by Helena ChernoGroup 442

Healthy Food

It’s very important to choose the right food nowadays. Healthy and balanced diet is useful for every person. We depend on food as well as the cars depend on gas, for example. It’s our natural fuel, which gives our body physical strength and health.

A healthy diet is one that helps maintain or improve general health. A healthy diet provides the body with essential nutrition: fluid, adequate essential amino acids from protein, essential fatty acids, vitamins, minerals, and adequate calories. The requirements for a healthy diet can be met from a variety of plant-based and animal-based foods.

Healthy diet

Where lack of calories is not an issue, a properly balanced diet (in addition to exercise) is also thought to be important for lowering health risks, such as obesity, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, hypertension and cancer.

• Eat roughly the same amount of calories that your body is using. A healthy

weight is a balance between energy consumed and energy that is 'burnt off'.

• Increase consumption of plant foods, particularly fruits, vegetables, legumes,

whole grains and nuts.

• Limit intake of fats, and prefer less unhealthy unsaturated fats to saturated fats

and trans fats.

• Limit the intake of sugar. A 2003 report recommends less than 10% simple

sugars.

• Limit salt / sodium consumption from all sources and ensure that salt is iodized.

The World Health Organization (WHO) makes the following 5 recommendations with respect to both populations and

individuals

Other recommendations include:

•Essential micronutrients such as vitamins and certain

minerals.

• Avoiding directly poisonous (e.g. heavy metals) and

carcinogenic (e.g. benzene) substances.

• Avoiding foods contaminated by human pathogens (e.g.

E. coli, tapeworm eggs).

The American Heart Association, World Cancer Research Fund, and American Institute for Cancer Research recommends a diet that consists mostly of unprocessed plant foods, with emphasis a wide range of whole grains, legumes, and non-starchy vegetables and fruits.

American Heart Association / World Cancer Research Fund /

American Institute for Cancer Research

This healthy diet is replete with a wide range of various non-starchy vegetables and fruits, that provide different colors including red, green, yellow, white, purple, and orange. They note that tomato cooked with oil, allium vegetables like garlic, and cruciferous vegetables like cauliflower, provide some protection against cancer. This healthy diet is low in energy density, which may protect against weight gain and associated diseases.

Finally, limiting consumption of sugary drinks, limiting energy rich foods, including “fast foods” and red meat, and avoiding processed meats improves health and longevity. Overall, researchers and medical policy conclude that this healthy diet can reduce the risk of chronic disease and cancer

The Nutrition Source of Harvard School of Public Health makes the following 10

recommendations for a healthy diet:

• Choose good carbohydrates: whole grains (the less processed the better),

vegetables, fruits and beans. Avoid white bread, white rice, and the like as

well as pastries, sugared sodas, and other highly-processed food.

• Pay attention to the protein package: good choices include fish, poultry,

nuts, and beans. Try to avoid red meat.

• Choose foods containing healthy fats. Plant oils, nuts, and fish are the best

choices. Limit consumption of saturated fats, and avoid foods with trans

fat.

Harvard School of Public Health

• Choose a fiber-filled diet which includes whole grains,

vegetables, and fruits.

• Eat more vegetables and fruits—the more colorful and

varied, the better.

• Calcium is important, but milk is not its best source.

Good sources of calcium are collards, bok choy, fortified

soy milk, baked beans, and supplements which contain

calcium and vitamin D.

• Water is the best source of liquid. Avoid sugary drinks, and limit intake of

juices and milk. Coffee, tea, artificially-sweetened drinks, 100-percent

fruit juices, low-fat milk and alcohol can fit into a healthy diet but are best

consumed in moderation. Sports drinks are recommended only for people

who exercise more than an hour at a stretch to replace substances lost in

sweat.

• Limit salt intake. Choose more fresh foods, instead of processed ones.

• Moderate alcohol drinking has health benefits, but is not recommended for

everyone.

• Daily multivitamin and extra vitamin D intake has potential health

benefits.

Other than nutrition, the guide recommends frequent physical activity (exercise) and

maintaining a healthy body weight.

In addition to dietary recommendations for the general population, there are many specific diets that have primarily been developed to promote better health in specific population groups, such as people with high blood pressure , or people who are overweight or obese. However, some of them may have more or less evidence for beneficial effects in normal people as well.

For specific conditions

There may be a relationship between lifestyle including food consumption and potentially lowering the risk of cancer or other chronic diseases. A healthy diet may consist mostly of whole plant foods, with limited consumption of energy-dense foods, red meat, alcoholic drinks and salt while reducing consumption of sugary drinks, and processed meat.

Diet and possible reduced disease risk

A healthy diet may contain non-starchy vegetables and fruits, including those with red, green, yellow, white, purple or orange pigments. Tomato cooked with oil, allium vegetables like garlic, and cruciferous vegetables like cauliflower "probably" contain compounds which are under research for their possible anti-cancer activity.

An unhealthy diet is a major risk factor for a number of chronic diseases including: high blood pressure, diabetes, abnormal blood lipids, overweight/obesity, cardiovascular diseases, andcancer

Unhealthy diets

The WHO estimates that 2.7 million deaths are attributable to a diet low in fruit and vegetable every year. Globally it is estimated to cause about 19% of gastrointestinal cancer, 31% ofischaemic heart disease, and 11% of strokes, thus making it one of the leading preventable causes of death worldwide

Fad diet usually refers to idiosyncratic diets and eating patterns. They are diets that claim to promote weight loss or treat obesity by various mechanisms, provide little to no scientific reasoning behind their purported health benefits, and have little or no proof to support them.

Fad diets

Physical Activity

In addition to the above factors, physical activity in itself is identified as the best way to keep onself healthy. WHO develops a global recommendation for health basically for three age groups namely 5–17 years old; 18–64 years old; and 65 years old and above. For 5–17 years old, at least 60 minutes of physical activity such as games, recreation daily is highly recommended. For the ones between 18–64 years and above 65 years old age group, at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise or at least 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity is recommended.