What are the benefits of healthy food. A guide to healthy eating for beginners. What does healthy eating mean? Basic principles and concepts

We will talk about how to eat right. Each category of people will have its own menu. We will definitely analyze which foods are healthy.

Let's not ignore junk food. In this section, we will also mention it as a warning about the danger to human health.

All articles will go at the very end. But before you start, I recommend that you read the information about healthy eating. She goes below. I am sure you will find a lot of useful information here.

10 Healthy Foods

To begin with, we will analyze 10 healthy foods that we all should pay attention to. Of course, there are many other healthy foods out there. Unfortunately, you can't list them all. So let's stick with ten for now.

In principle, they are enough for the eyes. These products will help you improve your health and normalize proper nutrition. Let's take a closer look at them below.

Broccoli is rich in fiber, folate, potassium and calcium. There are also special substances that can reduce the likelihood of cardiovascular disease.

Never overcook broccoli. This destroys all the useful trace elements necessary for our body.

Some people think that potatoes are bad for us. But fortunately, this is not entirely true. Yes, if you deep-fry it or pop chips, then such a product will do more harm than good.

But if, for example, bake potatoes in foil, then all its useful properties will be preserved. So potatoes are good too.

Due to the high content of antioxidants, lettuce is very beneficial for us. They contain many vitamins, as well as selenium, zinc, calcium, iron and other useful substances.

Be sure to remember that lettuce leaves should always be eaten fresh. This way the beneficial properties are preserved. And during quenching or heat treatment, all these properties are lost.

The use of 100 gr. oily salmon or trout fish more than 4 times a week fully covers the body's need for omega 3 fatty acids. We need these acids for the good functioning of the nervous system, as well as for metabolism.

It is worth noting that a lot of proteins can be found in salmon. In 100 gr. of this fish you can get up to 26 gr. protein. This is much more than in meat or chicken. So for good muscle growth, be sure to eat salmon.

Many argue that eggs are very harmful. But fortunately, this is not entirely true.

In general, the protein and yolk in a chicken egg are very beneficial for us. And the cholesterol contained in them has nothing to do with the increase in blood cholesterol.

Eggs are an excellent source of easy-to-digest protein. This is especially important for athletes who are engaged in high physical activity.

A bowl of natural oatmeal is a great breakfast food. Like any other cereal, oatmeal contains a lot of fiber, which helps with digestion.

It is also worth mentioning that oatmeal is cooked from coarse grains and contains a lot of complex carbohydrates. Thus, before lunch you will definitely not get hungry.

This is a great product that will help you get rid of short snacks.

Yes, it's the same lemon. Many unfortunately do not like it. But in vain! After all, it is also a very useful food product for humans.

If you use a lemon every day, then you can 100% achieve the norm. vitamin C. It also increases the level of good cholesterol and strengthens the bones.

Be sure to try seasoning your salads with lemon juice. And of course, do not forget to put a slice of lemon in your tea. So your drink will become not only tasty, but also healthy.

It is also worth mentioning that pectins, which are contained in oranges and lemons, contribute to the digestion process. Therefore, every day, use at least a few slices.

Nuts are very rich in iron, zinc, phosphorus and magnesium. Eating them, we reduce the level of cholesterol in the blood due to monounsaturated fats. Nuts also reduce the development of various heart diseases.

However, you need to remember that nuts are very high in calories. Therefore, I recommend eating no more than 30 grams per day.

The one who often eats strawberries, blueberries and other berries suffers less from a memory disorder and a lack of logical thinking.

Also due to polyphenol in these berries, people are less obese. Because the polyphenol prevents the formation of additional fat cells.

Strawberries are also very useful for hypertensive patients. This berry has a beneficial effect on the normalization of high blood pressure in humans.

Water

Water is rightly considered one of the important sources of nutrition. After all, life itself is impossible without water.

Unfortunately, the quality of drinking water is often far from ideal. Therefore, it is advisable to drink only proven water obtained in ecologically clean areas.

It was the top 10 healthiest foods for humans. Of course, there are many healthy foods in the world. But first, pay attention to what was listed above.

Healthy food for the liver

We turn to healthy nutrition for the liver. You probably know that the liver is a unique organ. Its main function is to neutralize toxic products in the body.

It doesn't matter which way, but the liver decomposes all the toxins. There is also the synthesis of bile acids. This is important for digestion. The liver also produces immune protein synthesis.

But it's not that important!

The main thing is to protect the liver itself and not disrupt its work. Therefore, I want to provide you with some very useful foods that help to perform the diverse functions of the liver.

Turmeric contains a substance curcumin. It helps liver cells to better produce bile acids. So the gallbladder is better freed from its contents. Thus, there is no stagnation and formation of gallstones.

It is worth saying that with improper nutrition and a violation of the quality of bile, stones form in the gallbladder. Curcumin causes the bladder to empty and prevents these stones from forming.

As mentioned earlier, the liver performs the function of releasing the body from toxins. Some of these toxins can act as carcinogens. These are substances that cause cancer.

And the composition of broccoli includes a substance isothiocyanate. It helps the liver to better cope with detoxification.

You probably noticed that it has a pungent odor due to allicin. This substance has 2 functions:

1. helps to empty the gallbladder;
2. reduces the level of cholesterol in the blood.

Thus, garlic, thanks to allicin, is involved in a number of processes that allow the liver to remain healthy.

Of course, there are other foods that are good for the liver. But first, remember at least 3 main products that give you the greatest efficiency in your work.

Healthy food for children

Let's talk about healthy food for children. The children's menu should include products of both animal and vegetable origin.

Also, the quality of healthy products is important for the health of children. Take only the freshest and without chemicals.

Always pay attention to the composition of food. Even in baby food sometimes completely undesirable ingredients are added.

Also, parents should keep their children to a certain meal time. That is, it should be:

• breakfast with easily digestible carbohydrates (porridge, cottage cheese);
• lunch with hot and second course;
• afternoon snack with juice, dairy product or fruit;
• a lighter dinner with a milk drink.

Please note that when eating, a calm environment should be observed. Do not use loud music or TV.

Be sure to tell and bully your kids about junk food. Explain to them why they should not eat such food and that terrible things can happen.

Never deprive children of sweets. Yes, it's harmful! However, I do not recommend completely depriving the child of sweets. This is one of the great moments of childhood. Therefore, it is not worth getting rid of it completely. You just need to know the measure.

Don't use sweets as a reward. So you accustom the child to harmful.

From early childhood, form the habit of proper nutrition in children. We will talk about this below.

Healthy food for the family

Eat healthy meals with your family. Remember that it is the parents who are the object of imitation for the child. Therefore, always know that your children take an example from you.

