Posts Tagged ‘ Properly ’

Rather than focusing just on losing weight you should perhaps be thinking about losing weight while remaining healthy. This is the sensible way of looking at losing weight, and, immediately cuts out fad diets, crash diets, and pills of all sorts.

Just because the latest Hollywood diet is endorsed by a celebrity doesn’t mean it’s right for the ordinary person, who would do better to stick to tried and tested principle without compromising health.

1)Variety
It is important to realize that your body benefits most from a varied but healthy diet. This is because your body requires a whole range of different nutrients, and some of these only occur in certain foods. Vitamin C for example is very important for our body as it is part of many different essential processes involved in repair and immunity. It is abundant in fruit and vegetables but not in a piece of steak.

Fat-soluble vitamins do however occur in meat and dairy products but not in oranges and strawberries. Your body needs a selection of proteins ,fats, carbohydrates, fiber, vitamins, and minerals at all, or at least most meals to feel satisfied

2)Planning
This takes a little planning in order to achieve balanced, healthy meals, rather than just reaching for the easy option of ready made packaged meals from the supermarket shelf. You should try to eat fresh foods as much as possible, rather than ready-prepared meals which are usually low in quality protein such as meat, whilst high in cheap carbohydrates, often sugars which are less healthy than complex carbohydrates.

Also, it is a good idea to eat some foods raw since cooking destroys nutrients in foods in general. There are however many starch containing plants that need cooking before we are able to digest them. Mostly this is common sense and experience.

3)Food Groups
You should try and eat foods from all food groups rather than shun any one type of food completely. You need regular supplies of protein which is best provided by lean meats, fish, and vegetables such as beans and lentils. Too much red meat is to be avoided as the fats contained are largely the unhealthy saturated kind. Fats that are healthy are omega-3s found in oily fish such as salmon and mackerel, and in plant seeds such as flax and sunflower. Other unsaturated and mono-saturated oils like olive oil are also OK.

Carbohydrates are best eaten as unrefined, which means they still contain the whole grain. This way they still contain many micro-nutrients and fibre. Many carbohydrates that have been “refined” are less healthy because they are quick and easy for the body to digest and absorb, and although they can give a quick energy boost, repeated consumption tends to upset blood sugar levels by causing rapid spikes. This has an adverse effect over time, leading to possible diabetes and obesity. Unrefined carbohydrates are obtained from whole meal breads and pasta, and brown rice.

By ensuring that any weight loss diet you undertake does not deprive you of any of the best types of foods as outlined above, you can be sure that you remain healthy whilst losing weight. You should try and lose a lot of weight rapidly, but rather aim for a slow steady loss than can be maintained over the long term.