GENERAL INFORMATION - HEALTHY LIVING

WEBSITE: http://www.whole-food-supplements-guide.com/healthy-eating-facts.html

Healthy Eating Facts and Disease

Eating the right amounts of fruits and vegetables can help you to ward off,heart disease and stroke, control blood pressure and blood cholesterol levels, prevent certain types of cancer and guard against cataracts and macular degeneration, which are two common causes of vision loss. They can also help you prevent diverticulitis, which is an uncomfortable and painful intestinal ailment.Fruits and vegetables are linked with a reduced risk of heart disease, stroke, cataracts and cancer. As a matter of fact, eating five or more fruits and vegetables a day can cut the risk of cancer in HALF!

The food choices you make each day can have a significant effect on your overall health and well-being, especially if you have a specific condition such as arthritis. If you aren't eating a balanced diet, you may feel fatigued.
Eating too much of the wrong kinds of foods can cause you to gain weight, which can worsen arthritis-related pain and lower your self-esteem. To feel healthy, it's important to eat healthy. A balanced diet can give you added energy and help you control your weight.
If you think of healthy eating as simply as counting calories or tallying grams of fat, it's time to think about food in a new way. Eating well means enjoying great taste as well as healthy nutrition.
No single food provides all of the nutrients your body needs. Eating a variety of foods helps ensure the right mix of nutrients for good health.
Healthy Eating Facts and Variety of Foods
Experts agree that the best way to increase nutrients in your diet and limit fat and calories is to eat more plant-based foods. Plant foods - fruits, vegetables and foods made from whole grains - contain beneficial vitamins, minerals, fibers and health-enhancing compounds called phytochemicals.
Phytochemicals may help reduce the risk of chronic diseases, such as arthritis, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer. By emphasizing plant foods in your diet, you increase consumption of many naturally healthy compounds.
There are different nutrients in each fruit and vegetable and you need a variety. That's why you should eat at least five different colors a day. In fact the colors of the fruits and vegetables are due to the different levels and varieties of nutrients each fruit and vegetable provides.
This will ensure that you receive a variety of good nutrients. For example, if you have some blueberries with breakfast, a spinach and tomato salad with lunch, steamed carrots with dinner and a banana as a snack in the evening, you've consumed five different colors of fruits or vegetables.
Healthy Eating Facts and Consumers
According to a recent study, the average American only consumes from three to four servings of fruits and vegetables a day. The actual recommended amount is between five and thirteen servings a day, depending on your caloric intake.
The biggest advantage to eating fruits and vegetables in the proper amounts is for the heart. A research study was done with 110,000 men and women for 14 years. Their dietary habits were studied, and those who consumed 8 or more servings of fruits and vegetables a day were 30% less likely to have a heart attack or stroke than those who consumed the lowest amounts of fruits and vegetables each day, which was 1.5 servings a day.
Some experts suggest that you eat most of your servings from this group in vegetables. Most people can manage eating the fruit, because it's sweet, and they overlook the vegetables. Try eating 2-4 servings of fruit, and have the rest of the servings in vegetables. As a matter of fact, experts say the correct amount of vegetables to eat a day is unlimited.
Phytochemicals - Healthy Eating Facts
Phytochemical's are naturally occurring plant chemicals which are essential to the health of our bodies. There can be up to 100 different phytochemicals in one serving of vegetables.There are different types of these phytochemicals depending on whether the vegetable is raw or cooked. That's why it's important to get a balanced mix of cooked and raw vegetables. Heat sensitive phytochemicals can be lost during long cooking times or boiling, so keep cooking times short.
Whole Grains - Healthy Eating Facts
You should also look for whole grain foods. A whole grain food contains all three parts of the kernel; the bran, the germ, and the endosperm. Processed or refined foods, such as white flour and rice, contain only the endosperm, the other two having been removed.
This process strips the kernel of essential phytochemicals, minerals and fiber. As a matter of fact, the loss of phytochemicals can be almost 100%, and these are what cannot be put back after the processing.
Phytochemicals help lower blood pressure and maintain healthy blood cholesterol levels. A man who has a bowl of oatmeal every day is twenty percent less likely to suffer from a premature heart attack than a man who doesn't
Healthy Eating Facts -Dietary Guidelines
As a matter of fact, whole grain foods are so important, that in 2005, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans changed their recommendations of two servings of whole grain foods a day to three servings. They reduce the risk of heart disease, cancer and diabetes. They are important sources ofvitamins and minerals, such as thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, folate, selenium, zinc and iron.We all know what healthy foods are; it's commonsense. Vegetables like: broccoli, kale, cabbage, spinach, parsley, tomatoes, carrots, barley, etc. Fruits like: oranges, apples, cranberries, cherries, pineapple, papaya, etc.
The problem is we all lead busy lives. Between jobs, kids, and all the stresses of life, we simply don't make the time to eat as healthily as we know we should.
That's why whole food supplements have experienced such incredible demand. A whole food supplement is a product in which only the healthiest of foods are compressed and then encapsulated.


Healthy Eating Facts - Supplements
In order to help people get the health benefits of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains without actually eating them, nutritional supplements are becoming increasingly popular.
Taking a whole food supplement is the simple, convenient, and inexpensive way to add more nutrition from fruits and vegetables to your diet, 
every day.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/health/treatments/healthy_living/nutrition/index.shtml - BBC NUTRITION CENTRE