All World
Gayatri Pariwar

Keep Your Food Nutritious and Balanced

It is essential that our food intake is healthy and balanced. Healthy food means, nutritious food and balanced means, right proportion of carbohydrates, proteins, fat, fiber, vitamins and minerals in the food.

Therefore, we should not starve ourselves to lose weight; instead eat in right proportion and right kind of food. Approximately 75% people in this world eat excess of salt every day, as per the survey of American Heart Association. Most people ingest at least 4 gm extra salt every day, which is double the amount to be taken by an individual as recommended by the International Health Organization. A survey report has mentioned that — 23 lakh deaths occur every year around the world due to heart attack; and the major reason for this is excess of salt intake.

Researchers report that reduction of just 35% of salt from our food everyday can save thousands of people around the world. In addition, by doing some exercises like jogging, walking, running or any other kind of physical exercises, can help in keeping an individual fit and healthy. This is one of the best ways to reduce and control blood pressure. More salt means hypernatremia and less salt means hyponatremia. Therefore, daily salt intake is equally important. Nutritionists say that, a person should take at least 2-3 gins of salt every day. Completely eliminating salt from the physical system could be very dangerous for a person's health. It can cause dizziness and even one can go in coma. Sodium and Potassium elements are very important to run the brain actively; however those suffering from heart or liver related problem, should reduce daily salt intake.

Our daily salt intake comes not just from pure salt, but from milk and vegetable products as well. Most of the preserved food contains lot more salt than required, to keep the food free of bacteria and viruses. Therefore one should avoid consumption of preserved food. It could be very harmful. Salt intake is important in reduced quantity to feel the taste of food as well. In the same way, sugar intake is equally important in our daily life. Lately, it has been observed that more and more sugar is taken by kids as well as adults in different forms, i.e. tea, coffee, soft drinks, preserved juices, cookies, cakes, chocolates etc.

All these food products are very harmful for health and can cause diabetes, blood pressure or arthritis. Therefore, sugar intake should also be reduced to remain healthy and fit. Nutritionists also say that every individual should not consume more than — 25 to 30% fat every day; fat includes vegetable oil, milk products, butter etc. Some of the important vitamins, like A, D, E and K, are soluble only in fat and then get absorbed by the gut. In the absence of fat, such important vitamins or minerals, stay in insoluble form and don't get absorbed, which could be harmful for our physical system. At the same time, our fat diet should not contain excess of omega-3 or omega-6. Lately, it has been observed that vegetable oil and olive oil consumption is more to avoid intake of saturated fat, however excess of omega-3 or omega-6 can also cause various kind of diseases. Therefore it's better to use peanut, sesame, mustard, coconut or flaxseed oil for cooking our daily food recipes. Same way fruits and vegetables contain sufficient amount of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and fibers. Fruits and vegetables contain lot more nutrition and are very beneficial for health. Sprouted food grains are also very good for health; they get digested slowly due to excess of fiber and one feels full for long time.

It also keeps level of blood sugar and insulin under control. Refined flour such as Maida, refined sugar, rice and lentils contain much less fiber and nutritious components. Therefore, we should reduce intake of such food products. There are several research articles published on the fiber intake and its relation with body weight; and one of them is by Food Science of Nutrition Department from University of Minnesota, mentioning that more fiber intake is good to reduce body weight. In addition to reducing salt and sugar intake and increasing fiber intake in our day to day life, we all should also make a disciplined food habit. We should have fixed time of eating, i.e. morning, afternoon, evening and night time and in right proportion as per one's physical needs. One should not keep eating all the time. Also eat the right kind of food, which will be beneficial for health. So far we have put focus on salt, sugar and fiber intake in our food consumption in right proportion and at right time every day. However, while eating chewing the food and eating slowly is equally important. While chewing, our mouth secretes lots of saliva which contains digestive enzymes and helps in the digestion of food.

Eating slowly helps its fast digestion and we don't face indigestion, bloating or other digestion related problems. However, food eaten in a hurry never gets digested properly and very little nutritious elements are absorbed in our physical system. Finally, for better digestion, drinking water in right proportion is equally important. One should drink water slowly in sips to avoid diluting digestive enzymes. It's better to drink water after an hour of food intake for better digestion and continue drinking on short intervals, as per the need for the rest of the day. This way, by keeping a balance of food and water intake, in right proportion and at right time, we can fulfill our need of nutrition and improve our eating habits to keep healthy for longer time.

And dieting, I discovered, was another form of disordered eating, just as anorexia and bulimia similarly disrupt the natural order of eating. "Ordered" eating is the practice of eating when you are hungry and ceasing to eat when your brain sends the signal that your stomach is full. ... All people who live their lives on a diet are suffering. If you can accept your natural body weight and not force it to beneath your body's natural, healthy weight, then you can live your life free of dieting, of restriction, of feeling guilty every time you eat a slice of your kid's birthday cake.