A healthy eating guide for beginners

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Essentials of healthy eating for those who decide to take on themselves and change their eating habits for healthier ones.

You already know what real healthy food is. This is what grew on a tree or in the ground, swam in the sea or river, ran on the grass. Meat, fish, vegetables, fruits, nuts, cereals, eggs are all examples of real food.

And you also know what bad food is. This is what is given to you from the window into the car, what falls out of the vending machine, is delivered to you ready-made in a box or bag. If the composition of the food is comparable in length to "Game of Thrones", and before it gets on the table, the product goes through 14 stages of preparation, it is probably a nasty thing that should not be eaten.

Don't give up everything at once

Few people can immediately give up their favorite foods and completely switch to a healthy diet. By doing this, the person will become irritable and sullen, suffer a lot and quickly give up the idea of eating right.

You may be one of the people for whom it costs nothing to give up any treat, however, if this is not the case, before starting a diet, determine for yourself the right ratio of the speed of obtaining results and the level of suffering in the process.

Just like in a computer game: first you need to choose a difficulty level. If you choose hard, you will have to be difficult, but on the other hand, you will pump your skill much faster and achieve results. Perhaps you prefer the easy one because you don't want to be so nervous during the passage and are going to enjoy the game.

The main thing is not to overestimate yourself. Even very slow steps to success are 100% better than failing quickly.

Set a goal

If you want to eat right without having a clear idea of what it is for, then every day without your favorite food will be a real torture.

Define a goal for yourself and keep it in mind. You restrain yourself from junk food not because you love to suffer, but in order to live better, better and, perhaps, set a good example for your children.

Remember, you always have a choice. Companies that supply junk food try to make it as attractive as possible. Stop giving them your money, buying something that is slowly killing you.

You are not a slave to your taste buds.

Don't seek instant gratification with a slice of pizza, a packet of chips, or a chocolate donut. Instead, strive for a long life of joy and health.

Count calories

First, remember a simple equation. One kilogram of fat in the human body corresponds to 7,716 kilocalories. This means that if you are going to lose a kilogram of fat per week, then you need to create a deficit of 1,102 kcal per day (7,716 kcal divided by 7 days, this is 1,102 kcal).

To create this deficit, you first need to know the calorie content of your diet. Track the calories of any food you consume, including occasional snacks. When you know how many calories you are consuming per day, determine your goal according to the formula.

For example, if you want to lose 5 kg before vacation, for example, in two months, then 7,716 kcal must be multiplied by 5 kg and divided by 60 days. That's 643 kcal - that's how much you need to be malnourished every day.

But even if you want to lose weight very quickly, you should not reduce the calorie content of the diet dramatically: you will constantly feel hungry. It is best to gradually reduce your daily intake by several hundred kilocalories each week.

However, for health, it is important not only to track calories, but also to take into account the quality of food.

Consider the quality of the food

The 2,000 calories you get from eating a box of cookies won't do you as good as 2,000 calories from meat, vegetables, or fruits.

Let's take a look at what nutrients your body needs and how to formulate a basic healthy diet.

Protein

Protein is needed by the body to build cells (including muscles), maintain tissue elasticity, and produce hormones and enzymes.

Protein is an essential component of a healthy diet and must be present in every meal. Aim to consume 2 grams of protein per pound of body weight.

The maximum amount of protein per day is 200 g. Healthy sources of protein include chicken breast, eggs, beef, fish, nuts, beans, and most dairy products.

If you love fish, look at tuna. This is a true champion in protein content: 25-30 g of protein per 100 g of product (more than chicken breast).

Fats

These nutrients are absolutely essential for our body, but it is important to distinguish between healthy and unhealthy fats.

Fats are saturated - unhealthy - as well as polyunsaturated and monounsaturated - useful and necessary.

Saturated fatty acids, which are found in margarine and butter, fatty meats, palm and coconut milk, enter the body to form spherical fatty compounds that narrow the lumens of the arteries. As a result, the risk of cardiovascular disease increases.

Unsaturated fatty acids contained in avocados, almonds, vegetable oils, walnuts, fish (salmon, herring, mackerel), fish oil, when released into the blood, do not combine and pass freely through the arteries.

Unsaturated fatty acids support immunity, improve brain function and skin condition, and prevent blood clots.

When adding unsaturated fats to your diet, remember that they are not involved in the formation of subcutaneous fat. Refined and processed (empty) carbs are to blame.

