The Healthy/Unhealthy Debate

Right... so we have identified that you and I both have an eating problem from the previous blog post (if you haven't read it then I would suggest reading that first). Now we need to figure out how to categorise foods into healthy and unhealthy to know WHAT to eat - this is not as easy as it seems.

http://www.foodguruz.in/health/differentiates-healthy-food-unhealthy-food

There is no way for us to write up a list for these foods as there are just SO MANY - and to be honest, not everybody agrees on what is classified as "healthy" and "unhealthy".

For example: raisins have chemicals and ingredients that can barely be pronounced... and these are simply dried grapes!! 

Basically the way to determine if a food is healthy or not is based on fat, sugar and calorie content and by reading the labels and ingredients on the packaging. The only way to make a good choice is by understanding the different things in the food. 

So what is healthy - and what is not? 

THE BASICS

FOOD TYPES:

http://americanpregnancy.org/pregnancy-health/diet-during-pregnancy/

A good diet is comprised of foods that will "fuel" your body. This would exclude unnecessary foods.

The basic good foods are whole grains, lean proteins, vegetables, fruit, nuts, seeds, dairy - take note that each of these is a natural food. Unnecessary items would be saturated fats, added sugars, high amounts of sodium - take note that each of these is processed.

NUTRIENTS:

http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20660118,00.html

Vitamins and minerals are essential for your body and need to be considered because so many people lack this due to what they are consuming as food. Fiber is provided by whole gains, calcium from dairy, potassium form fruit and vegetables and protein is provided from lean meats - these are just a few of the many nutrients and minerals that your body requires to function. 

So basically healthy foods are those which benefit and "fuel" your body in terms of nutrition meaning organic, whole and natural foods whereas unhealthy foods are a lot less nutritional and high in calories, fat and sugar. 

We can therefore start to classify healthy foods as "raw" and unhealthy as "ready made" and "convenient". You would need to take time to prepare healthy meals where unhealthy meals are readily available to eat. 

Price wise, you pay for what you eat. There are so many benefits from eating healthy foods compared to unhealthy foods that they will obviously make unhealthy foods cheaper and healthy foods more pricey. 

CONCLUSION...

https://za.pinterest.com/pin/121737996160078382/

As much as we want to eat amazingly delicious foods all the time we also need to focus on the quality of the meals we are eating. These were just the basic differences between "healthy" and "unhealthy" foods so that you are able to decide on what is "healthy" and what is "unhealthy" for yourself.

-Shan