How To Look After Your Body With Food

Food is vitally important to improving your body’s health. Even though there are plenty of foods that can do that, some are more important than others to keeping a healthy body.

Here are 5 of the most important foods you need to start eating to stay in the best condition and maintain a healthy lifestyle.

1. Lean Sources Of Protein

Protein is incredibly important to the body. It is vital in muscle repair and recovery and helps in burning fat by helping to increase the body’s metabolism.

There are a lot of foods available that are packed with protein. To the naked eye, this would seem to be great.

However, upon further inspection, there seems to be a lot of foods that are high in saturated fat which increases the level of cholesterol in the body. If levels get too high, the risk of developing heart disease increases dramatically.

This makes it vitally important to eat lean sources of protein.

White meats are some of the best sources to get it from, such as chicken or turkey breast.

Egg whites are also an incredible source of lean protein as they contain a protein to fat ratio of 60:1. They also contain plenty of vitamins and minerals which is another reason why you need to be eating them.

While red meats can be great, try to stick to pieces that have less than 10% fat. This way you will get all the benefits without worrying too much about all the unhealthy nutrients you are consuming along the way.

Supplements are always available to you if you are struggling to get good sources of protein. They have the added benefit of being incredibly quick and easy to break down, allowing for faster absorption.

2. Complex Carbohydrates

Some carbs get a bad rep because they are often associated with diets and are the one thing that people say you need to cut out to stay healthy.

This is not the case.

Carbohydrates are needed by the body to produce energy. The muscles in the body use carbs stored within the muscles as the main source of fuel. This is particularly important if exercising.

The more that these carbs are depleted from muscles, the more they need to be restored. A lot of energy is used up during exercise and so this also needs to be restored.

This is where complex carbs come in.

Complex carbs are healthier than simple carbs because they are generally nutrient dense. This means they contain a large amount of nutrients in relation to the number of calories they provide.

They take far longer to break down than simple carbs, maintaining a healthy and stable blood sugar level and don’t cause a sugar ‘crash’ experienced when consuming simple carbs. They also promote a healthy digestive system.

Complex carbs can be found in foods such as brown rice, lentils, and sweet potatoes. Plenty of nuts and seeds are another great source of complex carbs.

Stay away from sugary sweets and snacks, along with white bread and pasta to avoid simple carbs.

3. Water

However, water has the most significance on the body more than any other substance in the world. Considering we are made of between 55% to 60%, it’s vital to keep hydrated.

All muscles, tissues, bones, and organs are made from water. Without a sufficient amount, they will not be able to function properly.

Further to this, water is important in the creation of blood cells. They carry oxygen around the body to keep organs and muscles functioning in the first place.

There are some guides that suggest you need to be drinking between 1-2 liters a day to stay hydrated. However, if you exercise regularly, you could end up drinking a whole lot more than this a day.

The key to staying hydrated is to drink water when you’re thirsty and make sure you have more to compensate for the loss of water during exercise or hot weather.

4. Vegetables

You’ve been told to eat vegetables since you were a child. Vegetables are amazing for living a healthy lifestyle for a variety of reasons.

Firstly, they contain lots of the important vitamins and minerals that your body needs to function, including vitamins C, D, and E. They help boost the immune system, reduce the risk of developing chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease and have a significant effect on mental health.

Vegetables come in all different colors, each with their own different benefits.

Dark green vegetables such as broccoli, lettuce, and spinach contain lots of fiber, folic acid, potassium, and vitamin C. These are helpful for building collagen which helps to strengthen muscle tissue and bones.

Orange vegetables like carrots, pumpkins, and squash contain plenty of vitamins A and K and antioxidants. These foods help with lowering levels of cholesterol and are great for managing weight. There have also been suggestions that they help reduce the risk of developing cancer.

Dry beans and peas, including black beans and kidney beans, are great sources of protein and contain lots of iron. Beans are another vegetable that are excellent for weight loss and management.

Starchy vegetables include vegetables like corn and green peas.

Other vegetables that are hybrids of two vegetables listed above or that do not belong to the other listed categories include such vegetables as asparagus, beets, cabbage, cauliflower, eggplant, onions, tomatoes, celery, and cucumbers.

5. Nuts

The final food that you should be eating in your diet is nuts. This is because they contain plenty of the healthy fats that the body needs.

Nuts have also been shown to help provide an edge against stroke and type 2 diabetes. They also encourage weight loss, as studies indicate that calories from nuts don’t always correlate with the expected amount of weight gain.

For vegetarians, they are also a great source of protein and an excellent meat substitute.

The top 3 nuts you should be eating are almonds, walnuts and peanuts.

Almonds rank among the highest-protein nuts, but at a fraction of the price of some higher-end nuts like walnuts. However, where walnuts tend to be pricey, they more than make up for in nutritional value. They contain plenty of essential fatty acids that lower cholesterol.

Peanuts are also great because they form the base of peanut butter, high in fiber and provide long-lasting energy.