Healthier diet advice for fitness and energy - greener too!

The elements of a healthy diet are quite simple and even old fashioned. Same as they always were, in fact. Maintaining a healthy diet can be a small but significant contribution to a green, earth-friendly lifestyle too.

Healthier diet advice:

How can a healthy diet be part of a greener lifestyle?

A healthy diet tends to keep us fit and well so that we tend to need less treatment and support for our health. That, in turn saves resources and care for those who really need it.

Hospitals and clinics are energy-hungry places. If people understand and practise the elements of maintaining good health, less fuel is consumed and fewer carbon emissions are created.

A good diet is one of the fundamentals of good health. This is something which is becoming harder to achieve for many people in our time-pressured society.

Faulty diets and disease

In modern Britain, adult-onset diabetes is at an all-time high. This is a disease which is largely caused by faulty diet and lifestyle. It leads to immense pressure on the National Health Service, attendant health problems for sufferers and even lives cut short.

This is the kind of health crisis which our junk food/fast food culture can lead to. Many people are consuming far too much "food" laden with low-grade fats and sugars but little else by way of nutrients. Without a healthy amount of exercise, this kind of diet, over time, will lead to health problems such as diabetes, heart disease, obesity, cancers and psychological disorders.

A healthy diet involves eating plenty of organic foods and conservation grade foods produced by sustainable agriculture and horticulture.

This is good for other species, too. Organic farming supports bio-diversity far better than conventional farming on the whole. For more on organic food see here.

A healthy diet can also be quite low in terms of food miles and low in terms of energy usage.

You can usually buy suitable foods, adapted to your climate, close to where you live, so that your diet is not contributing significantly to global warming and climate change.

Other foods you may choose to eat can be imported using relatively sustainable methods. A good diet which is also quite green does not have to be an exercise in self-denial. Many food producers are becoming organic and are keeping their carbon footprints fairly low by considering the best ways to export food efficiently.

Many organic food providers are also aware of the need for more bio-degradable packaging and less packaging over all. This also helps keep the carbon-footprint of some organic foods low.

I hope I have convinced you (if you needed convincing!) that a healthy diet is part of a green lifestyle!

See below for a simple outline of a healthy, no-fads approach to diet - one which will make you feel great, keep you slim (or help you get slim) and is consistent with green living ideals.

Here are some ways to make your diet healthier, and greener

• Eat when you are hungry and don't when you are not. Drink when you are thirsty and don't when you are not. Many health professionals believe this is one of the most important keys to a long and healthy life!
• If you are healthy and fit, run yourself on empty for a little while sometimes. We are well adapted to a little hunger and you will usually find that your energy improves if you sometimes go hungry for a short while. I'm talking about an hour or two here and there rather than anything longer. If in doubt, always consult your physician first.
• Eat a balanced diet. This means in practice about 20-25% fat or 30% at the most, 10-20% protein and the rest carbohydrate and fibre.
• Eat lots of fresh, raw and lightly cooked foods. Some foods are easier to digest when cooked. Most foods have more vitamins and enzymes available when raw or lightly cooked. So eat a variety of foods, cooked and raw, and enjoy them both ways but don't overcook things.
• Eat fresh fruit and vegetables at practically every meal - at least five portions a day. They provide valuable vitamins, minerals and enzymes which you just don't find in anything like the quantity and variety in processed foods.

Healthier diet advice: meat and fish

• Eat fish once or twice a week. The benefits of fish are well known. Oily fish is particularly good. Omega 3 oils in fish such as mackerel have a role in preventing heart disease and help keep our joints supple. However, with the contamination of the seas which is an on-going problem, it is now best not to eat fish more often than once or twice a week. This is because some toxic elements such as mercury store themselves in the bodies of fish. There is also the issue of declining fish stocks. We are still over-fishing the oceans, despite the quota systems that have been introduced. So, from a green standpoint, it is best not to eat too much fish. See The nutritional benefits of fish and The benefits of a fish oil supplement for more on over-fishing, toxic fish and the safety of fish oil.
• If you eat meat make sure that most of it is fresh organic meat raised according to the principles of good husbandry. Your health will benefit from meat which has been organically reared and you know that the conditions for the animals are more humane and more sustainable. If you can find wild meat for sale it is generally leaner and greener - provided that it's not from an endangered species of course!

