Good nutrition is essential for a healthy life and is the cornerstone of well-being. Eating a balanced diet throughout life helps promote healthy pregnancy outcomes, supports normal growth and development, maintains a healthy body weight, and reduces the risk of chronic diseases that can affect overall health and well-being. Breastfeeding is especially beneficial for infants, as it helps protect against childhood diseases such as respiratory and ear infections, asthma, and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). People who maintain healthy eating patterns live longer and have a lower risk of serious health problems such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and obesity.
For those with chronic illnesses, a healthy diet can help control these conditions and prevent complications. Unfortunately, many people don't understand the importance of nutrition when it comes to losing weight, making it difficult to achieve wellness goals. In a nutshell, good nutrition means eating a wide variety of foods to get the nutrients you need to feel healthy and full of energy. Nutrients are the chemical compounds that the body needs, including macronutrients such as proteins, carbohydrates, and fats, as well as micronutrients such as vitamins and minerals.
Good nutrition means avoiding packaged or processed foods as much as possible. These include foods with high amounts of sodium and long lists of unknown ingredients. Good nutrition also means being careful with added sugar and limiting sugar intake. Finally, good nutrition means paying attention to food and considering balance, variety, and moderation in what you eat.
For example, when eating out, consider baked, roasted, scorched, poached, or steamed foods instead of fried foods. Whole foods are also higher in fiber which provides volume that fills you up and makes you feel full for longer. Additionally, highly nutritious foods require more chewing which slows down your eating process and helps you eat more consciously. As a result, your body has the opportunity to send signals to your brain that let it know when it is satisfied. Good nutrition also means that you can eat more of the healthy foods you like because whole foods have more water than processed foods so you can eat more without consuming excess calories.
This means that you won't feel unnecessarily hungry which makes it easier for you to stay on track. The certified health and nutrition counselors at Monarque Health & Wellness approach your health in a comprehensive way. We analyze your health conditions and general well-being and work with you to determine the nutritional changes needed to optimize your health.