It is no secret that children begin to use foul language precisely in those families where they often quarrel.

Toddlers also adopt everything else. Including nutrition rules. Therefore, if you want your child to eat right, then first start with yourself.

If you constantly eat various hamburgers, buns, and so on, then your child will also be drawn to these products. Thus, it will be much more difficult to prove the opposite to him.

And how can you prove it if mom and dad eat all sorts of rubbish themselves? And then they start proving something to the contrary.

So always start with yourself. Be a good role model for your child.

Shopping trips

When shopping, try to take your baby with you often. So he will remember useful products that need to be bought. In the future, they will become familiar to him.

Be sure to let him choose the products himself. Make something like a game. So you can easily accustom your baby to vegetables and fruits.

Involve the kids in the cooking process

The child should be involved in the process of preparing healthy food. So he becomes interested. There is a great desire to try the prepared dish.

Be sure to let him cook those vegetables and fruits that he himself chose.

Experiment with the way you serve food

Don't forget about the food preparation process. For example, you can use the beautiful design of the dish so that the child likes it. So you lure the baby to eat healthy food.

If you give some vegetables, then try different cutting options. Can be cut into beautiful cubes, rhombuses or circles. All this affects the interest of the baby.

So if the child does not eat vegetables, then try cutting them in a special way or giving them without cutting. In general, experiment.

You can even put funny faces on the plate or make crafts in bright and beautiful colors. This also helps to teach children to eat right.

Healthy nutrition for pregnant women

Let's talk a little about healthy nutrition for pregnant women. This is very important for those who bear a child in themselves. After all, here you need to constantly feed the fruit. And this takes a lot of time and effort.

We use only healthy food! After all, the expectant mother should receive everything necessary for herself and her child. It is also very important that the food is safe.

That is, food safety issues are the highest priority in this period of time.

Because of this reason, the World Health Organization does not recommend using such fish for a pregnant woman's menu. (tuna or shark).

Biorhythmic nutrition

You also need to properly use all other foods. To do this, you need to use the rules in the biorhythm of nutrition.

What it is?

We have products that work very well in the morning. But in the evening it is highly undesirable to use them.

And vice versa.

There is a food that is best used only in the evening. Thus, you need to correctly distribute food throughout the day.

Ration until 15:00

For breakfast and morning snacks, carbohydrates are very necessary. The body needs energy in the morning. We can get it from whole grains. For example, from rice or buckwheat.

Porridges in conjunction with vegetables also work well. That is, if you combine morning porridge with seasonal vegetables (greens, beets, carrots ...), then such a product will work better.

It's good to put fruit for a morning snack. For example, seasonal apples, citrus fruits or kiwi. They are rich in essential vitamins for pregnant women.

But in the evening it is not advisable to use carbohydrates. They give too much energy, which the body can not cope with in the evening.

As a result, all the excess is converted into fat. Therefore, in the morning, eat cereals and fruits.

Diet after 15:00

For evening meals, it is important to give those foods that are a resource for recovery processes.

Our body regenerates at night. And if we give light proteins, then we get everything necessary for these processes.

light protein is a protein that has time to break down and work in the body even before going to bed. These include mozzarella, eggs, sea fish or lean white meat.

All light protein foods should be combined with non-starchy vegetables. That is, instead of carrots, it is better to take greens or bell peppers. They are much more efficient.

Healthy food for weight loss

Let's talk about healthy nutrition for weight loss.

How many times a day should a person eat?

This number is 5. Five times is the optimal dose for proper nutrition. What do you need to eat to keep your figure in good condition?

Let's take a look at these entries:

1. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. The main energy is collected at breakfast. It is made up of carbohydrates. Basically, porridge. There are many kinds of them. Therefore, what kind of porridge is, it does not matter. But it is best to eat oatmeal or buckwheat.
2. Small snack- a small recharge for the body between breakfast and lunch. I recommend using fruits, vegetables or dairy products. The main thing is to alternate different snacks every day. That is, one day, fruit. Second day, vegetables and so on.
3. Dinner- A complete meal. Here you need to adhere to the law of one plate. There is only the first or there is only the second. But not all together. I also recommend using alternation. One day we use soups. The second day we use dishes for the second. For example, a side dish of vegetables + meat or fish. Seafood can be added to fish.
4. scanty snack- refreshment between lunch and dinner. We use dairy products or vegetables. We never use carbohydrates. After 15:00 it is better not to use them.
5. Dinner- should be the easiest because at this moment the body is preparing for sleep. I recommend using vegetables. You can also use fish or seafood.

Here are the basic rules of healthy nutrition for weight loss. However, I would recommend all this to those who have everything in order with weight. After all, you need to constantly keep in shape.

Also note that each item must contain water. With water, food will be easier to digest.

Everyone should remember such a rule that healthy cereals are the basis of a healthy human diet!

There is even a saying: “Schi and porridge are our food.” If you take this saying, then cabbage soup alone in Ancient Russia had about 60 options. And even more porridge.

By her own porridge is an amazing product. It was even served as a festive dish.

In general, Russian traditional cuisine is considered by some to be rather primitive. (shchi and porridge and nothing else). But this is only at first glance.

Yes, earlier in Russia there was porridge on any table. It's right!

But why did they put it on the table?

During the festive meals, from 60 to 100 dishes were served during the dinner. On the grand-ducal table, their number reached 200. And after all, they were all different.

If you started eating herring, and then jelly, then what will you have in your mouth then?

Let's take European delights. They always have cheese on the table. And what is it for?

Every day more and more people are interested in proper nutrition as one of the most important elements of a healthy lifestyle. Our website even has . Food is something without which the life of any person is impossible, and health directly depends on the diet. Poor quality or junk food can harm the body, so it is very important to be able to draw up the right nutrition program for every day. Healthy food is not always the standard of taste, but from the point of view of its benefits, it has no analogues.

Proper and healthy nutrition these days is no longer an indicator of aristocracy, but a response to the pace and conditions of life. More and more people today are involved in sports, which is inseparable from a healthy diet. Choosing a diet and compiling a menu for a day, a week, a month becomes an urgent task for everyone who asks questions about losing weight, losing weight or building muscles, and improving well-being in general. In this lesson, we will talk about the basic principles of proper nutrition.

Please take these tips critically, as there are no strict laws in proper nutrition, but there are recommendations that can be supported by some experts and criticized by others.

What is proper nutrition?

In the sources, one can rarely find a clear and specific definition of the concept of healthy and proper nutrition. The most complete wording of this term is as follows:

Proper nutrition(or healthy food) is a balanced diet of natural and high-quality products that satisfy all the needs of the body, in addition, benefit it.

