What Is The Best Diet For Me ?

Balanced diet for healthy & better living 

Food constitutes 5 main elements. Carbohydrates, Protein, Fats, Vitamins and Minerals. All five elements are important for the growth and maintenance of our body.

Lack of any one for an extended length of time can mean the onset of some disease. Excess of one or more of them also translates into other problems like obesity & other problems. 

It is therefore important to know what are these components & how much do we need each of them for leading healthy & trouble free life. Diet is the cornerstone of good Health. 

A typical distribution of major three components in the diet can be: 

Carbohydrates:  45 to 65 % of total calories intake 

Fat:  20 to 35 % of total calories 

Protein: 10 to 35 % of total calories 

Acceptable ranges for children are similar to those for adults, except that infants and younger children need a slightly higher proportion of fat (25 %-40%).  

(Reference: IOM - Institute of Medicine). 

There is a general consensus among health professionals that the Mediterranean Diet is healthier than the North European and American diet because more grains, such as spaghetti, fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, and olive oil are consumed.   

Mediterranean diet is a modern nutritional model inspired by the traditional dietary patterns of some of the countries of the Mediterranean basin, particularly Southern Italy, Greece, Cyprus, Portugal, Turkey and Spain. 

A main factor in the appeal of the Mediterranean Diet is its rich, full flavored foods. Mediterranean diet is known to help longevity & keeps away heart disease and other diseases.  

As a mono unsaturated fatty acid, olive oil, in Mediterranean diet, does not have the same cholesterol-raising effect of saturated fats. 

Common to the diets of these regions are a high consumption of fruit and vegetables, bread and other cereals, olive oil and fish; making them low in saturated fat and high in mono unsaturated fat and dietary fiber. 

Omega-3 fatty acids are unsaturated fats found in some fish such as salmon and herring and in smaller amounts in eggs and chicken.   

Carbohydrates 

Balancing Fats, Carbohydrates, and Proteins is a very important part of a healthy diet.  If you are diabetic, your dietitian and doctor will help you focus on low-to-moderate carbohydrates along with healthy fats. 

One gram of carbohydrate generates 4 calories. 

A balanced diet is one which contains carbohydrate, protein, fat, vitamins, mineral salts and fiber in the correct proportions. Complex carbohydrates, such as starches (pastas), are basically high energy sources that are easy for the digestive system to break down.  

Thus, during digestion, carbohydrates are immediately converted into energy instead of being stored as fats at the end of the process like most foods.  In theory, eating carbohydrates provides the body with ready-to-use energy sources. 

So, the more carbs you eat, the less fat you need to burn in order to create energy. 

The truth is, the leanest and longest living people in the industrialized world are the Japanese whose diet is dominated by carbohydrates and is low in fat.  

High carb foods like grains, rice, and vegetables are daily staples of the Japanese diet, and intake of high protein, high fat animal products are minimal. 

This means that the body does not need to burn stored fats (how most food ends up after going through the digestive system) in order to create energy for bodily functions and activity.   

Fat 

There are three types of fats: Saturated fat, mono unsaturated fats and polyunsaturated fats. From health point of view mono & polyunsaturated fats are preferred.  

One gram of fat generates 9 calories. 

Vegetarians do not have to be overly concerned about combining proteins and consuming multiple vitamin supplements because a well-rounded vegetarian diet can meet current recommendations for protein, iron, zinc, calcium, vitamin D, riboflavin, vitamin B-12, vitamin A, n-3 fatty acids and iodine.   

However, eating primarily plant-based foods doesn't guarantee keeping total fat or calories in line.  To keep health risks low and optimize benefits, it is important to continue to read food labels, control portion sizes, limit total fat and limit calories. 

Liver converts saturated fat into cholesterol. While some of the branded food items may not have cholesterol per say but may contain saturated fat which ultimately gets converted into cholesterol. We need to read labels. 

Calories from fats should be from mono unsaturated and polyunsaturated fats.  Balancing Fats, Carbohydrates, and Proteins is a very important part of a healthy diet.   

However, the growing problem of obesity is actually due to too much sugar and starches in the diet and not enough naturally occurring good fats in food. 

However, pure natural fats in the form of butter, cream, cheese and dairy in conjunction with unprocessed meat, poultry, fish, nuts, vegetables and fruit is the way to a truly healthy diet. 

 

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