Good Foods for Great Results

It's easy to make smart choices. Unfortunately, it's a little tougher to follow through. The trick to feeding your body begins with personal commitment and the ability to work hard at keeping your diet in check.

We all know how hard it can be to stay away from the drive-thru on the way home from work. Knowing what you're putting into your body can make it easier to make the right choices.

Get Your Vegetables

Your mom was right; vegetables are essential for building a healthy body. The earth provides us with a huge assortment of delicious vegetables that should be the basis of your healthy diet. As a rule, you should eat no less than 2 cups of fresh vegetables every day. Choose a variety of vegetables, including dark, leafy varieties like broccoli and spinach. Sweet potatoes are a delicious alternative to white, and carrots make an excellent snack. Chickpeas and dry beans including kidney, lima and pinto beans are packed with beneficial nutrients. Meeting your daily vegetable requirements is easy when you reach for a fresh spinach salad instead of French fries, or grab a bag of baby carrots instead of chips.

Eating Grains

When you consider that the average slice of bread contains just one ounce of grains, it can be a little daunting to think of satisfying your required intake of six ounces per day. An easy option is choosing whole grains and multi-grain alternatives wherever possible. Most breakfast cereals contain about one ounce of grains per cup, but whole grain choice can up the ante. Adding whole wheat pasta, rice and bran to your recipes also contributes to your daily intake, and reaching for a handful of whole grain crackers or popcorn is a sensible way to satisfy your snacking urges.

Pass the Fruit!

There's no excuse for choosing fat and sugary snacks when you keep fresh fruits on hand. Just two cups of fruit per day, or the equivalent of one banana and one apple, can meet your daily requirement. Snacking aside, fruits are perfect accompaniments to virtually every meal. Slice a banana onto your peanut butter sandwich. Try sliced berries on your French toast, or grapes and mandarin wedges in your salad. Frozen, canned and dried fruits can work in a pinch, but fresh varieties are the best dietary choices. Fruit juice (not fruit punch) can also boost your daily intake, but these are loaded with sugars and should be limited.

Do Some Dairy

Your teeth and bones need calcium to stay strong and healthy at any age. Growing children from two to eight years of age require the calcium intake of about two cups of milk a day. Older kids and adults should boost the amount to three cups per day. Cheese and yogurt are also excellent calcium-rich options. If weight is a concern, choose low-fat milk and dairy products. Even those who suffer from lactose intolerance can incorporate calcium in their diets, with a good selection of lactose-free products on the market. When choosing dairy products including milk, cheese and yogurt, go for the low-fat options. If you are lactose intolerant, there are lactose-free and calcium-fortified products on the market.

Meat, Tofu, Nuts, and Beans

The food guide suggests that we eat five ounces of protein-packed meat or beans every day. This doesn't necessarily mean that sitting down to a ten-ounce strip loin or a half-pounder at the burger joint is a wise idea. Remember, you should be choosing healthy foods. Meat should be baked, grilled or broiled to prevent grease from spoiling your diet. It's easy to vary your protein intake with options like nuts, peas, beans and fish.

Easy on the Fat

Certain fats are necessary for the body to function normally, but for the most part it's smart to limit fats wherever possible. Choosing healthy foods is only part of the equation. You also need to be smart in your preparation methods. Instead of loading your skillet with butter, margarine, lard or shortening, saut your food in a little broth, or just use a non-stick pan. Seasonings and fruit juices can add flavor to your food without loading it up with fat. Foods that are high in fat will raise your weight and your cholesterol, so avoid them whenever you can.

Try to avoid purchasing processed foods that are high in fat, salt, and additives, and limit shopping to the produce and meat aisles. If you choose processed or packaged foods, read the labels and avoid those that are loaded with saturated fats, trans fats and sodium. Read the nutrition and ingredient labels before you buy, and it will be easier to make smarter choices at snack and meal time.

Put good things in to your body and you'll get good things from it. You'll feel more energetic, and may soon find that you're exercising more and thinking a little more clearly. Putting effort into your diet today will pay off with a healthy body that will serve you well for years to come.

Article Source: http://www.christiannotepad.com

Columnist Ambrose Hutson writes for a variety of web sites, on womans health and health questions themes.
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