We are all told to eat healthier at least once in our lives. Whether it be from a doctor or a family member, or even a friend, we are told that we must switch to healthy alternatives. We are told we need to replace fast food and junk food in our diet with more nutritious, greener options. But why should we eat healthily? Have we ever questioned the reason behind why we must switch to a healthy lifestyle? Here is a list of 20 benefits of encrypting healthy foods in your diet.
1.It Promotes Weight Loss
When you eat healthily and reduce your intake of junk food, your body provides itself with more nutrients, low sodium, and healthy fats. High protein diets including egg, fish, seafood, meat, legumes, nuts, and dairy result in less fat and help boost metabolic functioning.
2.It Improves Cardiac Health
Eating healthy can help reduce the chances of developing heart diseases. It reduces the risk of high blood pressure as well as Diabetes. Diets full of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, fish, poultry, and vegetable oil, are some of the foods which help prevent cardiac diseases.
3.It Strengthens Bones
Calcium and vitamin D go hand in hand with this concept. Calcium is needed to keep bones healthy. Vitamin D is required for calcium absorption into the body. Good sources of calcium include dairy foods, green leafy vegetables, soya beans, tofu, nuts, bread, and fish. Vitamin D is acquired through supplements.
4.It Helps Longevity of Life
It is a known scientific fact that eating healthy helps increase one’s lifespan and helps one live longer. Eating healthy helps overall mental and physical health and, as a result, helps longevity. Foods helping in this area are salad greens, nuts, seeds, berries, pomegranate, beans, mushrooms, and cruciferous vegetables like cabbage, broccoli, brussels sprouts, and so on.
5.It Helps Prevent and, or Manage Diabetes
Carbohydrates are the reason behind the sugar in your blood. Eating healthy can result in slow absorption of sugars and low blood sugar levels. It helps prevent Diabetes. However, if one already has Diabetes, be it type 1 or type 2, a healthy diet must be enforced. Avoiding consuming sugary and greasy fast food, limiting red meat and processed meat, and choosing water over other drinks, is a boon in managing Diabetes. Eating whole grains and their products, dark chocolate, and green vegetables helps manage, control, and even prevent Diabetes.
6.It Helps Digestive Functioning
The digestive process runs smoothly and without hindrance with a healthy diet and lifestyle. Eating healthy helps improve your gut health. Yakult is a well-known drink for improving your gut health and keeping your gut bacteria healthy. Eating high-fiber food also helps improve the health of your digestive tract.
7.It Helps Reduce Risk of Disease
Eating healthy helps boost the immune system. Children who regularly eat a nutritious diet, grow and develop into strong individuals with strengthened immune systems. Eating nourishing food boosts good cholesterol and decreases unhealthy triglycerides. An harmful diet increases the risk of cardiac diseases, strokes, Diabetes, and other diseases.
8.It Helps Improve Dental Health
Antioxidant vitamins present in fruits and vegetables help improve gum in addition to protecting them from damage and bacterial infection. To clean plaque from teeth, . we consume fruits and raw vegetables. Sugary drinks, fastfood, desserts, and so on increase the degradation of teeth and increases the chance of dental problems like cavities.
9.It Improves the Health of Skin
Constant consumption of unhealthy food like fast food and other junk can lead to immense acne. Acne results from fat, high sugar, and refined carbohydrates in the diet. To prevent this, food high in protein, antioxidants, and healthy fats is consumed.
10.It Helps Considerably Reduce Stress
A balanced diet helps provide the body with the extra energy it required to cope and deal with stress. “Stress-eating” causes us to eat without being mindful and results in us eating junk and junk on end. This junk does not provide us with the proper requirements our bodies need. Food like black tea, kimchi, eggs, artichoke, and so on help relieve stress.
11.It Helps Increase Productivity
It is a must to maintain a constant glucose level throughout the day to be as productive as possible. To do so, eating small meals throughout the day to keep our energy levels high is beneficial. Meals containing carbohydrates, proteins, fruits, vegetables, and so on are a compulsion to be productive throughout the day.
12.It Helps the Circadian Cycle
“Circadian Cycle” is our body’s internal clock. It tells us when to eat, sleep and wake up. Aligning our meals with our circadian rhythm helps with weight loss, reduces the risk of cardiovascular diseases, and benefits overall health. Food with proteins, high fiber, and good-quality carbohydrates aids the circadian cycle.
13.It Helps Reduce the Risk of Cancer
An ideal diet can reduce the risk of getting cancer by 80%. It can also help your chances of recovery from cancer. Consumption of food full of sugar and refined carbs can increase your chance of cancer. Being overweight can also increase your chances. Certain foods like vegetables, fruit, flaxseeds, and spices like turmeric, beans, and legumes have cancer-resistant properties.
14.It Helps Improve Your Mood
A balanced diet encourages a better mood. It triggers the pleasure centers of the brain encouraging an elevated mindset. Eating healthy stabilizes blood sugar which in turn maintains your mood. Three meals a day consisting of protein, vegetables, low sugar, dietary fats, and a good amount of water is ideal for maintaining mood.
15.It Enhances Brain Health
Our brains fuel on a premium balanced diet. Eating healthy not only improves one’s memory but also improves one’s mental wellbeing. Healthy food in children’s diet in the initial years is an absolute must for optimum brain development. Food containing high quantities of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants helps nourish the brain.
16.It Delays Aging
The sun’s UV rays cause an acceleration in the aging process. A carotenoid-rich diet helps protect the skin from these UV rays. Reducing processed foods and processed meats and cutting down the amount of sugar in your diet can lead to a delay in aging. Food rich with antioxidants helps postpone aging too.
17.It Helps Improve the General Quality of Life
A healthy diet and moderately sized meals lead to less risk of disease. It results in less stress and improves self-esteem and mental state. It helps reduce the risk of heart disease and less weight gain and all the problems that come with it. Thus, improving the quality of life.
18.It Benefits the Health of Future Generations
A good nutritious diet is of utmost importance not only for our generation but also for future generations. What we eat affects our future peers too! Poor dietary habits of a mother will be inherited by the child. It results in either gross malnourishment or obesity. Such traits get passed on and on to future generations. If we enforce healthy dietary habits now, we can help and benefit future generations immensely.
19.It is Beneficial to the Environment
Eating healthy isn’t just good for your body. It positively impacts the environment as well. Consumption and production of processed food leads to not only sickness but also environmental pollution. Eating healthy foods benefits our health and the health of our planet by conserving ocean life and protecting the climate.
20.It Supports the Local Farmers
By eating locally grown healthy food, we are supporting our local farmers. Local and organic produce is fresh, reliable, and more nutritious. Local produce tends to be safer as opposed to commercially grown food which are packed with chemicals and pesticides.
