting is all about healthy eating, not to put yourself in a dieting prison. These are questions we have to ask ourselves… because after all we already know all the benefits of eating healthy foods.

Although you may find that eating healthy all week is more difficult than simply binging and indulging yourself to high fat, high sugar, high carbohydrate treats around every corner, your body will thank you at the end of the day if you strive to turn around poor eating habits. Keep in mind what you hope to achieve – remind yourself of how lovely and healthy your body is becoming each day as a result of your new eating habits. The goal of any healthy eating regimen is to provide the body with the necessary building blocks in the proper pH such that the pH balance can be maintained easily.

Instead, look for measures of healthy eating and dieting that will work as a lifestyle change by allowing you to lose the weight and keep it off, in addition to gaining a better sense of your overall health. With an ever expanding population that is beginning to suffer from a variety of diseases and conditions directly related to obesity, consider adopting an alternative lifestyle that includes healthy eating and dieting.

If a parent is unsure of how to eat a healthy diet, they should talk to their doctor or pediatrician and meet with a nutritionist to learn about healthy eating. However, there are things parents can do to teach healthy eating habits to their children when they are young so that they can maintain a healthy weight as a child and as an adult and also learn healthy eating habits for life. - If you as parents eat healthy nutritious food, your child tends to learn and pick up similar eating habits.

Vitality - Healthy eating along with exercise will give you tons of energy and make you feel "on top of the world. Live longer, feel great, have tons of energy, look gorgeous, and loose weight… and if that is not tempting enough, what about the thought you could actually give all of the above to your kids. This does not mean that you have to have an extra large meal in the morning. However it does mean that you should find foods that will settle with your stomach and provide a beginning of nutrition for the day. Of course, nutrition and healthy eating go hand in hand; while vitamins and minerals are required, it is also important to get the right amounts of protein, carbohydrates, and fat. Today, we have made nutrition a science; we think that our experts know the secrets to healthy eating.

The best way to show the correlation between eating healthy and weight loss is to evaluate what you eat in a given day. In addition to ensuring you stick to your goal of healthy eating, planning your meals in advance can save you money on your grocery bill.

By following a healthy eating plan you will maintain your body in optimal fitness. If you are currently not following a healthy plan you will be surprised that you are most likely not eating enough healthy food. To help you decide on the right plan, bear in mind that eating should be a pleasure.

Visit LifeHouse Coaching to sign up for "Blueprints for a Healthy Aging" and receive Edi Sowers' f*r*e*e* weekly articles, coaching tips, and special offers. Also if you are looking for more informative articles check out Gabae Weight Loss Articles.

Internet Marketer - Visit http://www.logicsworld.com for more articles on healthy eating.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kathleen_Seymour

Readmore »»

Get Healthy And Give Healthy: A New Trend In Gift Baskets

Eating foods that are “nutritious and delicious”—as many slogans declare—is great for health conscious people, and by giving healthy gifts you can help encourage good eating habits.

It only makes sense that healthy gifts are becoming more and more popular. There seems to be a health kick of sorts going on right now for many Americans.

Believe it or not, if you have ever looked at a food chart indicating the portions of the different kinds of foods to eat daily, you will see fruits and vegetables at the top of the list. Recommended by doctors and nutritionists, fruits and vegetables are the foods we should be eating the most.

Unfortunately, many Americans eat less fruits and vegetables than they do any other type of foods on the food chart pyramid. This is another reason that healthy gifts are a good idea, because you can encourage friends and family to develop better, more nutritious eating habits.

When you get a healthy gift or gift basket for someone you know, fruits and vegetables are great to include, but there are also very healthy kinds of foods to choose from. Many healthy gift baskets contain granola bars or other snacks with essential grains and nuts for energy.

Especially people who are very active will appreciate such gift items as trail mix or, as I mentioned before, granola bars, energy bars and dried fruits and nuts.

The greatest thing about healthy gifts is that if you frequently purchase fruit baskets you are already giving away healthy gifts. But there are many more options for specific kinds of healthy gifts you can choose from as well. You can find the very best selections of healthy gifts online if you just know where to look for them.

And, of course, healthy gifts can also include healthy items that are not for eating.

