You are what you eat! Guaranteed you have heard this saying before. And it’s true: A healthy diet is the best foundation for a long, healthy life. It will have a positive effect on your organism and will help you to develop more resistance. It also reduces the risk of developing cardiovascular disease, dementia, rheumatism, obesity and diabetes. Even with existing illnesses, a healthy diet can speed up the recovery process and alleviate the symptoms of illnesses.
A healthy diet is a real panacea. But not only that! It increases your performance, makes you more able to concentrate and thus much more efficient. Thanks to a healthy diet you are more alert – even the feeling of tiredness after lunch is absent. Fatty food is heavier in the stomach than healthy, easily digestible food.
All in all, it can be said that a healthy diet has a positive effect on your state of mind. It makes you much more productive and successful and is therefore a real secret recipe for success! Why secret? Because, despite knowing about the numerous benefits, far too few people still eat healthily. What we want to change! Learn all about the superpower of a healthy diet here!
When is nutrition healthy at all?
In order to eat a really healthy diet, you first need to know when your diet is healthy. It is enough to eat salad once a week? Or foregoing the extra cheese on your next pizza? You must never reach for sweets again if you want to eat healthily? Of course not! Basically, your body needs certain nutrients during the day. These include vitamins, phytonutrients, fats, proteins, minerals and carbohydrates. A healthy diet means providing your body with sufficient amounts of these nutrients.
How high your Personal need for nutrients The amount of water you eat depends on your age, size, gender, health and, of course, how much exercise you do. For example, a competitive athlete needs many more calories per day than a non-athletic person.
In order to change your eating habits to a healthy diet, you need to look at your personal nutrient needs. If this works, you can occasionally order your beloved pizza with extra cheese. You can find the first important clues for your personal consumption and the start of a healthy diet in the following ten tips. And now: Eat yourself happy, healthy and successful! We wish you a lot of fun!
1. Water, water, water
One of the most important aspects of a healthy diet is to drink enough. After all, your body consists mostly of water. During the day, you lose fluids that you need to replenish. Therefore, you should give your body at least one and a half to two liters of liquid every day.
On hot days or during sports activities your water intake increases Fluid needs according to. In addition to water, you can also drink other unsweetened beverages. No, coffee is not one of them, unfortunately, nor is alcohol. Both dehydrate your body. Unsweetened tea is ideal. You are welcome to sip liters or cups of this food!
2. Go for fresh food
Have you ever asked yourself whether your food consists of natural or industrially produced products?? You should do this at every meal, because a healthy diet requires fresh food. Use seasonal products from your region as much as possible! They contain a lot of nutrients and are not transported long distances, which is good for the environment. Try it! You’ll be surprised: Good things can taste so delicious!
3. Go for fruits and vegetables
Fruits and vegetables provide your body with vitamins, phytonutrients and important minerals. This way you can already cover a large part of your daily nutrient requirements. They also contain hardly any calories. For a healthy diet, your meals should therefore include enough fruits and vegetables.
But be careful: fruit should not make up more than twenty percent of your diet, as fructose should not be underestimated. Sugar is sugar, and too much of it can quickly put on extra pounds. The situation is different with vegetables. Here you can eat without restraint. By the way: Nuts and legumes also provide you with a lot of nutrients and should be an integral part of a healthy diet.
4. Prepare gently
A healthy diet includes gentle preparation. In fact, excessive heating can cause your food to lose nutrients and release substances that are harmful to your body. That’s why you should only cook food until it is done. Keep the temperature as low as possible and do not add more water and fat than necessary. In addition, the golden rule for a healthy diet is: cooking is better than boiling!
5. Attention with fish, meat and milk
Animal products provide your body with a large amount of minerals. They are an important part of a healthy diet, but should be consumed in small amounts. Fish, for example, contains important omega-3 fatty acids that your body cannot produce on its own. Meat provides protein and vitamin B. And dairy products provide you with calcium and protein.
Of course, you can also choose to be vegetarian or vegan healthy diet. In this case, however, you must be careful to replace the nutrients contained in animal foods. This is not easy, especially with a vegan diet, and should definitely be well thought out. Many vegans resort to supplementary food preparations in order not to suffer deficiency symptoms.
6. Beware of sugar and salt
Sugar has many calories and only a small amount of nutrients. It does not contribute in any way to a healthy diet. You should therefore eat as little sugar as possible. For example, leave out sweet drinks and the sugar in your coffee – and you’ve already taken the first steps in a diet successful diet mastered. As already mentioned, fruit also contains (fruit) sugar. Enjoy apples, bananas and berries in manageable quantities!
You should also consume as little salt as possible. The recommended maximum value is six grams per day and person. That is not much. And if you consider that salt is hidden in many ready-made products as well as in bread, cold cuts and many other foods, you quickly get well over six grams. For a healthy diet, you should therefore use herbs and spices with a low salt content when cooking.
7. Choose the right fats
Fat is considered a cause of many diseases such as diabetes, obesity and heart disease. However, a distinction can be made between animal and vegetable fat, i.e. between unhealthy and healthy fat. Animal fats do not benefit your body – so get rid of them! Instead, rely more on vegetable fats, because they contain valuable fatty acids. You can find them in nuts, olives, avocados and fish.
8. Carbohydrates must be
Potatoes, pasta, rice, bread and rolls – tasty. But the reputation of carbohydrates could be better. Not for nothing many diets are based on the renunciation of carbohydrates. But why actually? Sure, if you leave them out, you lose weight fast. However, this has little to do with a healthy diet.
On the contrary: carbohydrates from cereal-based products such as whole spelt or whole rye grains contain many valuable fibers. Thanks to them you will stay full longer and prevent cravings. In addition, your digestion is stimulated after eating carbohydrates and your blood sugar level rises only slowly. Therefore carbohydrates are very important for a healthy diet.
9. Add variety
Eating the same food every day can lead to deficiencies in the long term. For a healthy diet, you should therefore diversify your meals. Only in this way can you supply your body with the various nutrients and give it what it needs.
10. Don’t get distracted
Take your time to eat and don’t gorge yourself on everything! For one thing, it’s healthier because you’ll chew better that way. On the other hand, because the feeling of satiety occurs only after some time. At best, eat without distractions from work, the TV, the newspaper, or your smartphone. Not only do you eat less, because the feeling of hunger decreases during the meal, but you also pay more attention to your meals. And Eat consciously is worth its weight in gold for a healthy diet.