Eating well to stay healthy

Health and weight are two words forever linked. While it is true that your weight doesn’t define your health in ultimate terms, being overweight and obese does unfortunately create health challenges for your body.

More than 70 million adults in the USA are considered medically obese. Another 99 million are regarded as overweight, accounting for nearly 60 percent of their population. Europeans aren’t spared this fate; about 50 percent of European adults are considered overweight and around 25 percent are obese.

Obesity is defined as a body mass index (BMI) figure of more than 30 and a total of 25 is assessed as overweight. To calculate your BMI, you need to take your weight (in kilograms) divided by the square of your height (in metres).

Eating healthy brings with it many advantages for your body. In fact, a healthy eating diet can help your body fight off obesity, cardiovascular diseases, some forms of cancer and skeletal conditions. A healthy eating plan can also help you to maintain a positive body weight.

Of course, physical activity in conjunction with dieting will help you to sweat away the excess weight and help to keep your body in a healthy state.

Dieting isn’t as straightforward as eating less calories than your body needs each day to force your body to convert fat cells into energy to lose weight. It is, after all, a field for specialists and careful planning and strict monitoring. Short-term weight loss isn’t beneficial to your overall health, as yo-yo dieting can actually cause mental and physical ill-effects.

A healthy diet of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and low-fat dairy products can help you to reduce your risk of cardiovascular diseases by maintain blood pressure and cholesterol levels. Reducing salt intake and foods high in man-made sugars will also help you to lower your calorie intake to provide your body with healthier sources of energy.

There are a number of diets and eating plans available on the Internet. It is advisable to first seek the advice of your Doctor or GP before starting any dieting. Underlying medical conditions might actually cause more harm than good with some diets, so a doctor will be able to steer you in the right direction regarding your state of health.

Using a balanced diet, along with regular exercise, you will be taking a step towards a happier and healthier life. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), incorporating vitamins and minerals into your diet will also help your body to boost its immunity.

As we have already mentioned, a healthy diet will help to protect your body against diseases such as cancers and cardiovascular diseases. This doesn’t mean you need to eat food that is bland in flavour or eat the same foods day in and day out. Dieting is actually an opportunity for you to experiment with different foods from different cultures and countries and learn new ways of preparing some foods in healthier ways.

Maintaining a healthy diet and regular exercise will help you to reduce your weight and improve your body’s overall health.