Author: Chef George Krumov
Safe food with good nutritional value is important to every person's health. Eating a balanced diet comprised of good nutritious products is one of the best ways to protect and promote your health. Good food should be high on vitamins and minerals and low on saturated fat, chemicals, additives and antibiotics. There are several simple guidelines to follow in order to protect and improve your health and to live longer and more satisfying life. The following are some strategies I found to be most beneficial for my health:
1. Limit your calorie intake to what you need for one day. Remember that if you consume more calories than needed, the extra calories will be converted to fat. The higher your body fat, the bigger your craving for food will be.
2. Live a healthy lifestyle. Move a lot and do some exercise, it is even more important than eating healthy food. There is nothing worse than not having any exercise and living a stagnant life. The guy who created the movie "Supersize me" did exactly that, but he conveniently forgot to mention it in the movie, so as to blame his deteriorated health on the fast food. Don't get me wrong, I am not rooting for the fast food, but I am sure that if you burn a lot of calories through exercise you can get away with some amount of not-so-healthy food in your diet. The guy from "Supersize me" was probably sitting on his bum for a month and eating Big Macs all day. So, where is the news in the story? It would be a news if the guys from McDonalds were force-feeding him. I absolutely believe that if you do not move and burn the calories, any kind of food can make you fat.
3. Limit your intake of pop and other sugary drinks. You don't need the huge calorie bomb that is inside of them. Pop made with artificial sweeteners such as aspartame are even worse.
4. Avoid trans fats and saturated fats. Trans fats are mostly found in hydrogenated oils, and saturated fat is the fat found mostly in meat.
5. Avoid deep-fried foods. Instead, choose food that has been cooked by a healthy cooking method.
6. Alcohol contains a lot of empty calories. Try to consume it only occasionally, if at all.
7. Smoking is a sure sign that a person is not physically active, therefore not in the best of health. Smoking is not only bad for your lungs, but also for your heart and sexual life.
8. Do not let yourself be fooled by the new fancy diet on the market. It is a billion dollar business, and the guys out there don't really care for your health. All they care about is to have a good laugh on the way to the bank. The best advice on dieting I can give you is limit your calorie intake to be less than the calories you burn in a day, and have an active lifestyle.
9. Incorporate more Mediterranean products in your diet. Some examples are: olive oil, olives, artichokes, basil pesto, eggplant, sun-dried tomato, zucchini, tomatoes, ricotta cheese, fresh herbs, fish and pasta (not cream-based pastas such as Alfredo which is full of fat. I have always wondered in the restaurant how somebody can eat that).
10. Try to eat three regular meals a day and avoid snacking in-between. Instead drink more water that has been purified by reverse osmosis or distilled. Some kinds of bottled water have fluoride added to them and I don't recommend them for that reason.
11. Take extra vitamin and mineral supplements but keep in mind that they alone cannot substitute the real vitamins from the fruits and vegetables. The best vitamin supplements are the non-synthetic variety, extracted from whole organic foods. They are usually harder to find and a lot more expensive, but can be found in some health food stores.
12. When cooking fruits and vegetables choose a cooking method that will best preserve the vitamins in the food.
13. If the food place that caters for you at your job does not provide good nutritious food choices, consider brown-bagging some healthy sandwich and some fruits for lunch. This way you can even save some money as added benefit on top of preserving your health.
14. Find out what fruit and vegetables are in season and buy them a lot. By buying what is in season you will save money and enjoy the freshest and most healthy food available on the market.
15. My last advice is definitely the most important one, so listen carefully - DO NOT ever consume aspartame, MSG (monosodium glutamate) and fluoride (yes, I mean fluoride, the chemical that they say is good for your teeth). For the first two you know what to do, the third one is a little bit more difficult to eliminate, but a reverse osmosis filter can remove it from your water supply. The three of those are vary dangerous neuro-toxins.
I hope that my tips will be helpful and beneficial for your daily life. GOOD LUCK.