For example:

You can get a kid healthy gift baskets with some sweet fruits to eat, but maybe some toys that will encourage him or her to exercise more. These items such as jump ropes, hopscotch games, a soccer ball or basketball, even kits for games like capture the flag.

Children have tons of energy to burn, and yet, they are exercising less and less. Playing sports and other games are not only ways to stay healthy and fit, but they are also extremely fun. Kids do not realize, as they are zoning out on the sofa, all the fun they are missing out on.

You can also purchase healthy gift baskets for your adult friends with exercise tapes and accessories, nutrition guides and so on. So just because you are getting someone a healthy gift—that does not always mean to get them healthy foods—even recipes are included with some healthy gift baskets.

Therefore, healthy gift baskets are suitable for anyone and everyone. When you purchase healthy gift baskets as presents for any occasion, you are contributing to the improvement of health concerns all over the country. If you give away healthy gift baskets you will not be sorry you did.

Anne Clarke writes numerous articles for websites on gardening, parenting, fashion, and home decor. Her background includes teaching and gardening. For more of her articles on nutrition and health please visit Healthy Gifts or visit Gifts for Health.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Anne_Clarke

Readmore »»

Healthy Eating - Is This Practical in America?

United States of America. This is the nation of which one of it's former presidents publicly said, "I don't like broccoli," and another political figure misspelled the word potato. It's also the place where TV commercials make a mockery of buying healthy vegetables at the supermarket when you can get your nutrients from vitamin supplements.

What is healthy eating anyway? Aren't we confused yet? Consider the orange (fruit). We try to improve its health-giving properties as a food, by juicing it and reconstituting it from concentrates and additives. Where is the fiber?

Oh that? We buy fiber supplement pills. And where did the fiber from the orange go? Who knows... It might be fertilizer or landfill.

Invariably, anyone who seems to be encouraging your to eat healthy is trying to sell you something.

You don't even have to have good eyesight (nor have to like eating carrots) to see that our reasons for eating healthy in America have been tainted by our quest for making money.

We put out food guides that claim to encourage us all to eat healthy. But the messages are mixed. Maybe we should try to find out how "sponsors" influenced Harvard's designing of the Healthy Eating Pyramid. I often wondered why they put alcohol and red meat in a healthy dietary guide.

Count the benefits of eating healthy
There are many benefits to healthier eating, personally, nationally, and globally. One can readily think of

* Increased longevity
* Increased national and personal productivity
* Lower costs of national healthcare
* Spend less for drugs and medicines
* Cleaner environment, since we process less food
* Decrease shortage of medical care personnel
* ...and on, and on...

We need a healthy eating plan

There are many "healthy" eating plans sitting on thousands of wasted pages of health publications. We scarcely need more national healthy eating advice. What we need is more effort on an individual level.

I am advocating personal interest and responsibility for our own health. Most people already know that eating lots of fruits and vegetables, getting adequate rest, regular exercise, and avoiding the use of harmful substances are ways of maintaining good healthy. But how many of us find these things easy to do?

How many of us find it easy to resist the influences of fancy advertising instead of falling for the same junk food temptations every time? How many of us had a healthy eating plan that we have followed from youth?

It seems that by nature we are prone to be resentful of what has been scientifically and reasonably more beneficial and instead, inclined to adopt what is harmful.

It's an individual choice

One has to conclude that when it comes down to healthy eating, this is an individual choice. All the sayings, writings, and plans of government health agencies, research organizations, and any other interest groups amount to noise.

Healthy eating is an individual's choice made daily. Our habits are governed by tastes, environment, and what foods are readily available. We do have some control over those factors, though. Let's not wait until some health issues (sickness and disease) come our way. By then, we will be forced to make healthy eating a matter of survival. I know this from experience.

Copyright © 2006 by Bentley Thompson

Bentley writes about lifestyle-related conditions such as diabetes, obesity, high cholesterol, and cardiovascular diseases. He advocates the anti-diabetes diet which he describes on his website. You may visit his website and blog using the following URLs: http://www.anti-diabetes-diet-supplements.com/ and http://choosehealthtoday.blogspot.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Bentley_Thompson

Readmore »»

A Healthy Diet is All About Avoiding the Dietary Landmines

The ‘dietary landmines’ (i.e. things to avoid for a healthy diet plan!):

• Sugar – sugar is linked to a number of diseases such as obesity and adult diabetes and malnutrition. Sugar stops nutrients being absorbed and another problem with sugar is that the blood tends to stick together more raising your risk of cardiovascular disease. Sugar is also classed as a ‘bad fat’. Healthy Diet = no sugar!

