HealthY Taste Test offers an easy way for you to find out what foods will make your heart happy. A healthy diet is an effective diet which helps to keep or enhance overall good health. A good diet supplies the body with important nutrition: macronutrients, fluid, carbohydrates, and sufficient food energy. A wide range of commercially prepared foods is available in grocery stores. It is possible to improve your health and live a long, happy life by choosing to eat healthier and live longer.
The most common way to classify foods is according to their nutritional value. Nutritional value refers to the combination of nutrients that they contain. The five food groups are fruits, vegetables, grains, dairy products, and lean meats and fats. Health experts suggest that it is best to have the right proportion of each of these groups in your daily diet.
Some people mistakenly believe that healthy foods should cost more to eat. This is not always the case. In fact, healthy foods do not necessarily have to cost more to be good for you. Some fruits and vegetables are free and are much easier to add to a balanced diet than other expensive foods that require more conscious thought about how they are prepared and eaten.
Fruit intake is strongly correlated with lower incident of chronic diseases and disability. A well-balanced diet can reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes and coronary artery disease. Based on dietary guidelines, the median number of servings of fruits and vegetables per day is six servings. One serving of fruit includes eight ounces of fruit juice or pulp, fresh fruit, such as berries or an apple, or another dark red or green fruit.
Vegetable intake, on the other hand, consists of about twenty-five servings per person, with about half of them consisting of vegetables that are fresh and the remainder canned or frozen. The average amount of sodium contained in a one-ounce serving of fresh fruit or vegetable is two hundred and thirty milligrams. A diet that is high in sodium is associated with higher risks of hypertension and other health problems, such as stroke and kidney stones. The recommended amount of sodium for someone who wants to maintain their health but does not need to consider high blood pressure levels is two grams of sodium per day, which is equivalent to one teaspoon of table salt. A three-gram intake would equal about two tablespoons of salt.
If there is one thing about food that we all agree is bad for us, it is high salt intake. If you want to cut salt intake, follow the sodium guidelines for both the Western and Asian countries described above. An Asian diet is characterized by low intake of processed foods and more of fresh fruits and vegetables. In the United States, a similar trend has emerged, with many more people adding low-salt foods to their daily menu. As a result, we now have a growing body of evidence suggesting that a healthier diet containing less salt is not only good for your heart, but also improves your general health and well-being.