Nutrition Is More Than Counting Calories
Nutrition usually only comes up when people are finally deciding to diet. By that point, the only purpose of mentioning nutrition is just to find a reason why one particular diet might be better than another. However, most fad diets do not work nearly as well as the originators claim they will, due to the nature of most strict diets.
Most of the serious diets we hear about work by simply removing a food or food group from your daily diet. This sometimes means eating less of certain foods than you normally would, however it often means entirely removing certain food groups from your diet altogether. The basic premise is that by restricting your diet in some way, you will lose weight.
Obviously if the food you are cutting out altogether is junk food you will be better off nutritionally. The problem is that when you totally stop eating a food that you are used to eating regularly, you will get cravings for this food. Right from the start you will have a major temptation to cheat on the diet. Eventually you will probably cheat and render the diet useless. You should therefore opt for diets that don't restrict you as severely as this.
Another problem with a lot of diets is that they have a tendency to focus more on one particular aspect of the food instead of on the overall nutrition value of it.
For example, many popular fad diets focus on eliminating fat, or sugar, or carbohydrates from the diet. This gives people blinkered vision by looking at only part of the nutritional picture and leads to bad nutritional decisions.
Say you are on a diet which aims to avoid carbohydrates. You have to decide between a diet soda (which is bad for you in almost all respects but contains very few carbs) and a fruit juice drink (which is very good for you but is high in carbs). The diet would have you disregard your general health and go for the diet soda. The best choice is, of course, the fruit juice which is rich in minerals and vitamins and is much better for you.
The best method to lose weight is to eat healthy meals which are good for you as often as you can, while avoiding meals that lack balance. Eating a balanced diet is extremely important for your health and wellbeing.
When looking for nutritious foods try to avoid prepackaged foods. These foods are often very high in salt and lacking in the vitamins and minerals that their fresh counterparts are rich in. They are also filled with chemical preservatives, it is always best to avoid these packaged foods and opt instead for fresh foods when at all possible.
By preparing meals from fresh food yourself you will be more aware of how much you eat and what is in your food. This will help you keep track of how much sodium is in your diet, and will help you balance your diet and eat healthily.
The best approach to eating in a healthy manner is to look carefully at the ingredients in the food you eat, of course calorie or fat counts are helpful in assessing food, but nothing will be as benificial in picking the right food for you, as knowing exactly what ingredients are in that food.
About the Author
Connie Roemer is the Staff Writer of FF <ahref="http://www.ffnutrition.com">Nutrition</a> This is where you will discover all the information, resources and articles you want on nutrition. Connie also invites you to sign up for her free newsletter.
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