Improve Your Diet With a Few Simple Changes
By Rachel Shouse
Many people seek to improve their diet. Whether it's because they want to lose weight, improve their nutrition, or change their diet in order to improve a medical condition, they're all great reasons. In order to do this, it's wise to know what your body needs and also what it doesn't need. Depending on your situation, you should also educate yourself on the importance of exercise, as dieting isn't a one size fits all for those seeking weight loss.
What Your Body Needs
Everyone is different. Our bodies respond to foods and nutrients differently. For many years, we followed the food pyramid. After some delegation, doctors and other health professionals learned that forcing someone to eat all of the servings in the food groups was actually a lot of food. Upon learning that, they came to the consensus that this plan wasn't going to work.
Portioning has become the new guideline. While it's OK for you to eat as many vegetables as you like, it's not wise to do that with sugary treats or salty treats. To simplify eating guidelines, they came up with the plate method. This method tells you how much of your plate should be filled with a certain food group. For example, half of your dinner plate should be vegetables, while a quarter of it should be protein. The other quarter can be carbs or starchy foods.
What Your Body Does Not Need
Food companies are required by law to list the ingredients within their foods. However, there is some leeway when they put together the nutrition section on their packaging. You've probably heard of how awful trans fats are. Most food you'll see will say 0 percent. In reality, it could be hidden within the ingredients as a partially hydrogenated oil. The type of oil varies, but seeing that in the ingredients list tells you that there are trace amounts of trans fat. Companies don't have to report this unless it exceeds a certain measurement or percentage.
Dieting Isn't Everything
A large chunk of people seek a new diet in order to lose weight. This is a perfectly acceptable goal; however, you can't expect to see results when you only have one piece of the puzzle. Being mindful of what you're taking in is very important as you can work out as much as you want, but eating up the calories from your workout in junk food isn't going to get you anywhere.
Exercise doesn't have to be miserable, by the way. Maybe get a group of your friends together for a weekly walk. You could schedule different activities with different friends in order to keep your new routine interesting. Plus, including a friend can help hold you accountable.
To learn more about your health, wellness and fitness, see your local chiropractor at The Joint Chiropractic in Lawrenceville, Ga.