Eating well: what it means and the tips to succeed
Very often the idea of "eating well" is associated with losing weight and slimming diets. However, this is not the case. A balanced diet serves, above all, to stay fit and in good health, both physically and mentally. Furthermore, the concept of eating well should not be confused with the elimination from one's diet of most foods other than fruits, vegetables or products known as "lean". Given all these misunderstandings, today we will reveal how to lead a healthy lifestyle and make it a "habit, not an" exception to the rule.
Before starting, however, did you know that there are at least 10 foods that should never be missing on your table?
1. A "diet with all the nutrients
In recent years, more and more people are drastically cutting back or eliminating certain types of food altogether due to their composition. For example, carbohydrates are "banned" from food because they seem to be the source of weight gain, while the amount of protein is increased as they are seen as slimming nutrients. All this should be forgotten if you really want to get into the diet. "optics of eating well and in a balanced way. A healthy diet does not eliminate any nutritional principle, on the contrary, it is determined precisely by the variety of the latter.
Therefore, carbohydrates such as bread, pasta, rice and potatoes not only can, but must be present in the diet of each of us. First of all, these molecules are primarily responsible for our energy reserves and, secondly, they play a fundamental role in muscle development.
Like carbohydrates, proteins are also essential for our well-being, but we must not abuse them. The consumption of too many proteins is normally due to the false belief that they cause you to lose weight. In fact, eating protein is calorically identical to ingesting carbohydrates. If you take it in excessive quantities, you risk cardiovascular disorders, inflammation and acidosis.
Therefore, eating well includes all the nutrients that make up the different foods: vitamins, carbohydrates, proteins, minerals and good fats, such as omega 3, must be on the agenda.
2. Pay attention to where the food comes from
Choosing the right foods is the key to eating well and by this we don't just mean the type of food, but the quality and origin of the product itself. For a healthy diet, therefore, it is necessary to prefer only seasonal foods, especially when it comes to fruit and vegetables, even better if at 0 km. When you buy foods from other countries, in fact, you run the risk of consuming foods very treated at the origin, often with pesticides and preservatives used with the aim of making them arrive ripe and intact on the shelves of our supermarkets. Organic products or products grown in the surrounding areas, on the other hand, retain a greater quantity of their nutritional properties and avoid the risk of taking unhealthy substances.
3. The "rule" of five meals a day
It is now known that within a day it is always better to eat five meals instead of the traditional three. By introducing a snack in the middle of the morning and one in the afternoon, the sense of hunger is controlled and the production of fats from sugar is limited. In excess. According to nutritionists, the ideal would be to divide the percentage of daily calories as follows:
- Breakfast: 25%
- Snack: 10%
- Lunch: 30%
- Snack: 10%
- Dinner: 25%
The snack can consist of different foods, including yogurt, dried fruit, fruit and vegetable juices or a fruit.
4. The importance of toppings
We have seen how a healthy and balanced diet is based precisely on the variety of foods it contains. More often than not, what is bad for your health is not so much the food itself as the way it is cooked. You need to pay attention to the recipes to use if you really want to eat well and the starting point is the condiments. The one to prefer is the extra virgin olive oil, because it has a favorable nutritional composition. We must not take too much but not too little: several people, in fact, ban any type of condiment from their diet, thinking that even the oil makes you fat. In reality, in the right doses, this product is an ally of well-being since it contains a lot vitamin E, a powerful antioxidant.
To flavor the various dishes, then, one must say yes to spices and aromatic herbs, while sugar in sweet dishes and butter and salt in savory ones are to be excluded. The latter, in fact, is not at all necessary: the foods we introduce into our body already naturally contain the correct amount of sodium. Salt is a substance that can be harmful both for the kidneys but also for the heart, blood vessels and brain. .
5. The "enemies" of health
It is true that variety is synonymous with eating well, but we must not forget that there are foods that are not good for the health of our body. We are talking, first of all, of the so-called "junk food", that is all those industrial food products, often processed at origin and sold packaged. Sausages, sausages, fatty meats, chips, popcorn, snacks and other industrial products are the first enemies of our well-being. In addition to having a particularly high rate of calories, they contain many saturated fats, salt and sugar that unbalance the balance of the diet that we want to follow.
Likewise, avoid consuming fried or cooked foods with a lot of seasoning. Recipes that involve cooking in foil or steam are preferable, otherwise you can always use a non-stick pan, with only a light brush of extra virgin olive oil.
Example of a healthy daily menu
The daily calorie requirement varies from person to person, based on many factors including age and whether it is a man or a woman. Normally, an adult would need about 2000 kcal per day, but this value decreases if we are talking about a weight loss diet. Here is an example of a menu for a balanced low-calorie diet.
Breakfast:
- green tea or coffee or low-fat milk
- egg whites omelette or raw ham or wholemeal rusks
Snack:
- green tea or herbal tea
- centrifuge of fruit and / or vegetables or juice
Lunch:
- wholemeal pasta with shrimps and courgettes or brown rice with vegetables and cheese
- mixed salad dressed with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil
Snack:
- green tea or herbal tea or coffee
- fruit salad or low-fat yogurt
Dinner:
- grilled white meat or baked salmon
- cereals or wholemeal bread or grilled vegetables or boiled potatoes
The quantities of foods vary according to each individual. Normally, for men the portions of carbohydrates are around 80 grams, while for women around 60. For proteins, however, it goes around 150-170 grams for an adult man and for women around 130-150. .
We remind you that before following any diet, whether slimming or not, it is advisable to seek the advice of a doctor or an expert, because health comes first!
