Nutrition Balanced Diet
Beef: It’s what’s for Dinner! Or is it? Our nostalgic diet from the 50′s of meat and potatoes has left over half of our population overweight.
With more energy available to every American, and less work needed to obtain it, it’s becoming easier and easier to pack on the pounds and harder and harder to shed them.
Part of the problem is the food choices we face. Our capitalistic society is focused on maximizing output and minimalizing input. Companies produce low cost foods that are based on low cost ingredients like corn. This leaves us with a plethora of affordable processed foods. Setting aside morality and politics, there are several benefits to different types of food. It’s our choice to determine what to include in our diet so we can eat healthy. So what are the pro’s and con’s of different foods?
Grains
Quite simply, humans need grains to survive. Wheat surprisingly has all of the nutrients a human body needs to survive with minimal supplementation. However, corn has little nutritional value and only provides sugars and some fiber before passing through the digestive tract. Grains grow abundantly, but need to do so to support modern industrial demand. Grains are cheep, plentiful and life sustaining. It’s no wonder it’s called it the “bread of life”.
Meat
Many people think that meat is just an unhealthy filler. While meats can contain fats and cholesterol, they are a vital source of protein. The reason meat is so filling is because it is so easily assimilated into our bodies (it is similar to what it already there), meaning it is more energy efficient to eat meat over other food sources.
Dairy
While not essential for life (many Asian cultures have little dairy in their diets) milk provides healthy fats, protein and is packed with nutrients. However, milk also contains unhealthy fats as well.
Plants
Fruits and vegetables provide sugars and nutrients that are hard to obtain through other sources of food. With no health drawbacks (except in some exotic plants) Fruits and vegetables should be as important to the diet as grains. However, sugars from fruits are only quick sources of energy, and the mass of plant matter is undigestable by humans (as apposed to meats, where almost all of the nutritional value is obtained before it becomes waste)
Processed Foods
While it is true that most of the preservatives and salt in processed foods can cause long term health problems, processed foods can be packed with nutrients and energy. Stay away from high-frutose corn syrup and salt, but find processed foods high in grains. Processed foods also include multivitamins, magic pill, but there are weight loss supplements, and other substances that have improved the American quality of life.
In the end, no one food source is superior to the others, but each must be eaten in a balanced diet.
Tell Us If This Product, Program, Diet worked For You!