Carbohydrates

In the body, carbohydrates are converted into glucose (sugar), which is then used to produce energy for all body functions. Healthy sources of carbohydrates are vegetables and fruits.

However, there are also unhealthy carbohydrates - processed and refined - that are best avoided from the diet. They are found in sweets and baked goods, jams, sugary soft drinks, and alcohol.

Use metrics such as the glycemic index and glycemic load to quickly figure out which carbs are good and which are bad.

Not all carbohydrates are absorbed by our body in the same way. The glycemic index (GI) shows this difference by ranking carbohydrates according to their effect on blood sugar levels.

By consuming low-GI carbohydrates, those that cause slight fluctuations in blood sugar and a slight increase in insulin levels, you reduce your risk of heart disease and diabetes, and also reduce weight.

GI ranges from 1 to 100, where 100 is the fastest and strongest effect of a product on blood sugar, and 1 is the slowest increase in blood sugar.

If you consume foods with a low GI, nutrients enter the blood slowly, which means they will provide the body with energy for longer. In response, your body will produce less insulin and you will feel less hungry. Here you can quickly find the glycemic index of foods.

However, this will not help you calculate the correct serving size. For example, a watermelon has a GI of about 73, and milk chocolate has a 70. Does this mean you can eat more chocolate than a watermelon? No. Because the GI is calculated per 50 g of carbohydrates in each product, and the amount of carbohydrates in watermelon and chocolate varies greatly.

Milk chocolate contains 60 g of carbohydrates per 100 g of product, while watermelon contains only 8 g per 100 g of product. It turns out that 83 grams of chocolate will cause about the same increase in blood sugar levels as 625 grams of watermelon.

To help you calculate serving size more easily, use another parameter, the glycemic load (GL) of foods.

Watch your portion size

To calculate GN, you need to divide the amount of carbohydrates per 100 g of the product by 100 and multiply by the glycemic index of the product. For example, the GN of a watermelon will be 8: 100 × 75 = 6.

Processed foods, refined carbohydrates, and sugars have a high glycemic load, while fruits and vegetables tend to have a low load.

Try to eat low GLs throughout the day and high ones right before your workout: Carbs will burn instantly. You can also consume high GL foods immediately after exercise, combined with protein. In this case, carbohydrates are used to build muscle, rather than being deposited as fat.

Thus, by counting calories and determining the glycemic load of foods, you can create a healthy diet. But if this is too difficult and time-consuming for you, you can try an easier way to eat right - the paleo diet.

Try the paleo diet

The Paleo diet assumes that you will only eat what was available to our distant ancestors: meat, poultry, fish, eggs, vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds and vegetable oils. The rest is prohibited.

No calorie counting or scheduled meals. Just eat what you can, how much and when you want.

This diet is difficult to follow if you often have to eat in cafes and snacks in fast food chains or travel a lot. However, adhering to it, especially when combined with strength training, will ensure you progress quickly and significantly improve your health.

If you need to lose a lot of pounds in a short time or severely reduce your body fat percentage, the Paleo diet is your option. The main thing is that you succeed in giving up the whole variety of bakery, dairy and confectionery products.

Decide for yourself if this diet is right for you. If you can get enough protein from meat and fish, the diet will be effective and beneficial. However, if you do not have time to cook meat and buy a variety of products, the body will not thank you.

Find the diet that's right for you

If you want to be healthy and return to your normal weight, choose GI counting: avoid foods that cause a spike in blood sugar.

If you're aiming for a divine figure, try the paleo diet. But keep in mind that in order to achieve results, you must have the right genetics, a serious strength training program, patience and an iron will to say a firm "no" to all foods that do not fit into such a diet.

In addition, you can create your own diets and change the existing ones as you like. For example, you can follow a strict paleo diet for six days, and cheat yourself on weekends - there are any goodies. Someone needs a strict diet without cheating, because he can break at any moment, others feel quite comfortable, from time to time breaking strict rules. Choose what is right for you.

And don't forget that while dieting, life goes on. You are changing your diet to live better. And not sometime in the future, when you lose weight, but right now. Enjoy the feeling of lightness, the knowledge that you are improving your health and shape, and do not blame yourself if you break loose.

Why not get started today? Throw away junk food, remove candy from the table, choose a diet and try to stick to it.

Start with small changes now. It may take some time before you find your healthy eating method. The main thing is not to give up and look for what works.