Eat right for a Bright Life!

A healthy diet helps to maintain or improve general health by providing the body with essential nutrition:

    • Fluids

    • Adequate amino acids from proteins

    • Essential fatty acids

    • Vitamins, minerals, and adequate calories

The requirement for a healthy diet can be met from a variety of plant and animal based foods. A healthy diet supports energy needs and provides for human nutrition without exposure to toxicity or excessive weight gain. A perfectly balanced diet, in addition to exercise, is important for lowering health risks such as obesity, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and cancer.

Various nutrition guides are published by medical and governmental institutions to educate the public on what should be eaten for good health.

The World Health Organization (WHO) makes the following recommendations with respect to populations and individuals:

    •  Eat roughly the same number of calories that your body is using. A healthy weight is a balance between energy gained and energy that is ‘burnt off’.

    • Increase consumption of plant foods, particularly fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole grains, and nuts.

    • Limit intake of fats, preferring the healthier unsaturated fats to saturated fats and trans fats.

    • Limit the intake of granulated sugar.

The Nutrition Source of Harvard School of Public Health makes the following recommendations for a healthy diet:

    • Choose good carbohydrates (whole grains). Avoid white bread, white rice and other processed foods.
    • Get good protein which includes fish, poultry, nuts, and beans. Try to avoid red meat.
    • Choose foods containing healthy fats. Avoid saturated and trans fats. Plant oils, nuts, and fish are the best choices.
    • Choose a fiber-rich diet which includes whole grains, vegetables, and fruits –  more colourful and varied, the better.
    • Calcium is important, but milk alone is not its best source. Collards, bok choy, fortified soy milk, baked beans, and supplements are good sources.
    • Water is the best source of liquid. Avoid sugary drinks, limit juices, milk, coffee, tea, artificially sweetened drinks. Fresh fruit juices, low-fat milk can fit into a healthy diet but should be consumed moderately. 
    • Sports drinks are recommended only for people who exercise more than an hour at a stretch. 
    • Limit salt intake.
    • Moderate alcohol has health benefits but is not recommended for everyone, consult your doctor.
    • Multivitamin supplements have potential health benefits – should be consumed if prescribed by a doctor.
    • In addition to nutrition, the guide recommends regular physical activity (exercise).

Breakfast is a critical meal

It influences all our physical and mental activities during the day. Breakfast immediately raises the body’s energy level and restores the blood glucose level to normal after an overnight fast. It also raises the muscle and liver glycogen stores. A well-designed breakfast should provide an adequate amount of carbohydrate and other essential nutrients. 

Whatever you do, do not skip breakfast as this sets your blood sugar off on a roller-coaster that means you will end up choosing the wrong foods later in the day. Remember breakfast makes an important contribution towards your daily intake and it plays a key role in maintaining a healthy weight. Skipping breakfast may lead to:

    • Weight gain

    •  Increase in chances of developing diabetes

    • Increase in possibility of heart diseases

    • Limit the intake of granulated sugar

Remember the following:

    • Never skip breakfast; it is the most important meal of the day.

    • Get good protein which includes fish, poultry, nuts, and beans. Try to avoid red meat.

    • Do not eat junk or road-side food to invite infection.

    •  Avoid eating processed salty or sweet food stuff.

    • Use skimmed milk or cow’s milk instead of whole milk.

    • Use of multiple grains instead of wheat and rice is a healthier option.

    • Nutritional value, not the taste of food should be criteria for selection of food.