One of the famous authors of books on proper nutrition is an American naturopath, an adherent of alternative medicine, a vegetarian Herbert Shelton ( 1895-1985 ). His idea about the benefits of natural food became progressive: Shelton believed that nature took care of human needs in food to the full, which means that our body needs only natural products.

Shelton also developed the nutritional concept of separate meals in the book " The right food combination". The idea of ​​​​this diet is the incompatibility of certain foods when they are consumed at the same time. For example, the author argued that one should not combine food rich in proteins with carbohydrate-containing foods, combine milk with other foods, and fats with proteins. Separate nutrition interested not only those wishing to lead a healthy lifestyle, but also specialists in the field of dietetics and physiology. Clinical studies were conducted, as a result of which it was possible to establish that it is not so much a separate diet that is useful as eating healthy food, since weight loss and a good state of the body are not affected by the principle of food separation, but by a general decrease in its calorie content.

Also relevant for proper nutrition are the postulates set out in one of the most popular modern books on healthy food, The China Study. This work was written by a famous specialist Colin Campbell, Professor Emeritus in the Department of Food Biochemistry at Cornell University, winner of the US National Institutes of Health award. Here are some takeaways from this book:

• food vitamin supplements will never replace natural products containing the same set of vitamins;
• almost all nutrients are better absorbed from plant foods than from animal foods;
• proper nutrition helps to control the influence of negative external factors on the body;
• a properly composed diet will never harm the body.

Summarizing the information from these works, we can highlight several recommendations on what you need to know about proper nutrition and healthy eating:

Rule 1. Food is primarily the basis for life, "fuel" for the body, from which energy is produced, and only then - ritual and pleasure.

Rule 2. Healthy eating will protect your body from premature aging, will help to avoid many diseases of the cardiovascular system, some types of cancer, diseases of the digestive tract, diabetes, hypertension. In addition, there is a certain list of products that help improve mental activity, read about them in this article.

Rule 3. There is no room for compromise in a healthy diet. Avoid soda, chips, mayonnaise and other unhealthy foods. You can and even need to eat sweets, but not all the time and not all in a row.

Rule 4. Baked, stewed and boiled food is healthier than fried and smoked.

Rule 5. Trust, but verify. With the development of the Internet, a huge number of different blogs and websites have appeared on the network containing information about healthy eating and giving recommendations for improving the figure. However, do not forget that the authors of blogs are not always professionals who really know their stuff. That is why, before you start applying this or that technique on yourself, you should read the reviews of other users in as much detail as possible, read additional information about the author of the theory and analyze the results he achieved. This simple tip will help you weed out untested theories and thereby avoid the risk of irreparable harm to your health by trusting non-professionals.

So, the basis of a healthy lifestyle is proper nutrition, which depends on the food we eat. According to the content of various nutrients and vitamins, all products can be divided into groups that will allow you to create an optimal diet during the day.

Based on the principles of proper nutrition, experts at the Harvard School of Public Health, led by American nutritionist Walter Willett, have developed a universal food pyramid for a person during the day. Foods located at the bottom of the pyramid are recommended to be eaten as often as possible, and foods from the top of the pyramid should be eaten in limited quantities or completely excluded from your diet. In addition, it is worth noting that physical activity and adequate fluid intake, preferably mineral water, also lie at the base of this pyramid.

Here is the structure of the pyramid with a list of necessary products and their properties from bottom to top:

Whole grain bread, oatmeal, rice and pasta

This is the basis of a healthy diet. These foods provide the body with complex carbohydrates, an important source of energy. Whole-grain foods are rich in B vitamins, minerals and fiber that everyone needs. Contrary to popular belief, these foods do not lead to weight gain unless butter, cheese, or sauces are added to them.

Vegetables

Vegetables provide us with vitamins, are an excellent source of protein, in addition, they are not rich in fats. The maximum amount of nutrients is found in rich green, yellow and orange vegetables, as well as in starchy vegetables - potatoes and yams. Vegetable juices are also very beneficial for the body.

Fruit

Fruits are a rich source of vitamins, primarily vitamin C. These are low-calorie foods that contain virtually no fat. Fruits are useful in any form: fresh, frozen, canned, dried, and also in the form of juice, with the exception of heavily sweetened nectars and fruit-based syrups.

Meat, poultry, fish, dry beans, eggs and nuts

Animal foods are an excellent source of protein, iron, zinc, and B vitamins, as are beans, nuts, and seeds. Tofu (bean curd) and white beans are rich in calcium that the body needs. Almonds are a good source of vitamin E.

Milk, kefir, cheese, yogurt

Dairy products are irreplaceable sources of calcium. They also provide the body with proteins and vitamin B12. You should choose low-fat varieties of dairy products for eating, as they contain a minimum of cholesterol, saturated fat and, of course, calories.

Fats, oils and sweets

These foods are high in calories and very nutritious. They should not be abused, but they should not be completely abandoned either. Vegetable oils, which are a rich source of vitamin E, must be present in the diet (1 tablespoon per day is enough for the body). Products containing molasses can be useful as a source of iron.

Diet options according to the food pyramid

From these food groups, you can cook many different dishes. An approximate daily menu for an average person might look like this:

Option 1

• Breakfast: a small piece of meat, a portion of rice and 200 g of salad, a cup of tea with lemon, a small piece of fruit.
• Snack: unsweetened fruit.
• Dinner: two bread toasts with lean fish, green salad without dressing, mineral water with lemon.
• Snack: kefir or yogurt.
• Dinner: stewed vegetables with toast, a glass of water with lemon.

Option 2

• Breakfast: chicken breast sprinkled with parmesan, boiled potatoes with green beans, a cup of tea with lemon, a small piece of fruit.
• Snack: a handful of nuts.
• Dinner: a portion of brown rice with stewed vegetables, a glass of mint tea, a small piece of fruit.
• Snack: kefir or yogurt.
• Dinner: 150 g fat-free cottage cheese, a small fruit, a glass of water.

It is worth noting that such a diet provides the nutritional needs of the average person. For those who want to lose weight or gain muscle mass, the menu should be adjusted in accordance with the individual characteristics of the body and the goal.

The desire to lose weight makes many people turn to proper nutrition, since the main cause of obesity is the consumption of junk food, fast food and a lot of sweets. The path to a beautiful healthy body lies through building the right diet and diet.

