Nowadays, where the environment is becoming more and more polluted every day, where civilization diseases such as overweight or hypertension affect more and more of the population, there is also a positive trend, the fashion for healthy food. The fashion for healthy eating is spreading the fastest among young people with a healthy lifestyle.
This is probably due to the growing awareness of young people and the fact that they would like to keep their youth, vigour and beauty as long as possible. In order to achieve this goal, it is certainly necessary to take care of an appropriate diet, which can be helped by dieticians as well as by stationary and online health food shops.
The issue of healthy food is inextricably linked to the concept of organic food. What is it? How does it differ from conventional food? Is it better? Organic food is food produced using organic farming methods with as little artificial fertilisers, chemicals and pesticides as possible, i.e. plant protection products.
This is why an organic farm needs more workers, more expensive fodder, and less crop is harvested because of the lack of spraying. Nevertheless, it is worth it. It is worth following this fashion today. It is worth taking care of your health, beauty and well-being by choosing healthy food as often as possible.
Nutrients
Starting from scratch, the division into nutrients should be distinguished. Almost every dish prepared by us consists of some solid ingredients. The most important of them are:
- Proteins
- Carbohydrates
- Fats
Practically every recipe is a dish consisting of different proportions of ingredients. To help you navigate the topic of nutritional values, I will briefly explain the role of the proteins, fats and carbohydrates mentioned above in the body and what products they should be supplied from.
Proteins, otherwise known as proteins, are the basic building material for the body, they constitute as much as 50% of dry human body weight. It is using proteins that the body builds and rebuilds its own tissues and cells. This is why protein is such an important component of food, which must be supplied from food.
Of the products which are rich in protein available to the public, attention should be paid to such products as:
- chicken or turkey breasts,
- beef,
- eggs,
- skinny curd.
Of course, you should remember that excess protein, just like carbohydrates, can simply be converted into fatty tissue. As a general rule, there is no point in consuming more than 30-40g of protein at one time because the body will not assimilate more. All this, of course, also depends on body weight and many other factors.
Carbohydrates are food products mainly of plant origin. Their main role is to provide energy, while the most important aspect concerning carbohydrates is their assimilability, and more specifically how the body draws energy from them.
Carbohydrates can be divided into those which can be converted very quickly into a fuel in the form of calories, and those from which the “release” of energy is gradual and much slower.
At this point it is necessary to introduce the concept of the glycemic index (GI), which determines how fast the body assimilates given carbohydrates.
Glycemic Index is a list of products rich in carbohydrates presented in the form of a table in which the number assigned to each product determines what level of blood sugar will be reached after eating a given product.
A high GI means a faster release of energy from a meal and a similarly low GI means that the energy from the product will be released slowly and gradually.
To sum up, carbohydrates should be supplied for most of the day, however, attention should be paid to their glycemic index. Products with a high GI can be consumed calmly immediately after exercise, while those with a low and medium GI should be consumed for the rest of the day so that energy is released from them slowly and gradually ensuring a continuous supply.
Among the products available to the public that are rich in carbohydrates, attention should be paid to such products as, among others:
- brown rice
- white rice, basmati and others,
- wholemeal noodles,
- wholemeal bread,
- buckwheat groats
Fats are divided by origin – into animal and vegetable fats and into saturated and unsaturated fats. As you can see, contrary to the popular opinion among people who “take care of the line”, fats are an essential element of a healthy diet. In addition to the advantages listed above, they are also a source of vitamins A, D, E and K and contribute to the production of many hormones in the body.
Vegetables play a very important role in nutrition. They provide ingredients that regulate the biological processes of the body, thus making an important contribution to maintaining health. They contain vitamins, minerals and fibre and have a positive effect on the rate of metabolism. They work well in reducing diets, satisfying the appetite and not contributing to fat.
Additionally, eating large amounts of green vegetables helps to maintain the acid-base balance at the right level. Let’s stop here for a moment. What is acidification? How does it happen and how to prevent it?
The products we consume differ in their content of acidifying and alkaliating elements. Diets rich in rice, oatmeal, groats, pasta, eggs, cheese and meat (acidifying products) with an inadequate supply of vegetables (alkalising products) can lead to acidification of the body, which in turn can cause diseases of the digestive tract, muscles, joints, hair loss, caries, periodontosis, skin problems or overweight.
The most important action we should take to prevent acidification is to balance our daily diet. The table available at this address contains examples of products and their acid-base equivalents (+ acid and -base reaction). When preparing your own diet, you should make sure that in each meal the “acidic” food is balanced by the “alkaline” food, e.g. a dish of chicken and rice should be supplemented with an appropriate amount of spinach or broccoli.
Water. When discussing the individual nutrients, we should not forget about water. The body’s main action factor transfers nutrients to the body’s cells and also helps to remove substances that are no longer needed. Man is made up of 50-70% water – without it, most of the reactions in our body would be impossible.
Long-term dehydration can even lead to death, and in the case of athletes and physically active people, even slight dehydration causes negative effects. Therefore, you should never allow this to happen by drinking mineral water regularly during the day.
Vitamins are essential to life. They ensure proper control of cell growth and regeneration processes by stimulating the production of vital energy. Our health would be at risk if any of the vitamins were not consumed according to the recommended quantities. Most vitamins are supplied to our body with food. A properly balanced diet should contain all the vitamins necessary for the body.