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Healthy Eating
A diet consistent with the Healthy Eating recommends people consume a variety of foods across and within the five food groups and avoid foods that contain too much added fat, salt and sugar. The Guide aims to promote healthy eating habits throughout life, which will assist in reducing the risk of health problems in later life, such as heart disease, obesity and Type 2 Diabetes.
After studying two years’ worth of consumers’ eating behavior, professors found that the quality (“This homemade fudge is fantastic!”) and quantity (“I’ll have some more homemade fudge, please!) of foods consumed during weekend and holiday meals is considerably different from regular weekdays. The Guide aims to encourage the consumption of a variety of foods from each of the five food groups every day in proportions that are consistent with the Dietary Guidelines for Australians. The five foods groups are:
- Bread, cereals, rice, pasta, noodles
- Vegetables, legumes
- Fruit
- Milk, yoghurt, cheese
- Meat, fish, poultry, eggs, nuts, legumes.
It is expected that small amounts of unsaturated fats and oils will be consumed with breads and cereals but additional fats and foods such as cakes, biscuits, hot chips and sugary drinks should be consumed only occasionally.
Healthy eating is not about strict nutrition philosophies, staying unrealistically thin, or depriving yourself of the foods you love. Rather, it’s about feeling great, having more energy, and keeping yourself as healthy as possible – all which can be achieved by learning some nutrition basics and incorporating them in a way that works for you.
The Dietary Guidelines for Adults (2009) are:
- Enjoy a wide variety of nutritious foods
- Eat plenty of vegetables, legumes and fruits
- Eat plenty of cereals (including breads, rice, pasta and noodles), preferably wholegrain
- Include lean meat, fish, poultry and/or alternatives
- Include milks, yoghurts, cheeses and/or alternatives
reduced-fat varieties should be chosen, where possible - Drink plenty of water
and take care to:
- Limit saturated fat and moderate total fat intake
- Choose foods low in salt
- Limit your alcohol intake if you choose to drink
- Consume only moderate amounts of sugars and foods containing added sugars
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Prevent weight gain: be physically active and eat according to your energy needs
“Eating healthfully is a lifestyle, which includes permission to step outside of the ‘healthy food box.’ Coming prepared to holiday events is your key to success. Never show up starving; eat a small, healthful snack prior to dining out. Peruse the offerings and after waiting a minute or two if you still really want it, then it is more than an impulsive selection. … Feeling that you are controlling your choices will help you feel good during and after the meal.”
FITNESS AND FOOD
For fitness and food both to impact, Choose the types of foods that improve your health and avoid the types of foods that raise your risk for such illnesses as heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. Expand your range of healthy choices to include a wide variety of delicious foods. Learn to use guidelines and tips for creating and maintaining a satisfying, healthy diet.
What exactly does 'fit' mean?
Different authorities have differing opinions on what makes someone 'fit'. The bottom line is this: if you're physically fit, you can do your chosen form of exercise without ending up completely exhausted. To do this you need: strength, endurance, speed, flexibility, and so on (see our glossary at the bottom for more details). To be good at a particular sport (also called motor fitness), you might also need quick reaction times, agility, balance, co-ordination, and power.
What do the numbers mean?
- Body Mass Index (BMI) - The BMI is the ratio of your weight to the square of your height. The number is proportional to your body shape. Generally, the number is small for thin people and large for fat people. People with a BMI 25 or greater are considered overweight, unless they have a very muscular body. The BMI does not consider the fat/muscle ratio, and a healthy, muscular individual with a low percentage of body fat may be classified obese using the BMI formula. This is a well-known deficiency of the BMI formula. If your BMI is 25 or greater, and your Waist-to-Height ratio is less than 0.5 and your Percent Body Fat is in the "athlete" or "fitness" category, you are probably muscular and not fat.
