Balanced Nutrition Improves Your Quality of Life

You can impress your family, friends, and coworkers this holiday season with some subtle changes that make a big difference. If your ideas go unnoticed and you struggle to lose weight, you can brighten your holiday with heart healthy meals and snacks. Free websites can help you vary your routine and achieve a healthy balanced lifestyle. New healthy choices, such as green apple nachos at the office luncheon, start lively conversations and give you the opportunity to share your thoughts.

Small Changes Make a Big Difference

You need to plan your meals to achieve a happy balanced lifestyle. If your blood pressure is high and your doctor suggests that you reduce caffeine, you feel a little better because you can do something to improve your health. My fitness pal online tallies the amount of protein, carbohydrates, sugar, cholesterol, sodium, and fat in the food you eat daily. Your daily requirements are proportional to the number of calories you consume daily. For example, 50% of your daily requirement based on a 2,000-calorie diet becomes 100% of your daily requirement on a 1,000-calorie diet.

Proteins Grow, Develop, and Maintain Your Body

Amino acids are the basic components of proteins. Protein helps you grow, develop, and repair bodily tissue. You can vary your protein to make your food more interesting and nutrient dense. Peanut butter is a nutrient dense food. Two tablespoons of peanut butter contains about is high fat. Proteins also fight infections. Your proteins are beef, pork, chicken, turkey, fish and other seafood, eggs, beans, and lentils.

Essential Carbohydrates Produce Energy

Carbohydrates energize the beating of your heart, breathing, walking, and jogging. Carbohydrates include bread, crackers, cereal, milk, potatoes, fruits, pasta, and sweets. Pasta is easy to overeat and abdominal swelling results from consumption of pasta. Pasta can easily cause weight gain.

Excess Sugar

You should strive for no added sugar in the foods and beverages you eat and drink. Excess sugar leads to everything from diabetes to gall or kidney stones according to the Harvard Medical School. A single piece of cheesecake contains more sugar than 100% your daily requirement on a 2,000 calorie diet. Raisins are concentrated sugars and triglycerides. Fresh fruit is a much better choice.

Lower Your Cholesterol to Prevent Heart Disease

Cholesterol is a lipid that adheres to the walls of your blood vessels, and it can collect excess calcium resulting in heart valve calcification or block tiny capillaries in your brain. Low cholesterol and reduced fat in your diet along with regular exercise, or physical activity, removes calcium and cholesterol to reopen your arteries and veins. Green leafy vegetables, onions and garlic, peanuts, walnuts, or almonds, olive oil, or canola oil reduce cholesterol.

Reduce Sodium to Lower Blood Pressure

You need less than 2,300 milligrams of sodium daily. You can rinse excess salt off of canned vegetables before cooking them to reduce sodium, fluid retention, and bloating. You can limit your consumption of high-sodium prepared foods by planning and preparing your meals in advance and warming them at mealtime. Nuts are a much better snack than potato chips. Less than 1500 milligrams of sodium daily is best if you have high blood pressure.

Fats Energize, Absorb, and Protect

One tenth of a healthy diet is comprised of fat. Unhealthy fats are in found in poultry, Vitamin D milk, crackers, cookies, and salty snacks. Healthy fats are found in nuts, oils, fish, butter, and margarine. Fats help you absorb vitamins, and they protect your heart and brain. You can switch to fat-free or low-fat milk, and you can remove hotdogs, pizza, cakes, cookies, and ice cream from your diet or limit your consumption of them. Peanut butter is a healthy fat in moderation.

Nutrient Dense Food

The National Cancer Institute describes nutrient-dense food as low in calories compared to the vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, protein, and healthy fat it contains. Examples of nutrient-dense foods include fruits and vegetables, whole grains, low-fat or fat-free milk products, seafood, lean meats, eggs, peas, beans, and nuts.

Colorful Vegetables and Fruits Lower Your Risk of Disease

The American Heart Association invites you to try the entire palette of colorful vegetables and fruits. Vegetables and fruits supply the vitamins and minerals you need to lower your blood pressure and prevent heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and obesity.

Which diet is best for you?

Every dietician or doctor who ever recommended a diet tells you to eliminate carbohydrates, limit fats and sugars, or choose sugar-free foods and beverages. You wonder which diet is best for you. Individual dietary needs are real. Twenty-five percent of us need less calcium than most. The truth is - You have to balance all the nutrients, vitamins, and minerals in your diet to achieve a happy healthy worry-free lifestyle.