Balanced Diet

A balanced diet is a diet that contains differing kinds of foods in certain quantities and proportions so that the requirement for calories, proteins, minerals, vitamins and alternative nutrients is adequate and a small provision is reserved for additional nutrients to endure the short length of leanness.

In addition, a balanced diet ought to offer bioactive phytochemicals like dietary fiber, antioxidants and nutraceuticals that have positive health advantages. A balanced diet should offer around 60–70% of total calories from carbohydrates, 10–12% from proteins and 20–25% of total calories from fat.

A balanced diet is not a fad, yo-yo or crash diet. It’s a way of ensuring you eat all of the required nutrients for your body to function properly. A balanced diet will not be the same for everyone. We’re all different and often, individuals will require different amounts and types of nutrients. What you need will depend on age, gender, lifestyle, health and the rate at which your body works.

Eating a balanced diet is key in maintaining good health and keeping your body in optimum condition. A balanced diet doesn’t cut out food groups; it consists of a wide variety of foods to support your body and keep you energised, motivated and healthy.

How much food do I need to have a healthy diet?

A healthy diet should provide us with the right amount of energy (calories or kilojoules), from foods and drinks to maintain energy balance. Energy balance is where the calories taken in from the diet are equal to the calories used by the body. We need these calories to carry out everyday tasks such as walking and moving about, but also for all the functions of the body we may not even think about. Processes like breathing, pumping blood around the body and thinking also require calories.

So, foods and drinks provide the calories we need to go about our daily lives, but consuming more calories than we need over a period of time will cause weight gain. This is because, any extra calories we consume but we don’t use, will just be stored as fat.

Over 50% of adults in the UK are overweight or obese. There is also a huge concern about childhood obesity, where 1 in 3 children aged 4–5, and 1 in 5 children aged 10–11, are overweight or obese. Being overweight as a child increases the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, heart disease and some cancers in adulthood. So, maintaining a healthy weight is really important for health.

How much energy you need from foods and drinks depends on many different things, such as how active you are. But, on average:

Eating only as many calories as you need will help to maintain a healthy weight. However, the foods and drinks you choose need to be the right ones, and in the right proportions to stay healthy.

HEALTH BENEFITS OF A BALANCED DIET

• Healthy eating increases energy, improves the way your body functions, strengthens your immune system and prevents weight gain. The other major benefits are:
• Meets your nutritional need. A varied, balanced diet provides the nutrients you need to avoid nutritional deficiencies.
• Prevent and treat certain diseases. Healthful eating can prevent the risk of developing certain diseases such as diabetes, cancer and heart disease. It is also helpful in treating diabetes and high blood pressure.
• Following a special diet can reduce symptoms, and may help you better manage an illness or condition.
• Feel energetic and manage your weight. A healthy diet will assist you to feel higher, provide you with more energy, and help you fight stress.
• Food is the mainstay of many social and cultural events. Apart from nutrition properties, it helps facilitate connections between individuals.

Top 5 Benefits of Healthy Eating

1.Weight Loss
One of the main reasons people eat a healthy diet is to maintain a healthy weight or to lose weight. A healthy weight has a plethora of benefits on its own, but we won’t get into that here.

2.Heart Health
Even if you’re young, you should think about your heart health, especially considering that as many as 92.1 million people in the U.S. have some type of cardiovascular disease. Healthy eating habits can improve your heart health and common prevent heart diseases.

3.Strong bones and teeth
If you pay close attention, you might notice that a lot of elderly individuals use dentures in order to eat and talk properly. A healthy diet can help individuals make sure they have strong teeth and bones now and, in the future, thus preventing teeth decay and osteoporosis.

4.Better mood and energy levels
“You are what you eat.” If you eat a healthy, balanced diet, you will feel better and more energized. Furthermore, if you eat property, then it means your body is getting all of the nutrients it needs to function properly, which will improve your energy levels. Avoid sugary foods and drinks to prevent sugar highs and crashes.

5.Improved memory and brain health
Eating healthy increases blood flow to the brain, which help prevent brain diseases like Alzheimer’s, dementia, and cognitive decline.

This doesn’t mean that you can’t indulge yourself every now and then. You have to learn to listen to your body and provide it with what it needs. The occasional pizza, chocolate, or soda is OK as long as you are mindful of what you eat on a day to day basis. At Shift Workspaces, we care about our members’ wellbeing, which is why we encourage healthy eating by providing healthy snacks every day.