- Waist-to-Height Ratio - The Waist-to-Height ratio is determined by dividing the waist circumference by the height. Waist-to-Height ratios of 0.5 or greater are indicative of intra-abdominal fat for both men and women and are associated with a greater risk of cardiovascular disease. A study found that persons with a normal BMI but a large waist circumference, corresponding approximately to a Waist-to-Height ratio of 0.55, had a 20% higher mortality risk than persons with a normal waist size.[7]
- Percent Body Fat - The percent body fat is calculated using the formulas developed by Hodgdon and Beckett at the Naval Health Research Center in 1984. The formulas require the measurements to be in centimeters with an accuracy of 0.5 cm. However, the form above has been adjusted to accept measurements in inches. Men and women require different methods for measuring because men accumulate fat mostly in the abdomen (the "apple" body shape or "beer belly"), while women accumulate fat in their abdomen and hips (the "pear" body shape). The equations take this into consideration.
Fit me up, then!
If you've decided to get fit, don't keep putting it off: procrastination is deadly. Then again, a little thought is needed first, rather than going at it hell for leather. People who go straight in without any knowledge or the right gear can earn some serious chafing and blisters, making them more likely to give up.
Most trainers suggest that you should start gradually and build up from there. If you're completely unfit or have had any illness or ongoing health problem, consult your doctor before starting an exercise regime. Exercise can improve many health conditions, but check first, in case you have something that needs temporary rest. Make sure you're wearing the right clothing and have the correct safety equipment if required.
Pick a form of exercise that you can do frequently and will enjoy. You can also mix up the types of exercise that you do, for all round body conditioning. Remember that getting fit can take several weeks or months. It's easy to get frustrated or give up, but hang in there. You should see some obvious results within six to eight weeks.
Eat enough calories but not too many. Maintain a balance between your calorie intake and calorie expenditure—that is, don't eat more food than your body uses. The average recommended daily allowance is 2,000 calories, but this depends on your age, sex, height, weight, and physical activity.
Keep portions moderate, especially high-calorie foods. In recent years serving sizes have ballooned, particularly in restaurants. Choose a starter instead of an entrée, split a dish with a friend, and don’t order supersized anything.
Limit sugary foods, salt, and refined-grain products. Sugar is added to a vast array of foods. In a year, just one daily 12-ounce can of soda (160 calories) can increase your weight by 16 pounds. See suggestions below for limiting salt and substituting whole grains for refined grains.
A simple Fitness plan
The first phase: get your body used to frequent moderate levels of activity for the first four to six weeks. Your exercise should include stretching and a warm up, continuous aerobic activity, some toning exercises, and a warm down afterwards. To see benefits you need to do enough to increase your heart rate (to between 60 and 70% of its maximum) and make you breathe deeper.
Improvers: increase your levels of activity slightly every couple of weeks. Your body is adapting to the exercise, so you need to push it slightly harder to keep getting results. Increase the length of your exercise sessions, or the intensity of them.
Maintenance: after about six months, the average person has reached a level of fitness that they're happy with, and decides to stick with their current level of exercise to maintain their fitness. If you're training for sport or competitions, you will probably need to push yourself for longer.
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Fiber
Dietary fiber is found in plant foods (fruit, vegetables and whole grains) and is essential for maintaining a healthy digestive system. Fiber helps support a healthy diet by:
- Helping you feel fuller faster and longer, which can help prevent overeating.
- Keeping blood sugar levels even, by slowing digestion and absorption so that glucose (sugar) enters the bloodstream slowly and steadily.
- Maintaining a healthy colon - the simple organic acids produced when fiber is broken down in the digestive process helps to nourish the lining of the colon.
The two types of fiber are soluble and insoluble:
- Soluble fiber can dissolve in water and can also help to lower blood fats and maintain blood sugar. Primary sources are beans, fruit and oat products.
- Insoluble fiber cannot dissolve in water, so it passes directly through the digestive system. It’s found in whole grain products and vegetables.
A healthy diet should contain approximately 20 to 30 grams of fiber a day, but most of us only get about half of that amount.
Diet and Fitness
The Best ABS diet
If you've been on a quest for flat abs, the male-centric Abs Diet may be the solution. This diet promises to flatten your stomach in six weeks, allowing you to lose 20 pounds of fat on average. While having an enviable midsection is the most obvious pay-off, creator and editor-in-chief of Men's Health David Zinczenko says that by reducing your waist circumference, you'll also decrease your risk of heart disease and diabetes, boost your longevity and improve your sex life.
