With the increase of the number of people suffering from obesity and related problems because of poor dietary choices and lack of exercise, we get bombarded with conflicting advice about healthy eating plans. This makes it very complicated for people searching for a good diet. What exactly is a healthy eating plan? It is simply a concise arrangement by a person to include healthy foods in his daily diet.
To create a healthy diet, one needs to know what constitutes as a healthy meal. To start off, you should always include fruit and vegetables in your daily meals. Dieticians recommend that any person above five years of age should at least consume five portions of fruits and vegetables everyday. A portion is defined as 80 grams of any fruit or vegetable.
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A good healthy eating plan should also include at least five portions of cereals and whole meal foods. Other foods in this group include oats, breakfast cereals, rice, pasta, noodles and whole meal breads. You can also eat Irish or sweet patatoes to compliment this diet. A healthy eating plan should also include 2½ average servings of milk and other dairy products. Some of the healthy food choices in this category include yoghurt, cheese and skimmed milk. You should avoid the consumption of butter and dairy cream.
Another food group to include in your eating plan are those that are high in proteins, such as meat, fish and poultry. Eggs are also a healthy source of animal proteins but they should be consumed in moderation. When consuming animal proteins, it is always advisable for a person to plan on consuming foods that have low fat content. Alternatively, one can opt for plant proteins, which you can get from eating kidney beans and nuts.
Although fats and sugar have a bad wrap in many diets, it is important to know that even they have a vital role to play in the human body as they are a source of energy. As such, a healthy eating plan should contain a healthy content of the same. To avoid the disadvantages that come from such foods, one should limit their consumption to a maximum of three servings a day. To be on the safe side, one should plan to include unsaturated fats such as corn oil, sunflower and olive oil in your dietary plans.
Saturated fats contained in animal products and highly processed foods should be avoided. When factoring in sugar in the diet plan, one should strive to include complex sources of the same. Foods containing highly refined sugars such as biscuits should be avoided. Overall, a healthy eating plan should contain foods in the three basic food groups: proteins (body building foods), vitamins (mineral-rich foods) and carbohydrates (energy-giving foods). Fats are also a vital component in the eating plan.