In search of the optimal weight loss program for yourself, you should not immediately go to the Internet and study “revolutionary methods” that allow you to lose weight without the slightest effort and food restrictions. You should be wary of all the methods offered on the network, since quite often they are compiled by people who do not have a professional education in the field of nutrition and cannot guarantee a positive result. If you have the opportunity, be sure to make an appointment with a nutritionist who will conduct an individual study of the characteristics of your body, and based on its results, will offer a nutrition program that is right for you in accordance with your goals. If the consultation of a professional nutritionist is not available to you for any reason, you can take the advice of experts who lead websites, forums and blogs on weight loss, read books on this subject, while not forgetting to check the information offered to you, get acquainted with the reviews and recommendations of people in detail, who have experienced this technique.

Any nutritionist will tell you with confidence that you can lose weight by reducing the number of calories a person consumes per day. The minimum number of energy units needed by an adult human body daily is 1200 kcal. You can calculate the number of calories needed to maintain weight at the current level by determining your total daily energy expenditure or, as it is called, TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure). It is calculated from the basal metabolic rate - the number of calories needed to maintain life at rest (BMR), multiplied by the activity factor.

The formula for calculating basal metabolic rate based on a person's weight, height, and age is derived as follows:

Men: 66 + (13.7 X body weight) + (5 X height in cm) (6.8 X age in years) basal metabolic rate.

Women: 655 + (9.6 X body weight) + (1.8 X height in cm) (4.7 X age in years) basal metabolic rate.

The result obtained must be multiplied by the activity factor, which is equal to:

• 1.2 sedentary lifestyle;
• 1,375 average activity (light exercise 1-3 per week);
• 1.55 high activity (intensive classes 3-5 times a week);
• 1,725 ​​very active (heavy physical activity 6-7 times a week);
• 1.9 extreme activity (very hard physical work, or intensive training 2 times a day).

You can find out how many kilocalories per day you need in the form below:

Once you determine how many calories per day you need to maintain your current weight, you can easily calculate how many calories you need to lose weight. Without harm to the body, you can reduce your daily calorie intake by 10-15% of what is required to compensate for energy consumption.

What you need to know when planning to lose weight?

1. It is important to understand that a weight loss diet without sports will not bring a quick result. To speed up the process by first deducing the formula for the number of calories, taking into account physical activity, of course, and by calculating the daily diet from it, you can only do special exercises. You will learn about them in next lesson.

2. When choosing a diet, it is best to consult a specialist doctor, or at least opt ​​for a well-known program, the effectiveness of which has already been tested by other people.

3. If you began to sleep poorly or feel constant fatigue and irritability, your overall health worsened - these are sure signs that the diet is bad or the amount of food consumed is not enough, which can be detrimental to health and, therefore, the program needs to be reviewed or changed.

4. Most low-carb diets need to be approached carefully. Carbohydrates are the basis that feeds our body with energy. It is necessary to distinguish between fast and slow carbohydrates, while one cannot be completely abandoned and replaced by others. Read more. Consideration should also be given to express diets that allow you to lose weight in a short period of time. It should be remembered that having lost weight with the help of a cucumber or buckwheat diet, you will soon gain weight again when you return to your usual diet.

5. The number of meals - 4-5 per day. Portions are best kept small. It is advisable not to skip breakfast.

6. Useful products for losing weight, allowing you to maintain a balance of vitamins and minerals in the body: apples, broccoli, wild berries, pomegranate juice, beans, garlic, nuts.

7. The main thing is a positive attitude, willpower and determination. The rest is sure to work.

Finally, an example of a menu for the day for women:

• Breakfast: oatmeal on the water, 1 apple, coffee with milk.
• Lunch: a glass of kefir, 2 peaches.
• Dinner: 1 baked potato, a piece of fish, vegetable salad with a tablespoon of oil.
• Snack: grated carrots with olives.
• Dinner: boiled broccoli, stewed chicken breast.

A healthy diet is just as important for muscle gain as exercise. Food acts as a building material from which the body takes everything it needs for muscles.

In the case of a set of muscle mass, the same principle works as with weight loss, only in reverse order. If you want to gain weight, you need to consume more calories than your body uses per day. At the same time, a large amount of fast carbohydrates and fats should be avoided, which, unlike protein, are not directly involved in the process of creating muscle tissue and can accumulate in the body, creating an excess fat layer. However, it is fats and carbohydrates that are the main source of energy for training and therefore cannot be completely abandoned: they must be consumed at the right time and in the right amount (according to TDEE).

If you are actively involved in sports, then it is important to get enough carbohydrates for breakfast and lunch, because they provide us with the energy we need for intense workouts. But the main role in muscle growth is assigned to proteins. A well-known common truth is that in order to grow muscles, you need to consume 2 g of protein for every kilogram of body weight. In general, the nutrition process should be organized as follows: meals - 5-6 times a day every 3 hours, portions are average.

What you need to know about proper nutrition for muscle growth?

1. Muscles grow when the amount of incoming energy in the form of food exceeds the amount of energy expended per day. Calculate the daily calorie requirement using the formula described in the weight loss block and increase it by 15-20% (on average + 300-500 kcal daily).

2. If you follow the rules and do everything right, but the muscles do not grow, increase your carbohydrate intake at breakfast and after training by 40-50 g.

3. Do not panic during the period of muscle growth arrest. Muscles grow in leaps and bounds. After a few weeks of progress, stagnation may occur, and after a week or two, growth will begin again.

4. Smoking and alcohol abuse are unacceptable, not only if you play sports, but also do not correlate with a healthy lifestyle in general.

5. To achieve muscle growth, you need to follow the following daily ratio of macronutrients consumed: protein (proteins) 25-30%, carbohydrates 55-65%, fats -10-15%.

• Squirrels. One gram of protein contains 4 kcal. Main sources of protein: chicken, turkey, meat (beef), fish, eggs, milk, cottage cheese, cheese, yogurt, protein powder, nuts, beans, peas and soy. Animal proteins (meat, poultry, milk, fish) are more nutritious than plant proteins (nuts, beans, peas, soybeans).
• Carbohydrates. Carbohydrates contain 4 kcal per gram. The main sources of carbohydrates: oats, potatoes, yams, rice, pasta, sugar, fruits, vegetables, bread, fruit juices, milk, cookies, chocolate, corn, cereals.
• Fats. Fats contain 9 kcal per gram. Main sources of fats: butter, fatty meat, fatty fish, egg yolks, sauces, milk fat, cheese, biscuits, potatoes, nuts, olives, chocolate. Animal fats are more harmful to the body, primarily for the cardiovascular system, than vegetable fats.

