Healthy Diet – What Is the Best Diet For Weight Loss?

If you’ve ever wondered what your body needs to maintain its optimum health, then food is the answer! The word “food” actually refers to the chemical composition of foods, and there are 7 basic categories of food, with their respective prices and requirements. This article aims to shed some light on what foods people should eat for optimum health.

In a nutshell, food is any material consumed to give nutrition to an organism. Basically, food consists of any material that an organism requires to reproduce itself. It also generally consists of any energy required to function; in short, all the substances used to make it do what it does. Food is generally of animal, plant or fungi origin, and carries essential nutrients, including carbohydrates, fats, protein, vitamins, or even minerals.

As far as nutrition is concerned, the food we consume represents the primary source of nutrients and energy to the body. However, most of us consume way too many foods and are totally unbalanced. The best definition of a balanced diet is one in which all the food groups are consumed in the right proportion, at the right times, to give the body the nutrition it requires to function normally.

Let’s look at food in terms of its nutrition. The first group, carbohydrates, includes both complex and simple sugars as well as a number of metabolically active carbohydrates. These include pasta, bread, rice, cereals and pasta sauce, potatoes, sweet potatoes, processed fruit, vegetables, fruit juice, and sugar. The second group, fats, include all animal fats, dairy fats, peanuts, cooking oils, palm oil, sugar, margarine, butter, and eggs. The third group, vitamins and minerals, includes all the required vitamins and minerals we need in our daily diet. These may include vitamin B12, calcium, phosphorous, potassium, magnesium, bromelain, selenium, sodium, zinc, thiamin, and folate.

Let’s now see food in terms of its nutrient value. Whole foods like fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grain breads and cereals, legumes and nuts, seeds, mushrooms, and seaweeds have very high nutrient values. They are all rich in antioxidants, phytochemicals and other beneficial nutrients that your body needs. The same is true of processed foods such as sugar, salt and flour, which are lacking in nutrition.

When it comes to eating or preparing food, the main thing to remember is that the nutrient content is more important than the amount of calories. The food you eat should provide you with the vitamins and minerals your body needs for a healthy existence. If you consume processed food, make sure you read the label carefully. Most often than not, the nutritional information on the back of the pack will only tell you how much fat, sugar, or other nutrients the food has, but will not tell you if the food is processed or not.