What is a healthy diet?
A healthy diet is one that helps a person maintain good health or one that promotes good health in a person. A diet that is healthy would typically consist of a good combination of nutrients and water. A lot of people do not recognize that water is an essential part of a healthy diet. A vast majority of the population drinks less water than it is supposed to. It is generally accepted that a body needs about 3 liters or water every day to stay adequately hydrated and in peak condition.
Assuming that your water intake is adequate, your next area of interest should be the nutrients that you are consuming. A human body will need vitamins, protein, fats and carbohydrates in a unique combination. Most of the adults these days consume an excess amount of fat and carbohydrates. What is worse is that they consume more of the bad amount of fats and carbohydrates, thus selecting the worst possible sources of energy in their daily diet.
Bad carbohydrates and bad fats
There are good carbohydrates and bad carbohydrates. The same applies to fats. Bad carbohydrates are high fructose corn syrup, refined sugar and examples of bad fats are red meats or fats that are high in saturated fat.
The reason why consumption of a bad diet is so prevalent is because the food industry is predominantly designed to suit the taste buds and not your waist size. The onus is on the user or the dieter to control his or her diet in such a manner that they do not increase their weight. This is however where most people fail miserably. They are so used to consuming junk food and following a poor diet that switching to a normal or healthy diet becomes a monumental task for them.
Anyone can greatly improve the quality of their daily diet by simply following the most important aspects to a healthy diet as shown below.
1. Increase water intake – Try to drink at least 3 liters of water in a day and try to avoid other beverages at all costs. Soda especially should be the drink that you should definitely eliminate as soon as possible as it is full of bad carbohydrates or empty carbohydrates that will do nothing but add to your waist line.
2. Avoid Trans-fat – Avoid foods that are high in trans-fat. Most red meats, processed foods are high in trans-fat. A healthier choice would be lean meats, fat from nuts or other sources of unsaturated fats.
3. Limit the intake of plain sugar and try to use substitutes such as honey. Stay away from artificial sweeteners as they can act as a diuretic. Also, limit the intake of salt or foods that are high in sodium. Salt and sodium can make you feel bloated and feel sluggish, even if you are already overweight.
Though there are many different specific diets that can be followed, one would definitely be on a healthy diet plan if they even broadly followed the pointers given above.