7. You should drink enough water. .

An approximate daily diet for muscle growth for a man weighing 75-80 kg is as follows:

• First breakfast: 2 whole eggs, 7 egg whites, 1 muffin, 3 teaspoons jam, large banana.
• Lunch: 150 g chopped boiled breasts without skin, 1 piece of fat-free cheese, 4 tbsp. tablespoons fat-free mayonnaise, 1/2 onion, 3-4 tomatoes, 2 unleavened cakes.
• First lunch: 250g grilled beef, 100g pasta, 3/4 cup tomato sauce.
• Second lunch: 150 g grilled chicken breasts, 240 g boiled potatoes, 2 tbsp. spoons of fat-free mayonnaise, 1 cup of vegetable salad.
• First dinner: 500 g skimmed milk, 2 scoops whey protein, 3 tbsp. spoons of honey.
• Second dinner: 240 g boiled fish, 240 g boiled beans, 1 cup boiled carrots.

Drinking regime

Drinking regimen is an important element of a healthy lifestyle. Water is the basis of any living organism, including the human one. Water regulates the water-salt balance in the body, body temperature, serves as the basis for the construction of new blood cells, the normal functioning of ligaments and joints, and kidneys. Drinking enough water helps control your appetite.

What is the correct drinking regimen? There are recommendations for diets, according to which you need to drink no more than 1 liter of water per day. In no case should you follow such diets. You will get the desired -5 kg ​​in a week, but the body will be dehydrated, which will affect well-being and functionality. It is worth starting to drink again when you want, and the weight will return. Remember, the norm of water for an adult per day is 2-2.5 liters, divided into equal doses after the same amount of time. Scientists derive this figure from the calculation of 30 ml of water per day per 1 kg of weight.

It is important to drink the right amount of water for those who play sports. If the body is dehydrated, energy is absorbed 10-30% worse, which directly affects the intensity of training and fatigue. It is recommended to drink a glass of water with lemon immediately after waking up - this speeds up the metabolism and has a beneficial effect on the digestive system.

Useful information

• A detailed and convenient table of calorie content of individual products and ready-made meals indicating the amount of proteins, fats and carbohydrates and a recipe analyzer for the content of biologically significant nutrients.

Test your knowledge

If you want to test your knowledge on the topic of this lesson, you can take a short test consisting of several questions. Only 1 option can be correct for each question. After you select one of the options, the system automatically moves on to the next question. The points you receive are affected by the correctness of your answers and the time spent on passing. Please note that the questions are different each time, and the options are shuffled.

But sometimes there is simply no time to shovel a mountain of cookbooks and websites, because the active pace of life, household chores and worries often take away all your free time. In addition, many of them, despite the attractive headlines about proper nutrition, contain very dubious advice, since the interpretation of “healthy food” in modern times has rather flexible and blurry edges. Sometimes, having opened this or that page, one can experience true surprise from what relation to health in general has a meat, and besides, a fried dish?

The recipes for healthy meals for every day collected in our piggy bank will allow you to diversify the diet with fresh ideas, without risking disturbing the balance in the body and harmony in the Universe.

What does healthy eating mean? Basic principles and concepts

For some, a balanced diet is the absence of chemistry and GMOs, for others, salt and hot spices are excluded, while others limit fried and smoked foods. At the same time, harmonious and balanced nutrition, which brings the body not only a complete set of all necessary nutrients, but also positive energy, is impossible when using products obtained through violence and murder. Therefore, the use of animal food can hardly be correlated with the correct way of life, moral, spiritual and physiological aspects of health.

So, what is the basis of a healthy diet? Let's figure it out.

1. First of all - the natural beginning of the products consumed in food. The main thing is that on the plate there should not be a victim of the cruelty of a person who, for the sake of gluttony, took the life of an innocent animal. In addition, the chemical composition of the flesh is unacceptable for the digestive system. Therefore, meat, fish and other products of animal origin, in principle, cannot be on the same level with the concept of health.
2. The next item is the diversity of the diet. For those who are not yet familiar with a plant-based diet, it may seem that it is poor and low in calories, which is fundamentally not true. In addition to fresh vegetables and fruits, healthy meals include various types of cereals, nuts, legumes, soybeans and other types of safe and sustainable products.
3. Equally important is nutritional adequacy. It is important that the amount of nutrients consumed is enough to provide the body with energy throughout the day. At the same time, their excess will also not be beneficial, since unspent calories will remain in the body as fat deposits and, as a result, overweight. Therefore, moderation and harmony are important in everything.
4. In addition to the number of calories, it is worth paying attention to their origin. The main principle of dietology is a harmonious combination of proteins, fats and carbohydrates in a ratio of 1:1:4 (in shares). Guided by this rule, you can not only avoid obesity or malnutrition, but also regulate metabolism by providing the gastrointestinal tract and, as a result, the body, with a competent combination of products.
5. In addition to the well-known proteins, fats and carbohydrates, food should also contain a vitamin-mineral complex. Make sure that vitamins enter the body daily - and you do not have to worry about poor health, depression, loss of strength and reduced immunity.
6. Water is a source of cheerfulness and optimism, both in a metaphorical and in the literal sense. Consuming 2-3 liters of fluid per day (the minimum rate is determined individually, as it varies depending on body weight), you can provide the body with life-giving moisture to maintain basic metabolic processes, avoid deviations in the functioning of vital organs and systems, maintain a young and blooming appearance regardless from passport age. True, the quality of the liquid used also matters. Water contaminated with chemicals and by-products is unlikely to benefit, so it is worth opting for a purified liquid (for example, distilled). As an option, it is permissible to use fruit or vegetable fresh juices, but in limited quantities (up to 500-600 ml per day).
7. The freshness of products and prepared dishes is a guarantee of excellent health and easy digestion. Long-term storage of finished products (even in the refrigerator) is fraught with food poisoning, indigestion and other unpleasant symptoms, since pathogenic microorganisms begin to multiply in food already on the second day, and by 3-4 days their number reaches a dangerous concentration. Therefore, you should not cook for the future - it is better if there is a fresh lunch on the table every day.

Guided by these principles, you can get a good idea of ​​how meals should look like, what you can eat and what is better to never serve on the table, realize the essence of healthy eating in order to pamper your loved ones with delicious, non-trivial and extremely healthy dishes every day. Taking them as an immutable truth, you can maintain the perfect state of the body, donated by nature, achieve harmony in physiological and mental terms, fall asleep with a feeling of lightness, and wake up fresh and rested.

Healthy food preparation methods

Proper nutrition is not limited to the choice of healthy products - the technique of their preparation is no less important. Fried, smoked or pickled should be left to those who do not take care of their health, because there are many ways to process foods without turning them into a slow poison for the internal organs. And if many people know about the dangers of salt almost from birth, then the negative consequences of eating a large amount of spices and natural aromatic additives (for example, onions, garlic, etc.) are somehow overlooked. Of course, it can be too difficult to completely exclude them from the diet at first, but you should not be zealous with additives either.