• Caffeine – Caffeine stops nutrients being absorbed and increases your loss of minerals and other essential nutrients, particularly from the bones. If you have osteoporosis or arthritis, avoid it totally. Otherwise, no more than one latte a day!

• Alcohol – Alcohol also prevents the absorption of nutrients and damages cells. (Reduce your intake as much as possible for a healthy diet plan).

• Vegetable oils and Margarine – of all the oils, hydrogenated oils and margarine are the worst; also don’t heat vegetable oils or fry with them. This is because they turn into a fat structure (trans-fatty acids) that damages cells. Margarine is one chemical element away from plastic and is dangerous at all temperatures - definitely not part of a healthy diet. And heated vegetable oils, along with margarine (whether hot or cold) are rancid fats and form damaging chemicals in our body.

They are linked to diseases such as strokes, Alzheimer’s, MS, coronary artery disease, cancer, macular degeneration, just to name a few. Extra virgin Olive oil in very small amounts is best (keep it in the fridge). Advice for a healthy diet is to use olive oil or cook in butter or ghee on low heat.

• Fried foods – Fried foods of all types fall into the same category as above. If you eat fried foods, you need to take plenty of antioxidants and plenty of the good fats to counteract them. Good fats keep you slim, regulate your hormones, keep your arteries clean and help to prevent some cancers, heart disease and strokes. Examples of good fats are fish, meat, nuts, flaxseed oil, borage oil, linseed oil, avocados - to name a few. Bad fats do the opposite!

• Carbonated drinks – Carbonated drinks do not form part of a healthy diet. Carbonation is produced by phosphoric acid and this causes the following major problems: 1) It acidifies your system – the ideal environment for cancer and arthritis. 2) It neutralizes stomach acid so you don’t absorb nutrients. 3) It increases the loss of minerals from your body. They frequently have caffeine or sugar – see the above. Health professionals commonly agree that carbonated drinks will cause an epidemic of disease in our youth.

• Burned animal fat – it tastes great to some people, but burned animal fat is carcinogenic and there are a mile of studies to prove it. You can “have your steak and eat it” and make it part of a healthy diet plan, but make sure it is slow cooked and preferably medium rare. None of the black stuff!

• Carbohydrates – avoid simple carbohydrates like sugar, starches (potatoes, corn, wheat). Carbohydrates are a source of energy but we need slow release energy as opposed to fast carbohydrates that give us too much sugar. Examples of slow release carbohydrates are vegetables, beans, tomatoes.

• Sugar substitutes containing Aspartame - any so called ‘diet’ drinks and diet products contain aspartame – a dangerous sugar substitute linked to a growing list of health problems such as: headache, memory loss, seizures, vision loss, coma and cancer. It worsens or mimics the symptoms of such diseases and conditions as fibromyalgia, MS, lupus, ADD, diabetes, Alzheimer's, chronic fatigue and depression. Definitely not part of a healthy diet.

• Don’t smoke!

Now we come to food that promotes health and that you should make part of a healthy diet plan!:

• Drink 8-10 glasses of pure, fresh water every day. This assists the body in dealing with toxins and keeps you hydrated. A small investment in a water filter is good advice. In the long run, it's a cheaper option than bottled water and will keep you and your family healthy. Remember to change the filter regularly.

• Two eggs a day – the most recent scientific studies conclusively prove that eating eggs will not raise the levels of dangerous cholesterol (LDL). The scientists really got this one wrong! Eggs are a very cheap and healthy food source of vitamins and protein and actually have very little effect on cholesterol. They are a key feature of a healthy diet. If the egg is not overly cooked or fried, then the nutrients will not be damaged and are easily absorbed. So eat them soft boiled, poached or lightly scrambled.

• Plenty of vegetables, especially green leafy vegetables – a great source of minerals, vitamins and fibre.

