Creating a healthy diet has become as difficult as searching for the Holy Grail. There are so many people out there joining in on the weight loss craze that the average person is overwhelmed with choices. Marketers would have you believe that you cannot have a healthy diet that supports weight loss with out their product. You see them every day promoting their specially prepared meals, fantastic new supplements or weird new diets that seem to pop up every year. How on earth did primitive man survive with out all of these new scientific innovations in the food industry?
Don’t believe all the hype. Creating a healthy diet is not nearly as complicated as they want you to think. For instants, color is an indicator of the nutrients in our food so eating healthy can be as simple as eating a colorful meal. Or you can choose something from each food group to create a healthy meal. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has combined these two thoughts to update the Food Pyramid by color coding food groups. According to the USDA a healthy diet should emphasizes
o whole grains
Foods which fall into the grain food group are wheat, rice, oats, cornmeal, barley or another cereal grain. These may be either whole grains which contain the entire grain kernel (ie. the bran, germ, and endosperm) or refined grains which have been processed to removes the bran and germ. This gives grains a finer texture and improve their shelf life, but it also removes dietary fiber, iron, and many B vitamins.
o fruits and vegetables
In reference to food, fruits and vegetables are generally refers to as the edible part of plants. Although there are exceptions, vegetables are thought of as being savory, and not sweet, fruits refer to those plants that are sweet and fleshy. Vegetable juice is also a member of the vegetable group and 100% fruit juice counts as part of the fruit group. The USDA has vegetables organized into 5 subgroups: dark green vegetables, starchy vegetables, orange vegetables, dry and other vegetables. A list of the vegetables contained in each of these subgroups can be found on the following USDA webpage (http://www.mypyramid.gov/pyramid/vegetables.html). Nuts, grains, herbs and spices are not considered fruit or vegetable.
o lean meats, poultry, fish, beans, eggs, and nuts
Lean meats, poultry, fish, beans, eggs, nuts and beans are all good sources of proteins. Fish, nuts, and seeds contain healthy oils, so these foods may be chosen instead of meat or poultry.
o fat-free or low-fat milk and milk products.
Milk, and milk products are considered dairy products. Foods made from milk that retain their calcium content are part of the milk group, while foods made from milk that have little to no calcium, such as cream cheese, cream, and butter, are not.
And finally a healthy diet should be low in saturated fats, trans fats, cholesterol, salt (sodium), and added sugars.”
These are the basics to a healthy diet and all the information you need can be gotten from free sources like the USDA. In the same time it takes you to implement someone else’s meal plan you can create your own. Just keep in mind two straightforward rules of thumb, everything in moderation and keep it simple.
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[http://www.mypyramid.gov]