1. Steaming allows you not to sacrifice the nutritional value of the food during processing. In addition, this method does not require the additional use of vegetable fats. Steam, evenly covering all the ingredients, allows you to preserve the natural taste of the products, so these dishes are the most harmonious and natural. Steamed vegetables, puddings and soufflés are especially juicy.
2. Boiling is, in fact, the easiest and most unpretentious way to prepare a delicious healthy meal. This method is ideal for cereals and legumes. And so that boiled vegetables do not turn out “watery”, you should immerse them in an already boiling liquid and not be too zealous with cooking.
3. Roasting (including pre-wrapping) allows you to preserve the appearance, taste, texture and quality of products. Baked root crops are especially tasty - under the influence of dry heat, the sugars that make up the caramelize, so the output is a fragrant and melt-in-your-mouth dish with a piquant sweet aftertaste.
4. Quenching most often involves the additional addition of vegetable oil and water. In principle, this method is suitable for almost any type of food, and low temperatures (compared to cooking) allow you to save more useful trace elements, but this method most often requires a long cooking time.
5. Drying is the most organic way to preserve seasonal fruit. True, such processing requires patience and certain skills, since juicy fruits without proper attention will rather rot than dry. But if you master this science, you can stock up on healthy and nutritious dried fruits for the whole winter.

Taking note of the basic ways to safely process food, the question of what to cook from a healthy diet and recipes for healthy dishes will become simple and understandable. In addition, by simply changing the processing method, you can prepare a new dish from the same products, because each method gives them a peculiar zest, both in aesthetic and in taste terms. However, do not forget that the less the product is subjected to heat treatment, the more valuable its nutritional properties.

Healthy eating: what to cook for vegetarians?

Modern vegetarianism provides for many branches, each of which implies its own principles and views. If we omit the pseudo-vegetarian currents, which can rather be attributed to a weight loss diet than to the philosophy of the concept itself, there are still many subtleties that should be taken into account when preparing dishes.

For example, lacto-vegetarians adhere to the principles of Eastern cultures, among which the cow is considered a sacred animal, since it is able to feed a person. This means that the use of yogurt dressing, sour cream sauces, fermented baked milk and other fermented milk products, as well as pure milk, in the diet is not only acceptable, but also encouraged.

Ovo-vegetarians do not accept dairy products, but use animal eggs for cooking. And the combination of these two currents - lacto-ovo-vegetarianism - allows both of these products in the daily diet. All these features should be taken into account when preparing food, since the established principles for most true vegetarians are unshakable.

Easy Vegan Healthy Recipes

Strict vegetarianism, or veganism, is one of the most harmonious and reasonable diets, which completely excludes animal products from the diet. This means that healthy vegan recipes can include fruits, vegetables, legumes, grains, root vegetables, nuts, and other plant foods, but the mere mention of animal products will make a vegan push the plate.

However, there are also more selective adherents of strict vegetarian principles who use one or more types of plant products as the basis of their diet. So, fruitarians do not use the whole plant as food, since such a product implies its death. If, however, when receiving food, not a single living being, including representatives of flora and fauna, was harmed, such food is considered good.

As for macrobiotics, their main food is cereals and legumes. This means that their favorite types of healthy food will be all kinds of cereals, tofu, soufflés, cereal pancakes, bread and other pastries. Some adherents of macrobiotics allow the use of fish and seafood, but such views are contrary to the philosophy of true vegetarianism.

Healthy eating: recipes for every day for raw foodists

The principles of a raw food diet are for the most part similar to vegan beliefs, however, the addition is the absence of heat treatment (both high and low temperatures) of products before serving. This approach allows you to save the maximum amount of vitamins, amino acids and minerals that are contained in natural foods initially. In addition, vegetable fiber consumed in its pure form improves the digestion process, promotes cleansing and general healing of the body.

True, not all types of processing are prohibited by raw foodists. If the preparation of a particular dish does not require heating above 46 degrees, this method is quite acceptable. For example, dried fruits or berries, although cooked under the influence of elevated temperature, are quite appropriate in a raw food diet.

This group of vegans also includes cheese-eaters. A feature of their menu is separate meals, which allows you to use only one product for each meal. Despite the seeming rigor and monotony, there are also many recipes for cheese eaters that allow you to eat tasty and healthy at the same time.

Fruit and berry smoothies, or Delicious recipes for a healthy diet

Smoothies have firmly entered the diet of not only every adherent of a healthy diet, but also those who like to enjoy cool fruit cocktails. The ideal combination of wild berries, tropical fruits, herbs and other ingredients is most often determined by experience, since there are practically no restrictions in making smoothies.

All it takes is a blender and the desire to treat yourself to a healthy treat.

A classic smoothie includes three to five ingredients, among which there must be something sweet (for example, a banana) and slightly acidic (a little lemon juice, a slice of lime or berries “with sourness”). But the concentration of each product is best determined based on taste preferences. In addition, it is worth paying attention to the consistency of the smoothie - it is important that all the ingredients are thoroughly crushed and mixed until smooth. The ideal smoothie should have the consistency of yogurt, not pieces of fruit floating in juice or water.

Fruit and berry smoothies can be a great quick snack or replace an early breakfast. At the same time, the main thing is that the combination of ingredients allows you to achieve taste harmony, satisfy your hunger and make up for the deficiency of vitamins and minerals. And to make the cocktail a little healthier and more tender, you can add nut or sesame milk to fruits instead of water.

And finally: How to build a diet?

Having dealt with the quality and volume of the daily diet, it is also worth paying attention to the optimal organization of the process of eating, since a healthy diet consists not only in properly selected dishes, but also in a competent attitude to food.

What is the basis of an adequate healthy diet? About everything in order.

Rule number 1. Competent selection of dishes for a healthy diet

The time of day puts a significant imprint on the performance of the body as a whole and the digestive system in particular, so you should take into account the biological clock of your gastrointestinal tract, making up the menu for the day. Morning should start with easily digestible and at the same time energetically valuable food in order to get a charge of vivacity and positive emotions for the whole day. Porridge flavored with wild berries, fruit platter, smoothie or oatmeal cocktail are best suited for these purposes.

As for lunch, you should not assume that soup is only served in childhood - adults also need a rich and nutritious broth as a first course. And for the second, you can choose almost anything - the main thing is that the food is cooked with soul and meets all the requirements of a healthy diet.

Dinner should take place no later than 3 hours before going to bed. At the same time, it is worth giving preference to those products that have time to fully assimilate during this time. Stewed vegetables, fruit or vegetable salad, light cereals and other dishes, which are dominated by vegetable proteins, will ease the work of the stomach in the evening and make sleep deep and light, since the entire body, without exception, including the gastrointestinal tract, will rest.