• Meat – slow cooked and to medium rare to avoid over-cooking. Meat is still one of the best sources of amino acids (protein), 'good fats', minerals and vitamins. Fish is also a fantastic healthy food and a great source of good fats (omega oils) too – just make sure you buy your fish from a trusted supplier so you avoid heavy metal contamination (such as Mercury).

• Other examples of good fats are fish, meat, nuts, flaxseed oil, borage oil, linseed oil, avocados - to name a few. Most people find it difficult to consume enough essential fatty acids from a healthy diet - in this case we recommend you take essential fatty acid supplements from a reliable and high quality source.

• Butter instead of margarine – margarine, when at or above room temperature will turn into rancid fat and damage cells.

• Salt your food to taste! Salt is essential for nerve transmission and in providing all your sells with liquid. Iodized sea salt is an excellent source. Avoid all types of processed salt. No single medical study has ever proven a relationship between salt intake and high blood pressure, which is a calcium deficiency.

• A small to moderate amount of exercise each day – about 20 minutes is fine for strength, flexibility and cardiovascular health. Little and often is best. If you don’t have time to jog or walk in the mornings or evenings, even just doing some 10 minutes of press-ups, sit-ups and stretches is much better than doing nothing. If you don’t have time to go to the gym, you can try working out at home.

As you can see, none of these things are really that hard to do. If you have trouble with this healthy diet plan then I’d encourage you to begin by writing down everything you eat over a 7 day period then start making small changes rather than drastic alterations so that you find it easy to adapt to and stick to this healthier diet.

Essential Nutrients are Part of a Healthy Diet Plan

Whilst most people will tell you that you can get everything you need from the food you eat, in fact the opposite is true – especially if we are to get the nutrients in their optimal amounts.

We live in an age where we are subjected to chemicals and fertilizers in our food, pollution, a 'fast food' culture - all of this places higher demands on the body in terms of nutrition.

When you combine this with the fact that our farm soils are overused and the crops which are produced (and the animals that feed from them) are depleted of minerals - it is no wonder why it is so hard to enjoy a healthy diet from the food we eat.

We see evidence of this in rising rates of obesity, diabetes, cancer, chronic diseases such as arthritis and osteoporosis and many others.
The answer, is to supplement with a broad range of nutrients - vitamins, minerals, amino acids (protein), and essential fatty acids and antioxidants.

When you combine nutritional supplements with healthy diet choices, then you are giving yourself the best chance to avoid one of many nutritional deficiency diseases.

Copyright http://www.Global-Longevity.com

Paul Newland is a health writer, sports training consultant and martial arts instructor and manages the Global-Longevity.com website. He is the author of numerous health information books and guides, including the Wellness Report, The Ultimate Antioxidant Report, The Selenium Report, The Bird Flu Report, The Ultimate Nutrient Guide and The Essential Fatty Acid Report and The Ultimate Sports Nutrition Guide - available Free (for a limited time) through Global-Longevity.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Paul_Newland

Readmore »»

Barriers to Healthy Diets -- Removing them is not as hard as you think

Barriers to healthy diets are placed into four broad categories:

1. External Barriers
2. Psychological Barriers
3. Physical Barriers
4. Dieting Barriers


This article examines only the most difficult barriers in each category. Let's remove the barriers to healthy diets...but first, "What is a Healthy Diet?"

What is a Healthy Diet?

A healthy diet provides the recommended daily allowance for vitamins, minerals, protein, carbohydrates, and fat. Any diet that fails to meet the minimum daily allowance for any nutrient is unhealthy. Of course, providing the daily allowance for all nutrients is next to impossible given the poor nutritional value of today's diets.

We eat on average 1.5 meals a day (not even close to the suggested 5-6 meals). The one meal we manage to eat is usually late in the evening, high in calories, high in fat, and is missing Group I Foods (fresh vegetables and fruit).

The majority of young men between the ages of 20-25 eat only 2 servings of fruit and 1 serving of fresh vegetables throughout the week! The next generation is nutritionally starved.

