Healthy Food Tips - A List Of Healthy Foods For Healthy Living

Why healthy food? Why is eating healthy so important?

If you're on a diet, or trying to watch your weight, healthy eating and a healthy diet are important. Even if you're not dieting, they're still very important to help give you energy and make you feel your best.

The healthy food facts are that you should:

• Eat a variety of foods from different food groups.


• Make sure your diet has enough fibre (found in fruit, vegetables and wholegrain cereals).


• Make sure you have plenty of fruit and vegetables – eat them as snacks.


• Boost your intake of iron and calcium.


• Make sugary foods and alcohol an occasional treat, and then in small amounts.


• Make sure you limit fatty foods, especially saturated fats (found in butter and some oils).

Above all, you should enjoy your food. Yes, a healthy diet and great taste can go together!

Planning to eat healthily is very simple – just make sure you eat food from different food groups in the right proportions. See my Balanced Healthy Diet page to guide you.

It doesn't have to be difficult to add some healthy food to your diet either. You can add some sliced fruit to your breakfast cereal (bananas are great, and also strawberries). You can make a simple smoothie by blending together banana, strawberry and skim milk. Add other fruits like peaches or apricots if you like, too.

If you usually snack on cakes and biscuits during the day, try apples instead. Or, some dried fruits (like apricot) are also great. You could also slice some carrot up into chip-size portions and munch on them. Carrots are actually quite sweet when they're raw.

A really great fact about fruit and vegetables is that they're very low in fat, or even fat free! They're also rich in vitamin and other nutrients your body needs to function. Once you start getting more of these you'll start feeling better – less tired and more energetic. If you're eating because you always feel hungry, then give these a try.

You should also start to add more fibre to your diet. Fibre is important as it helps your digestive system break food down more quickly. Other than fruit and vegetables, fibre is found is a variety of foods such as potatoes, pasta, wholegrain breakfast cereals and wholemeal bread.

Adding fibre to your diet is simple. Other than eating more fruit and vegetables, you can start eating wholemeal bread rather than processed white bread. You can also leave the skin on fruit and vegetables (like apples, pears, carrots, potatoes) rather than peeling them.

Another important aspect top eating healthy is to reduce your fat intake, particularly the 'bad' saturated fats. These fats have been linked to health problems such as diabetes, stroke, heart disease and obesity. Saturated fats are mainly found in takeaway/fast foods, chicken skin, butter & cream and the visible fat in red meat.

Not all fat is bad, though. Unsaturated fat, particularly monounsaturated fat, is beneficial due to its cholesterol-lowering properties. These fats can be found in most nuts, and cooking oils like olive and canola oil.

Please read the rest of the Healthy Food section to get some more healthy food tips and ideas. In no time you'll see the benefits!

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