What is healthy and balanced diet?
Many people struggle with their weight. Due to too little or wrong knowledge about healthy and balanced nutrition and on the right nutritional behavior it is difficult for them to maintain their weight or to reduce it. With the help of the following tips you can question your eating habits and change them.
Regular meals
If you want to lose weight, you should really have your meals at regular times. We recommend avoiding little snacks between meals as you lose control over the overall amount of the consumed food. In this way you take in more calories than you can burn. So, regular meals are a first step to lose weight.
Take your time
Take your time whenever you eat. Only after 15 to 20 minutes does our brain notice that we are full. If you eat slowlier you will have taken in less calories by the time you feel that you are already full. In this way you can eat less without feeling hungry.
What does our body need?
If you want to lose weight healthily you should make sure to eat a healthy and balanced diet. People suffering from overweight often eat unbalanced, i.e. too much fat and too many carbohydrates are consumed. Fruits and vegetables which provide many essential vitamins and minerals are on the menu only very rarely. In the following you will learn how much you should eat of each energy supplier.
Fats
Fats are important energy suppliers which play an essential role in maintaining our health status. In the body fat is an energy reserve and saves our body from cold. Additionally, fats serve as repository for fatty acids and fat-soluble vitamins.
You should eat 50 to 80 gr. fat per day, whereas you should stick to the 1/3 solution: 1/3 spreadable fat, 1/3 cocking fat and 1/3 hidden fats. You should keep an eye on the hidden fats, in particular, as they are in many industrially produced food products. If you eat a croissant which has 26 gr. fat, the permitted daily ration of hidden fats is already used up.
Carbohydrates
Carbohydrates are the quick suppliers of energy in our body. They are in food products or can be produced by our body. For a short time they can be stored as glycogen in our muscles and the liver. If the storage is full, carbohydrates are transformed into fat which is then stored in the fatty tissue. If you do not want this to happen, only 50 to 60% of your food demand should consist of carbohydrates. Corn, rice, potatoes and pasta are good suppliers of carbohydrates.
Proteins
Proteins are used for the component metabolism, in particular. Just as the carbohydrates they can be taken in with food but can also be produced by our body. They are essential for muscle building. According to the “Deutsche Gesellschaft für Ernährung” a protein requirement of 0.8 gr/kg body weight are optimal. Be aware that the body takes in the various forms of proteins differently. So, animal proteins (e.g. egg) can be processed more easily than vegetable proteins (e.g. lentils). The better the proteins can be taken in, the less you need to eat of the particular food.
The right choice of food
The food pyramid shows you what healthy and balanced diet looks like. Each day you should eat three portions of vegetables and two portions of fruits. The further up the foods are displayed in the food pyramid, the less you should eat of them.
You should also pay attention to what you drink. Many drinks are highly caloric. You should avoid Cola and Fanta, in particular, and juices should only be consumed very rarely as they also contain a lot of sugar. If you want to enjoy drinks without calories you should drink water without any artificial flavor enhancers or unsweetened tea.
