Are you confused about what to eat and how to eat to remain healthy?

Healthy Eating

Primary purpose of food and drink is to nourish the body to function optimally. Food and drink are also offer enjoyment and sensual pleasure; they allow us to engage all five senses. The colour and presentation are visually pleasing. The aroma is attractive. Taste and texture stimulate the tongue. The crackle and crunch of chewing are like a symphony.  Therefore food and drink are also an important part of our social interactions. Today's food and drink have become a source of comfort and happiness.

Our easy, low-effort access to abundant food supplies has created quite a lifestyle change from the difficult existence of hunter-gatherers. This lifestyle change has made us think about food as something much more than fuel for the body. It has also created a situation in which we are frequently very confused, misinformed, and ignorant about nutrition. What we actually eat and drink is sometimes not what we think we are consuming. We are unaware of the many additives such as colourings and preservatives, the contaminants such as agro-chemicals and hormones, and the genetic engineering that has created many artificial forms of nutrition.

So, we need to ask the right questions:

•How can we enjoy food and remain healthy?

•How can we find out what food is healthy?

•Where can we get healthy food from?

•How can we measure how much to eat?

Good health is a maintenance process, not a one-time achievement. Good health can be achieved only by making choices. Healthy eating is a choice. It is not effective if we do it occasionally it must be a way of your life, because your health will undoubtedly be affected by what and how you eat and drink most of the time. And good health is not only essential to the enjoyment of food, but also to enjoy your whole life.

Choosing to eat natural, whole food makes you healthier. “Whole foods” are the ones that come to you just as they are in nature. For example, if you eat a fresh apple, that is a whole food. We must avoid processed food because they can have additives,contaminants and they could be genetically modified. Processed food have been prepared, cooked, and preserved with unnatural chemicals. They may also be nutrient-depleted. Unpolished, whole grain rice is more natural than polished rice, pasta or white bread, which are high in starch and low in nutrients. It is important to understand that any form of bread is a processed food.

The way we process food also affect the nutrition value. Some vegetables are better eaten raw than cooked because, during the process of cooking, some nutrients can get destroyed. Green leaves and colourful vegetables have a higher nutrition value when eaten fresh and raw. Tomatoes are an exception. Lycopenes contained in tomatoes are better absorbed when the tomatoes are cooked than when eaten raw.

Eating mindfully will help us to read the signals given from the stomach when to eat and how much to eat. The body communicates with us by sending signals to the brain. Unless we are tuned into the "body's language" we miss those important messages. Mindfulness is an essential part of healthy eating in order to choose right food and also to know how much to eat. 

Mindful eating is a skill that must be mastered by daily practice.
 For more information on mindful living
http://living-from-inside-out.blogspot.com.au/