Rule number 2. Harmony and consistency of a healthy diet

There is a completely logical combination and order of eating products that should be followed so as not to disrupt the natural processes in the body. Obviously, you should not start your day with sweets, nor should you eat them for dinner. And if you consider this issue from the yogic foundation, then you can open up very interesting facets.

Rule number 3. Time for food is inviolable

“When I eat, I am deaf and dumb” - our ancestors have long said, and so far this statement is the only true behavior during meals. Healthy eating implies a respectful attitude towards food and your body, because eating should be cultural and organized, although you should not treat food intake as some kind of sacred rite.

Quick snacks on the go, an afternoon snack on the job, or eating dinner in front of the TV are not the best eating habits. Such an approach makes it difficult to enjoy tasty and healthy dishes, enjoy food and subtly feel the moment of saturation. Numerous experiments have confirmed the theory that eating “in between” – for example, at the TV screen, laptop, reading a book, or while working – turns eating into a purely mechanical process and contributes to overeating, since the feeling of fullness and satisfaction will obscure the interest in a parallel activity.

In addition, the minimum time for each meal is 15 minutes (and for lunch - 30 minutes). This range allows each bite to be thoroughly chewed, which facilitates subsequent digestion and maximizes nutrient intake.

Rule number 4. Fasting days

To cleanse the body, normalize the intestinal microflora and maintain the optimal functioning of the body, fasting days are an excellent help. They should be carried out at least 2-3 times a month, and if opportunities allow, then every week. Some practice fasting days, spending complete fasting. In this case, you should listen to the reactions of your body, since everything should go physiologically.

However, for most adherents of a healthy diet, a fasting day is not synonymous with a hunger strike - it’s just that the amount of calories consumed per set day is reduced to an average of 700-1000 (but not less than 2 times the natural daily norm). Acquainted with

Healthy food is tasty and healthy!

Two thousand years ago, the great Hippocrates suggested to mankind the postulate necessary for a healthy diet: "You are what you eat." There is great power of wisdom in these words.

In pursuit of a healthy lifestyle, we do not need to reinvent the wheel, we need to find in the food chaos those products that will bring permanent benefits, and include them in the diet, not forgetting about the food culture.

It is healthy eating that is the solution to problems:

• overweight,
• metabolic disorders
• deficiency of vitamins and microelements
• imbalance in appearance.

Healthy eating is useful, relevant and very simple. It is important to understand that this is not a diet, not an effort on yourself, but your lifestyle, a choice you have made in favor of health, which will best affect your appearance.

The most important thing is that you will not have to experience the shock of all sorts of prohibitions and restrictions, with the exception of the obvious "chemistry". It's all about balancing and combining products that are familiar and available to you.

Healthy menu planning

A daily healthy menu must necessarily consist of products that provide your body with vital components. We draw up for ourselves an approximate balancing of dishes, half of which should consist of carbohydrates, and the second half should consist of almost equal parts of proteins and fats. Pay attention to the content of vitamins and minerals in the products.

In numbers it looks like this:

• carbohydrates - 50%,
• proteins - 25-30%,
• fats - 20-25%,

The total calorie content of meals should be kept in the area 2000 kcal.

When planning the right menu, you should pay attention to the following:

What is better to give up?

There is such a psychological term "rejection syndrome", which means an irresistible desire to violate the ban. To the great joy of just such a category of people, a healthy diet does not imply hard failures and restrictions.

But there are a number of products that, by their composition, cause irreparable harm to health. These foods have no place in the diet. Stopping to use them, you will rebuild your body for proper nutrition, it will work like clockwork.

Feel free to cross out of your grocery basket:

• Alcoholic drinks;
• Store-bought mayonnaise and ketchup;
• Crackers, chips;
• Carbonated drinks;
• Processed meat (sausage, sausages, canned food);
• Purchased smoked meats;
• White flour products;
• Margarine and spreads.

Believe that by excluding these products, you will not even notice their absence, making up a complete diet exclusively from what is useful.

Change of diet

It is important to understand that proper nutrition is not a one-time action from which you expect amazing results. This is your way of life, following which today, you create the foundation for your future.

The main thing is that you understand that, as in everything, a measure is also needed in this matter:

• Revise at once and everything is impossible. A progressive plan must be developed in order not to put a lot of stress on your body (especially if your nutrition system was based on fast food snacks and soda).
• If you decide to follow a healthy diet, do not immediately plan your diet for the week. Limit yourself to making a daily menu for the next day, listening to your body.
• Balance your meals with drinks and snacks. For fun, count the calorie content of dishes and write them down in a notebook. Experiment with the combination of dishes, and you will find your answer to the eternal question: “What can you eat so as not to harm?”.
• Be sure to focus on people who have experience with such nutrition, their advice can be very useful to you at the first stage.

An example of a healthy menu

So, if you decide to become an adherent of a healthy diet, you need to make an appropriate menu daily. It is recommended to take notes in order to conduct an appropriate analysis, not to miss something important.

Over time, this need will disappear, because this way of eating will become a habit for you, and you will freely navigate the products and ingredients you need.

We break the daily diet into 4-5 meals, focusing on calories in the morning:

• Breakfast. For breakfast, porridge boiled in water or milk with butter, chicken eggs (1-2 pcs.), A gray bread sandwich with cheese are suitable. Tea with honey and lemon or coffee with a drop of natural cream.
• Breakfast should be hearty. It provides us with a charge of morning vigor.
• Snack. A glass of natural juice, a favorite fruit (one) or a handful of nuts.
• Dinner. Make it so that it is a complete meal.
  Try to make it contain meat or fish, supplemented with vegetables. Vegetables can be either raw or stewed. The main dish can be any soup based on meat or fish broth, with crackers and sour cream. For lunch, you can have dessert.
• afternoon tea. Kefir, yogurt, dried fruits are at your disposal.
• Dinner. Remember that the first half of the day is loaded with calories, and dinner is planned to be light. Accordingly, a small piece of boiled meat with vegetable salad, steamed fish, porridge on the water - buckwheat or pearl barley, what you need! Green tea will help complement your evening meal.
• Before bedtime. So that you don’t dream about food at night, a few hours before bedtime you can drink a glass of kefir, gnaw on a carrot, you can even eat a few tablespoons of cabbage salad seasoned with lemon juice. This is quite enough to defeat hunger. If you are not hungry, then just drink cool water.

Breakfast

Breakfast is the beginning of the day, and nothing should overshadow it, Especially the thought that you are limiting yourself in some way. So, all the most delicious, joyful, interesting for breakfast!

