Health is the most important thing in a person’s life. By leading a healthy life and having a healthy lifestyle, we can prevent non-communicable diseases (e.g. obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, etc.). To have a healthy lifestyle, we need to consider eating a proper and nutritious diet, reducing stress levels, reducing or even excluding alcohol consumption, excluding smoking and consumption of toxins, introducing daily physical activity (minimum 30 minutes per day) and trying to get at least 7-8 hours of sleep/night.
For the proper functioning of processes in the body, the preservation of health and the prevention of illness, it is necessary to have an adequate intake of all the nutrients the body needs. It is important to be aware of what we eat, how much we eat, where we eat, where the food comes from and how it is prepared.
Healthy eating requires both macronutrients (carbohydrates, proteins and fats) and micronutrients (minerals and vitamins). It is known that carbohydrates are needed at 50-55% of energy requirements, healthy fats at 30-35% and proteins at 10-15%.
When it comes to carbohydrates, we refer to complex ones such as: wholemeal bread, wholemeal pasta, potatoes, oats, brown rice, etc. These foods give us gradual energy that will last for a longer time compared to refined carbohydrates (cakes, sweets, sugar, etc.) that give us immediate/brief energy but disappear as suddenly as they appeared. Complex carbohydrates also contain a significant amount of fibre which helps the digestive system and gives a feeling of satiety.
Similarly, fats fall into two categories. The healthy ones that are recommended are the unsaturated ones (e.g. olive oil, avocados, nuts, etc.) and the fats that should be avoided are the saturated ones (e.g. margarine, fried foods, processed foods, etc.).
Last but not least, we will also talk about protein sources which are of 2 kinds: animal and vegetable protein. Animal protein comes from meat, eggs, fish, dairy products, etc., while vegetable protein comes from chickpeas, lentils, beans, green peas, soya, etc. It is important that these two sources of protein are consumed in combination.
We’ve talked about nutritional needs, but there’s one more important thing to keep in mind. How do we make our plate so organised that it contains all the types of food needed to make up a healthy plate? According to the W.H.O. (World Health Organisation), 50% of the plate should be allocated to vegetables and fruit, 25% to carbohydrates and 25% to protein. Fat falls into the category of protein from foods of animal origin, but can also be supplemented with fats of plant origin (olive oil, oilseeds). Also mentioned here is the fluid intake, which should preferably be 2l/day for the proper functioning of the body.
Written by: Orban Rebeka-Vivien