A healthy diet is quite simple and easy to follow. Here are the steps to eating a healthy diet:

1. Eat 5-6 meals a day.
2. Every meal should have a serving of lean protein, complex carbohydrate, and unlimited amounts of Group I Foods.
3. Eat approximately 40-50% protein, 30-40% complex carbohydrates, and 30% fat everyday. Limit sugars, saturated fats, and trans-fatty-acids.
4. Maintain a slightly negative energy balance or perfectly balance it. How do you accomplish this? Read the next few steps!
5. Calculate your energy output everyday. Energy output is the Resting Metabolic Rate plus the number of calories burned through physical activity.
6. Subtract your energy output from your energy input -- the number of calories you eat a day. The result is the remaining total energy and it determines your energy balance.
If the result is a positive number, you have a Positive Energy Balance. Simply, cut back on the amount you eat.
If the result is negative, you have a Negative Energy Balance. Increase the amount you eat.
7. Make adjustments to energy input (the number of calories you eat a day) so that you'll remain with a slightly negative energy balance.
Some weight loss experts advocate a strong negative energy balance at baseline. In theory, this makes sense but in practice it's associated with weight regain.
I believe that energy should be balanced or slightly negative at baseline. The closer to a balanced energy state, the better the chance for avoiding weight regain and maintaining your ideal weight for a longer period of time.
8. Do not cut back, slow down, or stop exercising. If adjustments need to be made, it's better to make dietary changes than to make changes to your exercise plan.

A healthy diet is simple to follow. Eat fewer calories, exercise, and make dietary adjustments as needed. No pills, supplements, acupuncture, magnets, or magic minerals are needed. Just a calculator.



Removing External Barriers to Healthy Diets



Two difficult external barriers are peer pressure and time. Our friends and family influence our lives more than we like to admit. They affect our decisions, choices, moods, behavior, and weight.



During medical school, I worked in a weight loss clinic to make some money. I will never forget the level of influence a spouse or friend could have on a patient. Several times, I saw first hand someone, other than the patient, make the dieting decisions.



At this level of influence, our peer groups can make a big impact on eating a healthy diet. Just keep this influence thing in mind. OR, should I say, "Keep it in mind only if you have TIME."



Time is another rarely acknowledged external barrier to healthy diets. We live in world that seems to lose time. The normal 24 hour day feels more like 15 hours. All we do is rush from one event or appointment to the next. Eating a healthy diet is next to impossible.



Please, slow down. Who knows, by slowing down we might actually pay attention to the important things in our lives. I find that the more I rush the less I get done. And what I do finish, really isn't all that important.



Be serious about eating a healthy diet and slow down.



Removing Dieting Barriers to Healthy Diets



About two to three decades ago, while watching repeats on TV, Americans changed their diets and started eating lots of fat and processed foods. We have suffered ever since.



Eating lots of fat created a macronutrient imbalance and has clogged our arteries. Then we fell in love with processed foods. This love affair drained all of the vitamins and minerals from our bodies and resulted in a micronutrient deficiency.



Until we restore things to the pre-TV Dinner diet, we will continue to suffer heart attacks and weight gain.



It's really crazy...we stuff ourselves with heavy fat and then starve for vitamins and minerals.



Removing Physical Barriers to Healthy Diets



Physically, our lack of exercise is the greatest barrier to healthy diets. Start exercising! Walk. Jog. Swim. Lift weights. Sweat. Move. Breath. Live.



Removing Psychological Barriers to Healthy Diets



The mind can be tough to control, especially when it comes to hunger. But what can help is changing your food perspective. Where do you place food in your life? To help you through this important change in perspective, check out...Weight Loss Psychology



Conclusion



Watch the influences in your life, slow down, reduce fat, eat raw vegetables and fruit, exercise, and change your food perspective.



Once you've done all that, then you can focus on eating a healthy diet. I think we need to get back the 24 hour day, what do you think?



To Healthy Living!



Michael A. Smith, MD

Chief Medical Consultant

Diet Basics Website

Dr. Smith is the Chief Medical Consultant for the Diet Basics Website, a content rich weight loss website dedicated to all dieters. Visit his site and check out his Diet Basics News Blog and RSS Feed. Hundreds of E-Zines and Websites have already tapped into this incredible free source of weight loss information. Don't miss out!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Michael_Smith,_MD

Readmore »»