Everyone these days it seems is on a diet. There are organic diets and raw food diets and macrobiotic diets. There is the Atkins diet. Some people believe you should eat 3 meals a day and some people believe you should combine your foods so that you eat fruits at a certain time of day and carbohydrates at a different time of day.
What is the best diet for you to maintain proper health and wellness?
Individual Biochemistry and Health
One thing is important for everyone to understand about health whether they are a raw food fan or a fan of some other diet. Every person has their own unique biochemistry. That means their body will react in its own unique way to the foods a person puts in their mouth, no matter what type of eating plan and diet they adopt.
That means no two people will react to food the same way, whether they eat 3 times a day or 6, whether they eat fruits in the morning or protein. What this means is that each individual must adopt their own structured eating plan, one that accommodates their own unique biochemistry and lifestyle.
You can only know what is best for you by experimenting to find out how your body reacts to eating different ways and different foods.
How to Adopt a Healthy Lifestyle
The best way to maintain good health is to adopt a lifestyle of eating foods in a way that preserves optimal health. Optimal health is living a life relatively free from major disease and living a life that is full of energy and wellness emotionally, physically and spiritually.
Some people find that eating raw foods suits them best because it allows them to sustain proper energy and allows them to get the fiber they need to maintain regularity. They may also find that eating six mini meals each day, combining a certain ratio of carbohydrates, fats and proteins, suits them best.
Others may find that eating fruits separate from protein seems to sit better with their body's unique biochemistry. Still others may find the acidity of certain fruits causes them to feel unwell and develop diarrhea. This is because certain people have allergies to citrus fruits.
Others may find the develop cavities despite their good eating habits and tendency to brush between meals. This is because even healthy organic foods can contain few varied minerals and lots of sugar (some fruits for example) so if you eat too much of one thing, you may develop tooth decay for example.
This raises one good point about good health – if you want to maintain proper health, it is vital to your health that you eat a diversified diet.
Eating Diverse Foods for Proper Health
One concept about food that is generally true for most people is this – the more diversified your diet, the more likely you are to be fit and well. People that eat foods from a variety of sources, whether plant or other, are more likely to be healthy than people that eat a rather homogenous diet.
No one plant contains all of the vitamins, proteins, trace minerals and amino acids (and the like) that a person needs to maintain proper health. This is one reason it is important you diversify your diet. If you always eat a piece of cantaloupe for breakfast you may not be getting all of the vitamins and minerals you need from your diet.
Why not try cantaloupe a couple of days each week, and then try some peanut butter other days during the week and perhaps some seeds and different fruits different days of the week?
The more diverse your eating habits, the more likely you are to maintain your energy levels and to stave off any cravings for unhealthy foods. Often people experience food cravings because their body becomes deficient in one or more vitamins or minerals. So be sure you avoid this by stocking up on plenty of different foods. One way to do this is to try to eat foods of a different color each day on your plate.
If you eat three different foods on your plate, make sure they are all three different colors; this way you know they all contain different nutrients that will serve your body well.
More Water Please!
Finally, one of the best ways to maintain your health is by drinking plenty of water. Most people don't realize by the time they feel thirsty they are already too dehydrated. You should never get to a point where you feel thirsty. Instead, drink plenty of water during the day so you always maintain hydration.
If you feel the taste of water is too boring, why not try to spice up your water with a few cucumber slices or orange rinds? This always adds a bit of excitement and fun to the day. Still other people find adding several flavors like lime and orange, or cucumber and lemon to their water an excellent fix to something that is ordinarily to bland to tolerate.
If you really must you can add a little carbonation to your water, but keep in mind carbonated drinks can sometimes cause fluid retention, not something most people searching for good health want in their diet!
One thing that all can agree on. Keep your diet simple and varied!
By TTS Cofounder Botanical Chef Omid Jaffari
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