Healthy Food Tips - Choosing Foods That Are Good For You

So why healthy food? Why is eating healthy so important?

If you're trying to watch your weight, a healthy diet is vital to help you achieve your weight goals. Even if you're not dieting, a good diet is still important to help give you energy and make you feel your best.

The healthy food facts are that you should:

1. Eat a variety of foods from all the different food groups.

2. Make sure you get enough fibre (found in fruit, vegetables and wholegrain cereals).

3. Make sure you eat lots of fruit and vegetables.

4. Choose foods that are high in iron and calcium.

5. Consume sugary foods and alcohol only occasionally, and then in small amounts.

6. Make sure you limit fatty foods to small amounts, especially saturated fats (found in butter and some oils).

It really is easy to add healthy food to your diet. For example, you can add some sliced fruit to your breakfast cereal (bananas are great, and also strawberries). You can also make a simple smoothie by blending together banana, strawberry and skim milk. Add other fruits like peaches or apricots if you like, too.

If you usually snack on cakes and biscuits during the day, try apples or some dried fruits (like apricot) instead. You could also slice some carrot up into chip-size portions and munch on them. Carrots are actually quite sweet when they're raw.

A really great fact about fruit and vegetables is that they're very low in fat, or even fat free! They're also rich in vitamins and other nutrients your body needs. Once you start getting more of these you'll start feeling better - less tired and more energetic. If you're eating because you always feel hungry, then give these a try.

Try to add more fibre to your diet. Fibre is important as it helps your digestive system break food down more quickly. Other than fruit and vegetables, fibre is found is a variety of foods such as potatoes, pasta, wholegrain breakfast cereals and wholemeal bread. You can also leave the skin on fruit and vegetables (like apples, pears, carrots, potatoes) rather than peeling them.

Another important aspect top eating healthy is to reduce your fat intake, particularly the 'bad' saturated fats. These fats have been linked to health problems such as diabetes, stroke, heart disease and obesity. Saturated fats are mainly found in takeaway/fast foods, chicken skin, butter & cream and the visible fat in red meat.

Not all fat is bad, though. Unsaturated fat, particularly monounsaturated fat, is beneficial due to its cholesterol-lowering properties. These fats can be found in most nuts, and cooking oils like olive and canola oil.

I hope I've given you some great starting ideas for eating more healthily. One final thing to say is that enjoying your food is paramount. You won't eat healthily if you hate the food you're eating. Just maintain some commonsense, and remember the mantra Everything In Moderation.

Nick Daval has been cooking delicious and healthy meals for over 15 years. He is especially interested in nutrition, healthy eating and healthy living.

You can learn more of his healthy ideas by visiting his website's Healthy Food section at http://www.basic-cooking.com/healthy-food-list.html

Tips For Kids Eating Healthy Food

Providing children with healthy food can at times be difficult. Most parents feel challenged when trying to provide for the 5 x3 vegetables and fruit quota for their kids. They struggle and the more they do the more children are determined not to cooperate. Parents often feel guilty knowing their children need this quota for optimum health.

There is an answer and here are some great tips to get the veggies and fruit into our children and they will love you for it.

Gardening
Watching a child help in the veggie garden is a delight. They just love to put the plant in the ground and watch it grow. Then the thrill of tasting the veggie especially if it is pleasant, for example peas, tomatoes or strawberries. This is a good way to introduce new veggies into the diet.

Kitchen Hand
Children love helping Mum or Dad in the kitchen. Teach them how to peel the potatoes or an apple. This will also help them with their fine motor skills. Try using some cutting items to cut it into shapes and make it fun. When it is cooked ask the child to check if it is cooked and even taste it. This will reduce the drama at meal time as they will have an advanced tasting session.

Veggie Soup
Try a lamb shank bone with lots of veggies in it especially potatoes. You could use almost any veggies in it including spinach, carrots, turnips, pumpkin, etc. A good way to go is to blend the veggies together with the potato providing the thickening. Another alternative is to add some alphabet noodles cut into animal shapes. The kids get so engrossed in the interesting animals they hardly notice they have eaten the soup.

Shredded Cheese
Try steaming the veggies and sprinkle grated cheese over the top. Most kids love cheese and when it melts into the veggies they find the veggies are much easier to eat.

Mixing with other foods
Spaghetti Bolognaise is a typical meal children love. Add veggies to the meat sauce and the children will not even realize it is there. A good example of this is grated carrot, zucchini, pumpkin etc.

