Healthnotes Healthy Living Newsletter

Simple Guidelines to Improve Your Family's Diet
Healthy Eating for a Healthy Family

It’s not hard to figure out how to eat a healthy diet—it just requires a little planning. The tools below are neither fad diets nor miracle cures. Rather, they are tried-and-true principles and guidelines that can help you develop your own personal diet program.

Powerful Tools for Healthy Eating
Two useful tools are the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and the Food Pyramid: think of the Dietary Guidelines as building blocks and the Pyramid as the balanced and powerful structure that results when the blocks are all assembled together.

The short version: eat a variety of foods, balance eating with physical activity, eat plenty of grains, fruits and vegetables, and be moderate in your consumption of sugar, salt, sodium, and alcohol.

1. Eat a Variety of Foods
To maintain good health, the human body needs more than forty nutrients. Eating a variety of foods greatly increases the chances you are getting all the nutrients you need.

Each of the foods in the five food groups is made up of one or more macronutrients, each of which serves a different function in our bodies. The macronutrients are protein, carbohydrates, and fats.

Protein builds and replaces tissues, carries nutrients and oxygen through the bloodstream and to cells, maintains fluid balance, and helps maintain the hormonal chemistry that keeps the body going. Approximately one-fifth of your body weight is made up of protein. There are two types of protein in food:

Complete protein contains all essential amino acids. Sources of complete protein are seafood, soy products, eggs, milk, meat, and fowl.
Complementary protein requires two food sources to provide all essential amino acids. For example, beans and rice.

Carbohydrates are the chief and preferred energy source for the body. There are three kinds of carbohydrates:

Complex carbohydrates are found in whole grains, vegetables, fruits, and legumes. The body breaks them down slowly, so they provide a controlled, even energy source. They are also excellent sources of fiber, which promotes healthy digestion, lowers blood cholesterol level, and decreases risks of certain cancers.
Simple carbohydrates are found in honey, molasses, fruits, and fruit juices. Fruit juice is a rich source of vitamins, but simple carbohydrates may cause your blood sugar level to rise and fall rapidly. To reduce this effect, consume them with complex carbohydrates or protein.
Refined carbohydrates are found in white flour and other processed grain products, table sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, and other sweeteners. They contain few nutrients and may also cause blood sugar to rise and fall rapidly.

2. Balance the Food You Eat with Physical Activity and Maintain or Improve Your Weight
If you consume more calories than you use during the normal operation of your body you will store extra calories as body fat. This is the cause of weight gain. If you spend more energy than you consume, you begin burning your stored fat and you lose weight. Obesity is considered a risk factor for many diseases, including diabetes and heart disease, so balancing the diet with exercise is an important health goal.

3. Eat Plenty of Grain Products (Preferably Whole Grains), Vegetables, and Fruits
This is one of the easiest and most immediate ways to improve the diet. When you choose grains, vegetables, and fruits, you are choosing foods packed with plenty of vitamins and minerals, complex carbohydrates and dietary fiber. What’s more, plant foods are also rich in phytochemicals, which are believed to reduce the risk of heart disease and cancer. Plants also contain antioxidants, which help to neutralize free radicals in the body (free radicals are pieces of molecules that are very reactive and can damage cells when they link together. When these foods dominate the center of your plate, their bulk helps you to feel full and satisfied.

4. Choose a Diet Low in Fat, Saturated Fat, and Cholesterol
Excessive fat in the diet contributes to health problems. This does not mean fat should be avoided altogether. Fat is an essential part of an overall diet plan. The dietary guidelines suggest fat consumption be limited to a total of 30% of calories. In addition, the guidelines suggest that no more than 10% of total calories should come from saturated fat.

Fats are not all the same
Fats all contain some essential elements, but there are some important differences between them. Below is a brief explanation.

Monounsaturated fats are found in high quantities in olive oil, canola oil, peanut oil, peanuts, pecans, almonds, and avocados. These are generally considered the healthiest kind of fats. Many studies suggest diets higher in this form of fat are much better for you than diets high in saturated fats.
Polyunsaturated fats are found in high quantities in most vegetable oils. They will tend to lower your total cholesterol, primarily the bad LDL cholesterol. Some polyunsaturated fats contain omega-6, an essential fatty acid found in higher quantities in seeds, grains, nuts, and vegetables. Some examples are safflower oil, sunflower oil, pumpkin seed oil, soybean oil, walnut oil, wheat germ oil, sesame seed oil, rice bran oil, evening primrose oil, borage oil, and black currant seed oil.
Omega-3 fatty acids are found in beans, greens, seeds, flaxseed oil and fish, (especially cold water fish, such as salmon, trout, mackerel and sardines). Diets high in these fatty acids are associated with decreased risk for heart disease and other health problems.
Saturated fats are found in meats, palm and coconut oils, butter, lard, cocoa butter, eggs, whole cheeses and whole milk, most ice creams, and many processed foods. They are usually solid at room temperature. As mentioned earlier, the USDA Dietary Guidelines recommend limiting total consumption of saturated fat to 10% of caloric intake. Saturated fats are associated with a variety of health problems, especially increased risk of heart attacks, stroke, and other blood vessel diseases.
Hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated fats are fats that have been artificially altered to make liquid oils into more solid form and to increase their shelf life. Examples include margarine and shortening. Many prepared foods contain “partially hydrogenated” substances. Not only do they raise LDL (the “bad” cholesterol), they actually lower HDL (“good cholesterol”). For this reason, they should be consumed in moderation or not at all.

5. Moderate Sugars
Moderation in the diet is particularly important in regard to sugars. Although sugars provide energy, they contribute little else to the diet. They are, more or less, empty calories.

6. Moderate Salt and Sodium
Sodium is a mineral that helps to regulate the infusion of water in and out of the body’s cells. Most people do not have a problem with moderate sodium use. Some people, however, find that sodium raises their blood pressure. The recommended upper limit for the “daily value” is 2,400 milligrams per day, which is about one level teaspoon of table salt.

7. Moderate Alcoholic Beverages
The dietary guidelines define moderate drinking as one drink per day for a woman and two drinks per day for a man.

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YOUR SOURCE FOR BETTER HEALTH \| JULY 2007