A Well Balanced Diet

A well balanced diet would lead to well rounded nutrition intake for the body. It is known that sufficient nutrition can help body to work more efficiently and build a strong immune system. Thus it is crucial to know what you should eat to gather the nutrition that your body need to maintain the healthy level.

Thanks to The New Zealand Nutrition Foundation for providing a chart to the right. It shows what and how much we should eat to be healthy. Majority of our daily diet should include mostly fruits, vegetables, and grains. We should only eat moderate amount of meat, milk, cheese, nuts...etc. People who are unhealthy or overweight should consider cutting down the consumption of sugar, butter, margarine, and oil from their daily diet.

Thus, we should keep the food pyramid in our mind at all time to remind us what we should consume to maintain a healthy diet.

Wei Chen

Careful with How Much Calorie You Take.

Last week, I posted a Calorie counter which will tract your daily calorie intake. It is very user friendly and neat. You can also add it in your iGoogle page .

(Link: http://www.labpixies.com/gadget_page.php?id=31)

To maintain a healthy diet, we need to put more attention to the calorie we take in a daily basis. Too much calorie leads to many health issue and disease. A healthy male adult should take approximately 2000 calories a day and a healthy female adult should take about 1200 calories. These numbers are only suggested figures because many other factors like age, height, body weight, and daily activities should also be taken into consideration. All the factors will affect the calorie intake. For example, younger teenagers usually need more calories because their metabolism is much faster than adult.

If you would like to know more about the food you eat, you can also use another calorie counter from the following website.

Link: http://www.acaloriecounter.com/search/burger

It is very simple to use and it provide all the nutrition information of the food.

Wei Chen

Count Your Calorie

Five Healthy Foods

Now, after you have asked the question whether you are really hungry or not, it is time to figure out what healthy foods to eat. There are many great natural foods that are also delicious to eat at the same time such as organic food. However, there are five surprisingly healthy foods - some of which you would not be able to guess.

We all know that vegetables are good for our health, but would you believe that tea, coffee, chocolate, avocados, and fatty fish also can prevent diseases and improve your health? Some of these foods contain antioxidants, which fight disease-causing molecules that damage cells. Others have omega-3 fatty acids, which significantly promote heart health.

Teas including black, green, white, and oolong can reduce the risk of heart disease. To get the best effects, one should drink tea that is both hot and decaffeinated. Some studies have shown that drinking tea three times a day can reduce the risk of heart disease.

On the contrary, dark chocolate can reduce the risk of diabetes, which also improves blood sugar. This means that the antioxidants in dark chocolate help reduce high blood pressure. Small portions of dark chocolate can be a great part of a healthy diet.

Some would not believe that any fatty food could possibly be good for your health; however, when it comes to seafood, the fattier the fish, the better. Coldwater fatty fish such as salmon, trout, and tuna to name a few, are rich in omega-3 fatty acids, which promotes health in many ways. They lower blood cholestoral and prevent blood clots and heart attacks. The results in eating fatty fish are so effective that the American Heart Association recommends eating two servings of fatty every week.

Avocados are rich in vitamin E and potassium. They can reduce cholestoral levels and contain antioxidants that contribute to good health. Avocados should be served in small portions because they contain many calories.

Many people enjoy drinking coffee, especially in the morning and it may actually have health benefits. The caffeine in coffee stimulates the brain and nervous system, and may even lower your risk of diabetes, Parkinson's disease, mood problems, headaches, and even cavities.

These are some of the few foods that can greatly contribute to a healthy diet. These five foods may prevent disease and promote health, but regular exercise and healthy eating patterns that include a variety of nutritious foods are also very important. In addition, portion sizes do matter even with healthful foods. If one gains weight because of eating too many portions, the health benefits will deteriorate because of the health risks of being overweight.

Michelle Kim