One at a time
Introduce one veggie at a time and see how they react. If they like one veggie less than another then its probably not a good idea to give it to them again for awhile. Try changing the taste a little, for example carrots - pour a little honey over them next time and I think it will be a really popular move.

Shopping Together
Take the child shopping and let them help you choose the veggies and when you might have them. Bring them into managing the meals roster giving them a sense of belonging and sharing.

Rewards
If all else fails then it might come down to rewards. Having something they like for dessert is a great motivator or even lemonade once they have finished their veggies works wonders. Since veggies are usually served during the evening meal it is not a good idea to give children flavored or colored drinks especially close to bed time.

Smoothies
Most kids love smoothies and will often nag parents for one when they go shopping. Parents do not have to go shopping for a smoothie as it can be made at home providing another way to camouflage the fruit and veggies. So what do we put into a smoothie that takes away the flavor of vegetables that kids always seem to recognize?

Want to find more?

I recently found the answer and it is in this amazing Smoothie Recipe Ebook. These recipes improve general health, help reduce obesity, chronic diseases etc and save time trying to solve that difficult problem of giving your child the necessary veggies. Most importantly it means kids will be eating healthy food. So check out this eBook and take the worry or stress out of your life in providing healthy meals for your child.

Maureen Hamilton is a writer and stay-at-home mum living in sunny Queensland. Thanks to some extraordinary educational products and relevant tools Maureen developed an amazing Internet Business specialising in Internet Marketing and other online business strategies. One of Maureens interest is children having a website for kids promoting healthy eating and lifestyle for children. If you share in this interest and would like to learn more, visit http://kidsdiettoday.com//

Trends For Eating Healthy Foods

Eating Fresh Fruits and Vegetables

One of the top trends today for healthy eating is consuming fresh fruit and vegetables and not much meat. Some people eat primarily fresh fruits, grains and vegetable with occasional pieces of meat for protein. They have a diet low in fat and high in fiber. Consumers that follow this plan are less likely to develop hypertension, diabetes and cancer. Many studies show this is a healthy way to eat. People are looking for foods to eat with health benefits when dining out and cooking at home. Many consumers are interested in cancer preventing fruits and vegetable. They are looking at the ingredients in foods like calcium in yogurt and anti oxidants in some vegetables.

More consumers are buying food from local farm markets and farms. They are aware that sustainable food is often better grown locally. It does not have to travel miles to get to your supermarket or table. Some consumers are growing their own vegetables in the garden during warm weather months. Shopping for seasonal fruits and vegetables in season is another trend many consumers and restaurants have started. They cook recipes based around the seasonal fruits, vegetables and dairy items in the region.

Busier Life Styles More Convenience

Consumers are busy but still want healthy food that is convenient. Restaurants and supermarkets are addressing this issue by providing healthier choices for consumer to buy. Many supermarket and even some restaurants are hiring dietitians to consult with on what food items to eat. The dietitians combine the convenience factor with good sound nutrition. Some supermarket even have a dietitian for shoppers to consult on special diets or who give lectures and meet with customers.

Organic food is sold now in regular supermarkets. Slowly it is becoming more mainstream to eat organic fruits, vegetable, grains, meats, and other items. Local farm markets sell organic produce that consumers can buy. Even some restaurants cook with only organic products. Diets like the Mediterranean diet have given organic food some great press. There are many more farm markets in 2008 than there were ten years ago. Another trend is there is more concern over food safety. The food scare this year with tomatoes and peppers make consumer more aware of washing fruits and vegetables as very important. It is also important to know where products are grown and how they are handled for safety.

Consumers busy lifestyle and interest in food and dieting has created personal chef services for consumers with the necessary income. Some restaurants have meal delivery and many diet companies will deliver food items they manufacture to your home. Companies like Atkins, NutraSystem, and Zone Gourmet are a few of these companies Consumer want to know more about where the food they eat comes from and how it is packaged and made. Food with probiotics again like yogurt are becoming popular with consumers because they help digestion.

There are more whole grain products available for consumers to eat. Breads now have a wide choice of whole wheat, rye, pumpernickel, oatmeal, and sunflower There are some new grains on the market like quinoa, millet and amaranth. More consumers are reading labels on food looking at the sodium, sugar and fat content of products than ever before. Alternative sweeteners like stevia are on the market and bottled water is popular because it offers less calories and a more healthy drink with less sugar.

