Everyone can have good health – and what’s more, everyone is entitled to a healthy, happy life. You owe it to yourself to live up to your potential, and the people around you will benefit from it as well. Even if you feel like you’ve spent your whole life neglecting your physical and mental health by dining at too many fast food restaurants and feeling your brain decompose in front of the TV, you can still make a change. To make this change toward better health and nutrition, you only need two things: the desire, and the knowledge. This article hopes to give you both, with the idea that once you know what optimum nutrition can do for you, you will want to put the right things in your body and enjoy a better life.
Optimum nutrition starts when you wake up in the morning and sit down to breakfast. Studies show that when people eat breakfast, they lower their risk of cardiovascular diseases such as heart disease and stroke. Why? Because when you eat breakfast, you start your body off on the right foot, fueling your metabolism and energizing your mood. Skipping breakfast won’t make you lose weight; on the contrary, eating breakfast will lessen your appetite later on in the day. People who eat breakfast have fewer obesity problems, which means fewer insulin problems and a lower risk for diabetes. As for every meal, you should eat a wide variety of foods for breakfast — carbs, proteins, and fats. Some good choices include whole wheat bagels; yogurt; wholegrain toast; orange juice; high fiber, low sugar cereals; oatmeal; and fruit. You can also have an omelet, and energize it with vegetables.
Multi-vitamins comprise another key component of optimum nutrition, and they’re so easy to take that everyone should have them daily. In addition to all the physical benefits the vitamins and minerals provide – such as strong bones and better immunity – multi-vitamins also help your mental health and well-being. Studies show that people who take multi-vitamins can increase their IQ, improve their memory, enhance their problem-solving skills, increase their attention span, reduce aggression, and improve mood. In addition, multi-vitamins also decrease pregnancy problems if taken from the beginning of pregnancy.
Throughout the day, you should try to refuel continually so you maintain a steady supply of energy and don’t experience sugar rushes and falls. Even if you don’t have time to snack, you can still maintain a constant energy level if you eat foods that naturally and gradually release energy. Along with whole grain bread, you should also get plenty of fruits and vegetables for an optimum nutrition diet. Fruits and vegetables have fewer calories than junk foods so they won’t weigh you down, but they will make you feel full so you don’t eat an excessive amount of cookies. Different fruits and vegetables contain different nutrients, so you should mix them up as often as you can. For example, red, orange, yellow, and dark green vegetables have high levels of the antioxidant beta-carotene, which unclogs bloods vessels, among other things. The same goes for fruits, as well. Berries, melons and citrus contain high levels of vitamin C, which boosts your immunity.
As for meat, try to eat fish and poultry as well as red meat. Choose lean ground beef for red meat, and always try to remove the skin and fat. Try out different recipes that involve baking, broiling and grilling rather than frying.
Don’t forget about drinks, either. Drink lots of water, which will help your body absorb all the nutrients as well as keep you full. When you get dehydrated, you also get tired. Sodas and alcoholic beverages can also dehydrate you, as well as overfill you with a lot of calories and sugar you don’t need.
By Lisa Zyga