What is Balanced Diet? Why it is important?

What Balanced Diet mean?

A diet that offers all the essential nutrients your body requires to sustain and function well is called a Balanced Diet. It contains varieties of food items rich in vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, proteins, fats, fiber, water, and healthy calories.

It is essential to have a properly balanced diet to maintain a healthy body and ensure the proper functioning of every part of it. Maintaining a balanced diet reduces the risk of chronic diseases like diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and cancer.

What are the food items a Balanced Diet contains?

• Vegetables
• Fruits
• Grains
• Protein Items
• Dairy Products

These combine to make a healthy diet as they are enriched with the most important nutrients and helps the body to perform normally and stay lifelong.

Vegetables:

Vegetables are important sources of nutrients, including vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin E, potassium, iron, fiber, zinc, magnesium, and folic acid. They help in building up your body both externally and internally. Green leafy vegetables like spinach, cabbage, broccoli are the storehouse of nutrients and have antioxidant properties. Other vegetables like brinjal, potato, carrot, radish, cauliflower, beans, beetroot are all low in calories, preventing obesity. An adequate amount of vegetable intake makes your body healthy and strong and reduces the risk of diseases like cancer and heart diseases.

 Vegetable deficiency in a diet can lead to a weak immune system with eyesight problems. It can also result in degeneration of cell functioning, which can cause an early aging process.

Fruits:

We all know that “ an apple a day keeps a doctor away.” This means that fruits help build and maintain a strong, healthy body and ensure its proper functioning. Fruits have a wide range of essential vitamin A, vitamin C, and minerals which acts as antioxidants in your body. They are also low in calories, thus helping in weight management. Fruits like apple, banana, guava, pineapple, strawberry, kiwi are enriched with nutrients that make your bones and muscles stronger and contain fiber that keeps your digestive system healthy. Other fruits like orange and lemon are rich in vitamin C. Fruits also keep your body hydrated all the time, for example, watermelon.

They act as a brain booster by ensuring healthy development, increasing thinking ability, and preventing memory loss. Fruits give your energy and help you to GLOW!

Grains:

Whole grains are the powerhouse of nutrients, including fiber, vitamin B, and minerals (iron and magnesium), and have antioxidant properties. Whole grains include millets, barley, sorghum, oatmeal, quinoa, and buckwheat which lowers the risk of heart diseases, stroke, diabetes, and obesity. Grains help in proper digestion and keeps your digestive system healthy, and reduces the risk of cancer. It also reduces chronic inflammation.

Proteins:

Proteins are made up of amino acids commonly known as BUILDING BLOCKS which play a vital role in building bones, muscles, teeth, nails, and hairs. They can also repair body parts and tissues in case of any injury on their own. Proteins give strength and power and also reduces hunger and cravings. Food items like egg, fish, meat, soya bean, milk, nuts are highly rich in omega-3 fatty acids and vitamin B2, making your bones and muscles stronger. The proper amount of protein intake lowers blood pressure, burns extra calories by increasing metabolism, thus resulting in weight loss.

Deficiency of protein in the diet can result in fatty liver, skin degeneration, and bone fracture. Children have stunt growth due to a lack of proteins.

Dairy Products:

Dairy products have essential nutrients like calcium, potassium, vitamin D, and vitamin B. It helps to maintain good health and makes your bones and muscles strong. Milk, an important dairy product that contains calcium, phosphorus, vitamin B, and D, prevents bone fracture and osteoporosis and helps gain a healthy weight. Other dairy products like yogurt, cheese, butter reduce cavities and promote dental health. Fermented dairy products like yogurt are sources of probiotics that help in proper digestion, improves energy, increases metabolism, and leads to weight loss.

The deficiency of dairy products leads to hypocalcemia and makes your bones fragile.

Water:

Water is an essential component in life. The human body consists of 60 percent of water. Every cell of your body requires water for its well functioning. Water is essential because:

• Water removes waste and unwanted materials from your body in the form of urine, sweat, and defecation. It helps the kidney filter out the waste products from your blood and excreting them, thus making your body toxin-free.
• Water regulates body temperature and keeps you hydrated all the time, and prevents dehydration.
• Water acts as a lubricant and provides a cushion to joints. It retains moisture in cells, tissues, and sensitive areas like the spinal cord, brain, and bones.
• Water carries nutrients and oxygen to every cell of your body. It also helps dissolve minerals become accessible to every part of the body.
• Water is the main component of blood, and if your body is not hydrated enough, then the concentration of blood becomes thick, which would result in heart diseases. Thus water helps in keeps your heart healthy.
• Water helps in the proper digestion of food. Your intestine absorbs water during the digestion process to break the nutrients into small pieces.

Thus water is required in almost every aspect of your body. A minimum of 3 liters of water should be taken per day. The more you drink water, the more you become healthier.

All the mentioned above food items combines to make a proper healthy balanced diet. Skipping any one of them is not a good choice for your body. Maintaining a diet keeps your body healthy and helps make your skin and hair healthy and glowing.