Candis Reade is an accomplished niche website developer and author. To learn more about trends for eating healthy foods [http://www.cookingforyourhealth.info/trends-for-eating-healthy-foods], please visit Cooking For Your Health [http://www.cookingforyourhealth.info] for current articles and discussions.

How to Cook and Eat Healthy Food

If you want to have a flat and firm abdomen, you need to eat only aliments which contain fat acids and healthy fats, but it is also important to know some cooking techniques. You should always cook things with as few calories as possible and with very few fats. Use these cooking techniques and lose your round belly, but also make sure you eat healthily.

Grilling is the healthiest way of cooking method. If you want to prepare a steak with not too many fats, you should grill the meat. This way, the meat loses some of its fats and it also get a special flavour. You can cook a steak, some chicken, some fish or some tofu very easily. In fact, you can do this in approximately twenty-five minutes.

In order to keep your meat juicy and flavoured, turn it on both sides, so that it keeps its juice and its proteins. If you want, you can spring a bit of marinated sauce on it while it is on the grill. Keep the sea fruit on the grill long enough. They shouldn't be transparent in the middle, but don't trust what you see when it comes to figuring out if your chicken breast or your pork steak is well-cooked. Invest your money in a food thermometer, which is a lot more reliable.

Therefore, choose to e`t healthily and take our word when we say that eating grilled food is the best thing you can do. So, eat healthily and live healthily!

Discover how to grill salmon and why it is better to choose grilled food by visiting us!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=James_M.

Simple Healthy Food Substitutions

Do you want some simple food substitutions that can instantly improve your diet? Oftentimes changes are best made in small steps. That's why I compiled a list of healthy food substitutions you can make while grocery shopping. For example, is it better to buy one of the popular brands of pancake syrup with the following ingredients: corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, water, cellulose gum, caramel color, salt, sodium benzoate and sorbic acid (preservatives), artificial and natural flavors, sodium hexametaphosphate or 100% purd maple syrup? A number of the ingredients in the first product aren't even food -- just chemical concoctions!

When you walk down the grocery store aisles, make the following easy switches.

Instead of This --------------------------------- Try This
White rice ------------------------------------------ Brown rice
White bread ---------------------------------------- Whole grain bread
White pasta ---------------------------------------- Whole grain pasta
White sugar ---------------------------------------- Date sugar
Conventional produce ----------------------------- Organic produce
GMO seeds ----------------------------------------- Open-pollinated traditional seeds
Packaged microwave popcorn --------------------- Organic air-popped popcorn
Fruit juice ------------------------------------------ Whole fruit
Peanut butter with trans fats and sugar ---------- Plain organic peanut butter
Ketchup -------------------------------------------- Tomato slice
Margarine or vegetable shortening --------------- Butter, ghee, or coconut oil
Canola, corn, or vegetable oil --------------------- Olive or sesame oil
Distilled white vinegar ----------------------------- Apple cider vinegar
White iodized salt ---------------------------------- Gray or pink sea salt
High fructose corn syrup -------------------------- Honey or brown rice syrup
Popular brand-name pancake syrup -------------- 100% pure maple syrup
Sweetened low-fat yogurt ------------------------- Plain whole yogurt (add fresh fruit)
Factory-farmed meats ----------------------------- Pasture-fed meats
Sweetened apple sauce ---------------------------- Unsweetened apple sauce
Artificial sweeteners ------------------------------- Stevia herbal supplement
Baby carrots (chlorine is added) ------------------ Big carrots, chopped
Powdered lemonade mix -------------------------- Water + lemon (+ stevia, optional)
Popular brand-name crackers --------------------- Mary's Gone Crackers brand
Toasted o-shaped cereal -------------------------- Rolled, steel cut, or whole oats
Coffee ---------------------------------------------- Teecino herbal coffee substitute
Popular brand-name energy bar ------------------ Lara Bar
Black tea ------------------------------------------- Green tea

See what you can do to make some of these healthy switches. Let me know if you have any other healthy food substitution ideas.

Kathy Lynch, Founder of WellSkills, is a nutritional health counselor and educator. Kathy helps people reach optimal health, energy, and weight through better eating and balanced lifestyle. Request your *FREE* WellSkills Weekly newsletter with articles like this and healthy recipes. You may also subscribe to a *FREE* Health Tip of the Day to keep you inspired daily. For additional information, please visit http://www.WellSkills.com. Copyright 2009.