To help you achieve these goals, you're required to follow six guidelines: Eat six meals a day (three meals and three snacks), make 12 "powerfoods" the focus of your diet, drink smoothies regularly, stop counting calories, watch what you drink and best yet, forget all of these guidelines for one meal a week.
So what are these 12 foods? They include almonds and other nuts; beans and legumes; spinach and other green vegetables; dairy (like fat-free or low-fat milk, yogurt and cheese); instant oatmeal; eggs; turkey and other lean meats; peanut butter; olive oil; whole-grain breads and cereals; extra protein (whey) powder; and raspberries and other berries.
Exercise is also a crucial part of this program, and although one interval workout and two optional cardiovascular workouts are recommended, the focus is on strength training. Zinczenko's philosophy, after all, is that you should minimize your exercise time while maximizing your results, and in his opinion, strength training gives you the most bang for your buck.
Bead Fitness diet
What is it? A calorie-counting plan that uses a beaded bracelet to help you diet. Each bead equals 100 calories, so if you want to eat 12,000 calories per day, slide 12 beads onto one string of the bracelet. Then when you eat 100 calories, slide a bead onto the other string.
What can I eat? Anything! As long as you know the calorie content.
How much weight will I lose? It depends, but if you stick to 1300 cals a day, you could lose six kilos in six weeks.
Why is it hot right now? Delta Goodrem is rumoured to be a fan and actress Kate Beckinsale makes her own diet bracelets for friends. Forget those red Kabbalah bracelets, you'll be seeing Hollywood's elite wearing diet beads in 2008.
How can I do it? Buy a bracelet at www.ilovethiscolor.com/dietbracelets or make one. Take a piece of wool long enough to wrap around your wrist twice and then thread enough beads onto one strand of the wool. When you've eaten, just slide the bead to the other strand.
Super-fruit: The pomegranate
What is it? It's a wonder fruit! With about 105 calories, pomegranates are a great source of potassium. Pomegranate juice contains antioxidants which can help fight cell damage and so protect against heart disease, cancer and other diseases. It can even help lower cholesterol.
Why are they so hot right now? The lowly pomegranate was just named by Oprah Winfrey as being in her food hall of fame and sales in America have more than doubled — Oprah even drinks pomegranate martinis.
Gardening your way to fitness
Gardening can be a great workout and boost for body and soul -- if you do it right.
As a gardening enthusiast, you've probably spent many hours reading and researching about how to produce a healthier, more beautiful garden. But have you ever thought about how gardening can produce a healthier you?
At a time when fitness professionals are touting the advantages of regular, moderate exercise, gardening is being recognized as a healthy lifestyle habit that can provide significant benefits to people of all ages. Studies show that 30 minutes a day of moderate activity, such as gardening, may decrease the risk of numerous chronic ailments including heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes. And in addition to gardening's physical benefits, proponents point to the psychological boost conferred by accomplishing a task and literally taking time to smell the roses.
The key, Lovejoy says, is to see gardening not as a punishment but a joy. "You should feel lucky to be outside in the garden," she says.
Gardening is a great alternative to traditional exercise because it incorporates elements of accepted exercise routines while enabling you to engage in an enjoyable activity in the privacy of your own surroundings.
Research shows that gardening for 30-45 minutes most days of the week has significant health benefits, such as decreasing the risk of high blood pressure and diabetes, as well as contributing to healthier bones, muscles and joints. Elements of gardening such as digging, weeding, trimming shrubs and mowing the lawn can require the same energy requirements as other physical exercise activities such as walking, cycling, swimming and aerobics.
We're not saying that going to the gym is bad, or that you shouldn't jog around the block or walk on a treadmill. If that's what you enjoy, then by all means, keep doing it! But if you're the type of person who dreads going to the gym, or who can't seem to find enough time to work out, then adding fitness activities into your everyday routine will make you happier and healthier with no extra time spent. Even if you're already a fitness junkie, converting to a more active daily routine can only help.
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