You are what you eat
Every cell in you needs food to function. The healthier you eat, the better your cells can function. That makes sense, right? So you’re what you eat. If you eat healthy, you feel healthy and you function better.
There are many visions about healthy food. What’s healthy? Most health experts and the World Health Organization agree on:
- eat mainly vegetables and fruit hygienically handled and preferably organically grown
- eat mainly slow carbohydrates
- use mainly unsaturated fat (e.g. olive oil, oily fish, walnuts, linseed) and good proteins as in fish, nuts and seeds.
- eat less meat
- add no or little sugar, salt and artificial additives products
- drink enough water
Choose organic, handle hygienic
Ever-increasing demand for food leads to massproduction using unhealthy artificial chemicals as pesticides, hormones, antibiotics or genetically modified organisms. It has been proven worldwide that unhealthy food and contaminated water contribute to 200 diseases from diarrhoea to cancers (World Health Organization). Choose therefore organically preferably local produced foods without artificial additives. Be aware of food safety procedures,
Eat no or little fast carbohydrates
We get our energy from carbohydrates (carbs). There are fast and slow carbs. Fast carbs are, for example, in sweets, white rice, bananas and potatoes. They immediately give you more energy, because they are quickly converted into glucose absorbed by your blood. They also ensure that you are hungry again quickly. This causes your blood sugar level to fluctuate. If you do not use this energy, glucose is converted into fat. If you eat a lot of fast carbohydrates, your blood sugar levels fluctuate continuously. That is not healthy and accelerates even the aging process and risks of diseases as type 2 diabetes, heart diseases and certain cancers. Cells, including cancer cells, grow faster when richly fed with glucose. So… the more you eat fast carbs, the faster your body grows, ages and dies. Why eat fast carbs even longer? There are good alternatives offered, for example, by the HealtHut and the Green Corner. How fast or slow carbohydrates are can be found in the glycemic index (GI).
Glycemic index
The Glycemic index is a ranking of carbohydrates on a scale from 0 to 100 according to the extent to which they raise blood sugar (glucose) levels after eating. Foods with a high GI are those which are rapidly digested, absorbed and metabolised and result in marked fluctuations in blood sugar (glucose) levels. Low GI carbohydrates – the ones that produce smaller fluctuations in your blood glucose and insulin levels – is one of the secrets to long-term health, reducing your risk of type 2 diabetes, heart diseases and certain cancers. It is also one of the keys to maintaining weight loss.
Every body is different
What is healthy for you also depends on what you do and how your body reacts.
Listen to your body
Some people get an allergic reaction when eating some ‘healthy’ foods such as nuts, fish and grains. The body makes antibodies against certain proteins in these products. An allergy manifests itself by, for example, an itchy feeling in your mouth, eczema, asmatic or digestive complaints, dizziness, tiredness. Also spicy food, alcohol and fast carbohydrates can cause these problems. Listen therefor carefully to your body. If you have any physically complaints think of what you have eaten and drunk. You’d better stop eating and drinking these products.
Healthy eating habits
Most people don’t know much about the impact of what they eat on their body and their future. They eat out of habit too fast and too much, they drink too little water and they don’t feel relaxed and enjoyable during eating. Eating should be fun, make you happy and give you energy. Make it fun and enjoyable. Take your time. Set up the table cozy, make the plates and bowls beautiful, invite friends, turn on nice and relaxing music and treat yourself and others to a healthy and tasty meal. Eat mindful.