Change to Healthy Food

One of the most challenging things to do for the New Year is to rapidly change one's lifestyle. Most people resolve to take better care of themselves over the turn of a new year. Losing weight is a popular resolution for everyone, but what we often fail to understand is the aim to lose excess fat to be healthy inside and out. Crash dieting, more often than not is a temporary relief. Most people might refer to it as a form of detox, to rid the body of all toxins gained. Resolve to resisting fat and eating healthy food. Everything from a lifestyle change will radiate inside and out.

Opt to eat food that your body will benefit from. It's a commitment to always think of your well being above the pleasurable senses you can taste. Be aware what your body is taking in. The key to changing the way you eat is picking more suitable healthy alternatives for every craving. Start the small changes by replacing the usual sugar with something more organic just to kill that mid afternoon sugar rush, read fat or cholesterol content instead of caloric content, picking less sodium products. You might be itching to get something sinful and satisfying but after getting used to the change, you might find your body reacting positively to the organic input you are taking.

Choosing healthy food is the best way to alleviate fat. Eating right may be one of the biggest challenges for us. Good food is a staple especially when we feel stressed at work, home, or emotions. It can make us happy or relieve us from temporary melancholy. This is synonymous to all the sugar and preservatives we take on a daily basis and how it affects our health both physically and emotionally. We have to remember that it is only a temporary satisfaction we get from eating all the great stuff.

Healthy food offers long term benefits like ideal weight maintenance, dieting becomes a thing of the past, good blood sugar and cholesterol levels, and other health benefits. It can also enhance good complexion and skin and make a younger and active person.

Healthy Alternatives provides you with easy to make recipes that explore the healthier side of ingredients. Healthy Alternatives has recipes for a variety of dishes including lobster with a dipping sauce and an easy to make pie crust.

Making the transition to more healthy eating habits involves lifestyle changes and food substitutions in your favorite recipes.

http://healthierfoods.org/

Healthy Food for Teenagers

Healthy food is very important for the people belong to all age groups, especially kids and teens. Teenagers can neither called adults nor children. Therefore, it is very important to take the healthy food during your teenage so that later one can take the responsibility of the life. The parents of these teenagers have to be very careful while selecting the proper diet and food because the nutrition energy requirements of these teenagers are generally different and higher than the others age group people.

Balance diet

The diet of a teenager should be balanced and must contain the proper combination of minerals, vitamin E, B, C, carbohydrate, protein, fiber, fat and a lot of fluid containing food and other liquids.

Protein

Protein is very important for the teenagers for the muscle and bone growth. Protein is the basic source of energy. There are several protein rich foods like milk, yoghurt, soya beans, cheese and low-fat milk. Also dry fruits are rich in protein and calcium and much needed for teen growth. Most importantly if the person is a vegetarian then the above foods are very important as they have no access to protein rich non vegetarian food. The other food which contains protein is chana, karamani, rajma and dal.

Carbohydrate

Carbohydrate is a very important substance for teen growth. Potato and milk are the main source of it, and another source includes maze, roasted grains, rice and wheat.

Fiber rich food

Teenagers need a lot of vitamins and fiber rich foods. The main source of fiber rich food is green vegetables, muffins, buns, wheat, corn, Apple, Orange, Green peas, strawberries and raspberries.

Iron

Iron is very important for the teenagers for strong muscle, bone formation. Their regular diet should have a good and balanced intake of the iron. In fact, teenager girls are in need of more iron than the boys as they loss iron during menstruation cycle. For non vegetarians red meat, especially fish is a good source of iron. Apart from that fortified cereals, pulse, green vegetables, beans and lentils are also rich iron sources. Along with the food which contains vitamin C like orange and lemon is very important for teen growth. Fruit juice, Raisins, dates are also a good source of iron.

Honey

Honey is one of the best food/liquids for teenagers. It is considered to be the best remedy of diarrhea when mixed with hot water. It is very helpful when taken in the morning with empathy stomach. Honey is also very important for curing the disease like cold, cough, sore throat and a skin related problems.

Find more information about healthy food from Healthy Cook Recipes.

Thanate Tan is a contributing member to SuperGhostBlogger.com, helping online business reach their goals via Internet Marketing. Super Ghost Blogger can help blog owner maintain their blog by professional Ghost Blogger. With active blog, it will bring many benefits to business that want to famous.

Healthy Food Recipes For Diabetics

It is commonly misconceived that when you are suffering from diabetes you should be wholly dependent on a strict diet including fruits and vegetables which is not necessary. However, the diabetics are bound to be careful on what they should eat and what they shouldn't. In spite of this restriction we have a good many alternative healthy food recipes for diabetics.