The role of fats in your diet

Healthier diet advice:

Fats are absolutely essential for health.

The question is: which fats and in what amounts?

To remain healthy we need between about 20% to 30% of our diet to be fat. The amount you need depends upon your lifestyle and living conditions.

Very low fat diets are harmful because the body cannot metabolise all the vitamins needed for health. Eating too many animal and hard fats (including the fats in margarine) causes atherosclerosis - hardening and narrowing of the arteries.

Many processed foods are chock full of hydrogenated fats. These are liquid vegetable oils which have been processed to make them behave like hard fats. The process of hydrogenation makes them contain trans-fatty acids which are a hazard to health.

Instead, most of the fats in your diet should be liquid at room temperature. Most vegetable oils contain good supplies of the essential fatty acids which are needed by your body. Many vegetable oils are good and can be used for cooking or in salad dressings. Use cold-pressed organic oils for the richest, most nutritious oils available. Safflower oil and peanut oil are particularly rich in nutrients.

Fats from oily fish are also particularly beneficial, being full of Omega 3 EFAs which have been shown to help reduce the risk of heart disease.

What to drink for a greener healthier diet

• Enjoy good quality organic wines and beers in moderation.
• Make water your first drink of choice. Use a filter on your water supply so that you are not being exposed to nitrates and chlorine in your drinking water.

Healthier diet advice: what to avoid for the most part

• Barbecued foods are full of free-radicals - chemicals which can cause many health problems, so don't have them too frequently. Gas barbecues are more environmentally-friendly and the resulting meals are less damaging but they don't taste quite the same. If you like the taste of barbecued food then sustainable locally-sourced charcoal is best to use. Or just use old seasoned wood for a natural fire. Be aware that you may still be exposing yourself to toxic products of combustion, so it is best not to eat this way too often.
• Avoid added sugar and processed foods for the most part. Sugar will give you energy in the very short term but it quickly leads to an energy deficit as your body takes it out of your blood stream for storage. Ever noticed how tired you feel half an hour after that chocolate bar? Sugar also robs your body of nutrients as it is processed. Many processed foods have a similar effect. For good levels of sustained energy you need complex carbohydrates such are found in wholegrain bread and oats

Healthier diet advice:

It goes without saying that it is best to avoid eating rubbish - at least for the most part.

Junk food and processed food is everywhere and hard to avoid when you are out in the urban jungle and short of time. But it's worth making sure that you avoid the heavily hydrogenated and sugared foods which clutter the shelves of the average supermarket and some take-aways. Some of these "foods" have even been shown to lead to food cravings. They are certainly not very satisfying and the nutrients they do contain are usually unbalanced.

Many contain undesirable ingredients such as MSG and aspartame. If you want to read some of the health hazards associated with them, have a look at Mom-going-organic-sensibly.com which has a page or two on these subjects which you may find interesting.

The video above is about the marketing of tobacco. Smoking is another source of toxic stress which increases the need for a really healthy diet. Vitamin C, for example, is used up faster if you smoke.

Losing weight effortlessly with a healthier diet

If you are overweight a diet will very often make you think about food even more! The dietary guidelines given here should make it easy for you to lose weight if you exercise plenty and don't let yourself be bored.

If you want a specific diet, then try the Hay System, or have a look at the GI diet. Both these approaches are similar and rely upon a core of excellent nutrition. (There are concerns, however, that the GI diet leads people to adopt a diet which is too low in carbohydrates; while some carbohydrates are unsuitable, we still need to eat plenty of carbohydrate - it should be our main source of energy.) You can eat as much as you like on these diets.

When you are not eating meals make sure that you are busy and active with things which interest you.

One of the main reasons to avoid diets as such is that most people will relapse - and end up putting weight back on. This is why a real healthy living diet is important. Most people who have a rational diet and lifestyle will not need to adhere to a specific diet but rather just embrace the principles of a healthy living diet - and then eat what they like within that broad framework.

Healthier diet advice:

One other piece of healthier diet advice: take a good supplement. There are lots of good reasons why this is excellent advice, some of them quite surprising!

Please explore the Green Kitchen and Green Recipebook sections of Greenfootsteps.com for more ideas and pointers towards healthier diet advice.

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