Balanced Eating - February 24, 2011

Dear Friends of Roscoe Chiropractic,

Another day closer to spring!  I'm trying to stay positive on this gray February morning.  As I sit here wondering why I thought a glass of orange juice was a good breakfast, I found an article on balanced eating.  It has some great pictures of really yummy looking food, so I think I'm going to share from this article today and perhaps actually take some of my own "advice".

What does it mean to eat a balanced diet?  Well first things first "our food needs to give us energy now, it needs to provide building blocks for repair, and allow us to store energy for later".  The parts of the food that provide those things are carbohydrates for immediate energy, proteins for the repair, and fats for our stored energy.  Eating balanced means you take in the right amount of nutrients for optimal functioning.

Unbalanced eating is when you have too much of some nutrients and not enough of the others. For example a bagel would be considered calorie dense and nutrient light. Most of the nutrients are from carbohydrates. It's important that we get the right amount of all the necessary nutrients from the calories we eat. 

Here are five ways to help ensure you are eating balanced and healthy.
1. Pay attention to what you eat.
2. Make sure every grain you eat is a whole grain.
3. Eat a fruit and vegetable with every meal.
4. Look at labels - anything that is off the charts for any of the nutrients listed above, put it back.
5. Buy fresh and local as much as possible.

Well I think when I leave work today I'm going to the grocery store. Mostly cause I'm hungry (which might make it a bad idea) but I want to try out these tips. Check with me later to see how I succeeded. Everyone have a great week! Stay healthy and share with me how you implemented some of this into your diet! For more information read March 2011 To Your Health!