Why We Should Place More Emphasis on Balanced Nutrition Versus Diet Culture
Diets don’t work. Over a period of multiple years, every single diet performs similarly in the amount of weight loss, and breaking any of these diets has the same effect — regaining weight, often more than was lost on the diet itself. They might help you shed weight fast or kick-start a lifestyle change, but we quickly find out it’s not sustainable to carry out the restrictions that many diets place on those who try them (and they can be very expensive). The only sustainable way to achieve your dietary goals and maintain quality health and wellness is to follow a balanced diet. Your body needs a wide range of nutrient-rich foods in the right proportions, including adequate amounts of macronutrients and micronutrients, to stay fit and trim. Carbs, protein, and fats are essential to your health, but they are often the targets of several diet fads that end up leaving us feeling like we are coming up short. Don’t set yourself up for failure. Here’s why you are better off eating a balanced diet that results in true lifestyle change:
Easier and More Sustainable Weight Loss
Fad diets won’t help you lose weight sustainably, and they are no fun at all! If you are trying to lose weight and keep it off for good, flexible dieting provides your body with the right proportion of nutrients that you need to stay healthy and fit. By staying on a diet rich in highly nutritious low-calorie fruits and vegetables, high-fiber complex carbs, protein, and healthy fatty foods, you can provide your body with all the essential nutrients and also boost your weight loss. Plus, you are able to discover new recipes, have a dinner out with friends and stick to whole foods that YOU love for most of the time and in the right amounts to fuel yourself properly.
Faster Bulking
Some people want to gain weight, not lose it. It might be for aesthetic or professional reasons or purely health conditions, but the important point here is that you need a balanced diet rich in high-energy and protein-rich foods to pack the bulk you need. Fad diets starve you of some nutrients in place of another, depriving you of the nutrients you need to maintain optimal body weight, even if gaining weight is the goal.
Improved Health
A balanced diet helps provide the body healthy and nutritious food that can help protect the body against some health conditions like heart disease, high blood pressure, and stroke by stabilizing the body’s cholesterol and blood pressure levels. This promotes the free flow of blood, reducing the risk of cardiovascular diseases. A balanced diet combined with regular and effective exercise can also help prevent or manage several health conditions such as depression, diabetes, arthritis, metabolic syndrome, and some types of cancer.
Longer Life
Healthy eating habits can help you live longer. By giving your body a balanced diet, you supply it all the necessary nutrients it needs to stay healthy with improved quality of life. Eating a balanced diet, maintaining a regular exercise regimen and a sustainable lifestyle are all essential ingredients you need to age with grace in good health and happiness.
Boosted Immune System
A healthy and balanced diet also helps to strengthen your immune system. Proteins form your antibodies, and you need micronutrients, including vitamins and minerals, to supply antioxidants that help protect your body against the deleterious effects of free radicals in the environment.
Improved Sleep
Sleep is a critical indicator of good health/wellness. If you are not sleeping well, you might be suffering from an underlying health disorder that should be diagnosed as quickly as possible. An imbalanced diet may also cause sleep deprivation as high carb intake disrupts the balance of the hormones in control of hunger and satiety, impacting your sleep pattern adversely. By eating a well-rounded diet with the right proportion of all the important nutrients, you can improve the hormonal balance your body needs to ease into rest to recharge and repair itself for a better you.
Feeling More Energized
A balanced diet rich in healthy macronutrients and micronutrients provide the nutrients you need to fuel your metabolic, physical, and biochemical processes. Be mindful when making decisions about fasting and timing of meals — you want to make sure that you properly fuel your unique schedule of mental and physical processes.