Chicken Breasts - Dinner

Marinade Skinless chicken breasts in Italian dressing can be preserved in your fridge fresh for about eight to ten hours. As soon as you step in for cooking you should apply your favorite herb mix, bread crumbs, and parmesan cheese. Place them in the oven for about 30 to 35 minutes above 300 degrees. Make it sure that your chicken is cooked well to ensure a healthy diabetic food recipe before putting off the oven. If it is ok, you can serve it with fresh side dish, probably your favorite salad or even steamed vegetables.

Spanish Egg Roll - Lunch

Among many of the healthy food recipes that are preferred by diabetics, Spanish egg roll is another one. It is very simple that can be prepared at home in varied tastes. You have to scramble some eggs in the way you usually do, and add in some onion and diced peppers to your taste. After this, just adding some grated cheese at the top of the scramble, and spooning can give you a tortilla wrap. It can be rolled up to have a delicious, tasty, and funky recipe. It is also a healthy lunch that can be enjoyed by the family as a whole.

Raw food recipes - Breakfast

Another one of the healthy food recipes for diabetics you can make for breakfast at home is raw fruit cereal. Simply by using natural grains, and small cut pieces of your favorite fruits with nuts added to milk or mere water, you will get dramatically a delicious recipe. It's so simple and economic to cater your need. You can have such raw recipes preferably to substitute your regular food when you are in any journey near around. In case you cannot have specific fruit to your taste, you need not get back as you can add any fruits that are available at your reach.

If you browse online you will find many of such food recipes for diabetics. Just being diagnosed with diabetes does not imply that you stay locked to specific diabetic foods but you have lots of healthy food recipes serving to control blood sugar.

Controlling blood sugar is really an art. If you want to be an expert and hundred percent safe, you should know the description of foods to eat AND foods to avoid.

Varadharajan R is the author of this article. This article can be used for reprint on your website provided all the links in the article should be complete and active.

Losing Stomach Fat: Change To Three Healthy Food Habits To Get A Flat Tummy

If you are carrying too much stomach fat you are putting yourself at risk of getting a number of lifestyle diseases. The most obvious one is heart disease and, related to this, high cholesterol and high blood pressure. In addition to this there is the danger of high blood sugar and insulin resistance, which can lead to diabetes. The list goes on: arthritis in the joints; back problems. So you have plenty of health reasons to work on losing stomach fat. Then of course, you may not like the way you look, which is a further incentive to get a flat tummy.

There are some things you can do right now to lose your stomach fat. It will not happen overnight but it will happen over time. The important thing is to start. The most important thing you can do is to change to some healthy food habits by replacing the fat storing food in your diet with fat burning food. While the best way to get a flat tummy is to follow a good diet and exercise, you can start by fixing your diet.

   1. Cut down on food with high sugar content. The worst offender is soda and soft drinks. If you are drinking several of these each day you are adding to you stomach fat. When you have one of these drinks, the sugar in them quickly converts to blood sugar. The body has to control this sudden surge by releasing insulin, which is a storage hormone. Any excess energy or calories is stored in you abdomen. This means if you are not burning off the calories they are being stored on you stomach. Start drinking plain water or plain mineral water

   2. The same thing happens when you eat other foods that have a high sugar content - foods like cakes, cookies, candies and chocolates.

   3. Highly refined carbohydrates such as white bread have the same effect as food with high sugar content. The body breaks this down very quickly in the same way as soda. The problem is not only that insulin stores fat but it also stimulates your appetite, so you are looking for more food soon after. You then eat or drink more and so the cycle continues.

   4. Change to whole grain bread. This takes longer for the body to digest so it does not get that sudden surge in blood sugar. Also it has a high fiber content that makes you feel fuller and gives you more energy for longer. This applies to fruit, vegetables, nuts and protein.

These are some simple things you can do to start losing stomach fat now. It does mean changing some of your habits but that is the only way you will change your body shape - get a flat tummy - and protect your health. Start with these three things: replace soda with water; replace white bread with whole grain; replace cookies and cakes with fruit. One more thing - try to eat a little less.

Changing to healthy food habits will help you lose stomach fat. You can find more ideas on how to get a flat tummy by visiting http://www.loseyourstomachfatnow.info William Burnell enjoys the benefits of following a healthy lifestyle and likes to help others to do the same.