Healthy Eating Season
By Christian Dejeu
Staff Writer
With the passing of the winter holidays along with our indulging feasting of rich and plenty foods now enters the season of focus on eating healthy, conveniently placed at the start of a New Year. Surrounding us, our shared New Year’s resolutions to be healthier, get healthier, and achieve healthy weight. Our supermarkets are working hard to narrow in on our intentions to eat healthy; gone is the central theme focused on celebrating feasts, rather fresh colorful veggies, fruits, and stir-fry meals are front and center. “Fire up the flavor,” they proclaim. Well here is my take to achieve healthy eating; keep it real and keep it simple.
First, keep it real. Choose to eat foods that are as close to nature as you can. This includes fresh and raw, steamed and roasted, but avoids and limits the processed and covered up foods that are commercialized and mostly focused on making company money rather than maintaining your health. Balance and moderation should give thoughtful consideration to the balance with nature the food demonstrates; in other words is it a lab created and maintained product or one that nature can create and maintain. Moderation is needed to ensure quality, quantity and variety are supported in the diet, as well as, to balance the lab food products and processed foods to those found and grown in nature. Finally, limit your added sugar, be aware and take responsibility for your sugar intake. Although, natural sugar is unlikely an issue, added sugars found in processed foods are, and have been found to provide 16% of all calories in the American diet. According to the American Heart Association, sugar is a leading contributor to many health issues and is raising blood fats and creating harmful swings in blood sugars. Specifically, sugar calories are “empty calories” contributing no nutrients, just inches to our waistlines, and replacing calories that are nutrient rich. Further, added sugar is training people, especially children and the old, to avoid or refuse foods that are not highly sweetened. Keep it real—the American Heart Association recommends the following amount of added sugar in your daily diet: females 6 teaspoon (24g) and males 9 teaspoons (36g); so read labels, snack healthily, skimp on sugar, quench your thirst with water, and choose naturally sweetened products that have nutritional value.
Secondly, enjoy and keep it simple. Again, we find it simple in fresh foods, such as fruits, vegetables, and whole grain and natural meats. It is recommended to focus on filling half of your plate with veggies and the other half with a variety of food you like and need to achieve your health. Relying on others to process and prepare your food often results more in making profit for someone else who is less likely to have your health interest in mind than the touted “convenience”—there is nothing convenient about the results of unhealthy food eating, namely being unhealthy, without energy, or overweight….think about it. Ultimately, take responsibility to be aware of what and how much you are putting in your mouth. It is found that weight and weight maintenance is 75% of what and how much you put in your mouth. You need to be smart about your eating to achieve and maintain health. Believe it or not, buying, cooking, and creating your own food could be one of the most important things you commit to since it puts the control of your destiny in your own hands. Enjoy simple, fresh foods with a spicy twist. Learn how other cultures and the world at large achieve healthy meals and give it a try. Or pile on those great tasting stir-fry veggies with some great whole grains of rice. Choose water to stay hydrated and do not drink your calories in unnecessary sweetened beverages.
Overall, I believe most people are aware of what is healthy eating and have the intention of achieving healthier eating, especially during the current healthy eating season we are in. However, the difficulty lies in practicing what we know to achieve what we want. My take is keep it real and keep it simple to achieve healthy eating. What is your take? Please share your thoughts and comments on how best to achieve and maintain eating healthy.
Work Cited
American Heart Association. “Frequently Asked Questions About Sugar.” Web. 19 May 2014. 1/20/2015.
Food and Nutrition Service. fns.USDA.gov. “Balancing Calories to Manage Weight.” Dietary Guidelines for America, 2010. Web. 1/20/2015.
Photo credit: www.brake.co.uk