You can, of course, be original and cook for tomorrow
crayfish:

• Baked avocado with egg, tomato and garlic. Cut the avocado in half, remove the pit, and pour the mixture of egg, tomato and garlic. We send it to the oven until the filling is ready.
• And you can cook oatmeal or rice porridge, and shade it with your favorite berries, nuts and honey. Brew coffee and make a toast, piled on it with a turret of cheese and pear.
• Another great healthy breakfast option is scrambled eggs.. Here the flight of your imagination can be unlimited. Choose the base for your omelet: zucchini, green beans, tomatoes, each time you will have the feeling that you are eating a completely new dish.

Dinner

Lunch falls in the middle of the day, and it is at this time that our body absorbs nutrients from food well. Let's give the body everything it needs to the maximum.

We choose one main dish - it can be various soups, either meat or fish. Be sure to add a large portion of vegetables in the form of a salad or side dish (stewed or poached). We choose a light and tasty dessert.

Lunch options:

Dinner

Remember that we managed to eat a lot of tasty and healthy during the day. This does not mean that dinner should disappoint you, on the contrary. All the most delicious and exquisite, only in microdoses and fewer calories. Therefore, we approach dinner planning responsibly so as not to cross out the result of the whole day.

We focus on complex carbohydrates in order not to experience hunger, and choose the option you like (or make your own):

Recipes for healthy meals from familiar products

1. The first step towards a healthy diet should be the separation of useful and harmful products. This should be your decision. In dishes we use useful ones - to the maximum, we limit or exclude harmful ones. We make up the main diet from the usual products available for your region.
2. Professional athletes are adherents of a healthy diet, claiming that their diet consists of ordinary foods, properly balanced and properly prepared.
3. The most important, do not separate products according to the principle of favorites, not favorites. Try changing the cooking method, you will discover new flavors.

So you can change the taste:

• String beans, if cooked in the oven with spices and cheese;
• Borscht, if it is darkened in the stove (slow cooker);
• If you use cereals for side dishes, emphasizing their taste with vegetables and seasonings;
• Fish, if you put herbs and lemon in the abdomen.

Kashi

Kashi is mistakenly considered an addition to meat or fish. In fact, this is a complete dish that provides everything the body needs.

In addition, cereals contain dietary fiber, helping to cleanse the intestines, and a whole range of vitamins that help keep the body healthy.

Pearl barley porridge:

1. Pour the washed cereal with boiling water in a ratio of 1: 2 and put it on a small fire for 15 minutes.
2. Then drain excess water, add 2.5-3 cups of milk and boil for another 25 minutes until thickened.
3. Add oil to taste.
4. Remove from heat, wrap in a towel and let it brew until fully cooked.

Buckwheat:

1. Take a glass of buckwheat, pour it into the pan.
2. Heat over low heat for 5-10 minutes.
3. Pour boiling water to cover the cereal by 2 cm and cook until tender (10 minutes).
4. Remove from heat, let it brew a little, add vegetable oil to taste.

Remember the phrase from childhood: "Eat porridge - you will be healthy!" Now, this is the real truth.

Vegetables

Vegetables are a pantry of vitamins, microelements,
retchatki. All this must be actively used for a healthy diet.

They can be consumed both raw and cooked.

Vegetable juices are just super vitamin smoothies recommended by doctors.

Vegetables are affordable and affordable. They can be safely taken as the basis of a healthy diet.

Among the most popular: cabbage, potatoes, cucumbers, tomatoes, parsley, rhubarb, celery, radish, beets, carrots, pumpkin, horseradish, sorrel.

Find out about it in our related article.

Appetite:

1. Boil green beans for 5-8 minutes. Let drain.
2. Bulgarian pepper cut into strips.
3. In vegetable oil, calcine a clove of garlic, add soy sauce.
4. Mix beans with pepper, pour dressing. Garnish with sprigs of herbs and olives.

Fruit

Fruits are considered the healthiest, healthiest, and tastiest food in the world. it's by accident. They contain a huge number of compounds and substances that work for the benefit of the body. They are used both as an independent use in the diet, and as a supplement.

A huge plus is that fruits have a therapeutic effect, helping as a complex therapy in the treatment of diseases.

In addition to the usual fruits, in order to pamper yourself, it is recommended to add "super fruits" to the diet, such as papaya and avocado.

Fish and seafood

The benefits of fish and seafood are in the content of easily digestible fat, a large amount of vitamins A and D, iodine, phosphorus and other trace elements (about 40).

In addition, fish, crustaceans, mollusks, shrimp are easily absorbed by the body, which makes them indispensable in a healthy diet. These products have a tremendous aesthetic effect - skin, hair, nails become better thanks to them.

Steam fish:

1. Prepared from fish of any kind.
2. We season the washed and cut into portioned pieces of fish with spices (black pepper, basil, thyme are suitable). Put onion or garlic slices in the belly, if desired.
3. We put it in a steamer tray, greased with vegetable oil, and cook for 15-20 minutes, depending on the size of the pieces.

Fish with vegetables:

1. Put the fish (choose sea) and vegetables in layers in a baking dish.
2. Sprinkle everything with oil, add spices and pour sour cream (you can dilute it with cream).
3. Cover with foil, pierce it in several places and bake until the vegetables are ready.

Meat

Meat will definitely benefit if it is cooked in a certain way. The main condition is that it must be lean. And then along with the meat you get a large amount of protein. It is important that this protein is easily digestible, fights the accumulation of fat in the body. Rabbit and lamb meat are considered the most dietary. Try adding them to your diet.

Meat with vegetables:

1. Cut the veal flesh into small cubes. Place in a steamer.
2. Place a “fur coat” of a mixture of chopped fresh or frozen vegetables (onions, carrots, cauliflower, sweet peppers) on top of the meat.
3. Put on the "vegetables" mode - it is optimal.
4. Do not add salt or oil.

Bird

Among meat dishes, dishes made from poultry meat are considered favorites. It's all about the dietary features of this product. Poultry is digested and digested easily, enriching the body with fatty acids, proteins and vitamins.

It is important that white meat is considered the most useful in poultry - breasts, which can be safely included for lunch and dinner. The most attractive, from the point of view of nutritionists, is considered
I am chicken meat.

Tender chicken cutlets with oatmeal:

1. From chicken fillet, onion and garlic (to taste), prepare minced meat (about 0.5 kg), add half a glass of oatmeal, milk or water.
2. Thoroughly mix the mass, form cutlets, place on a baking sheet greased with vegetable oil and bake at 180 C for 30-40 minutes.

Nuts and dried fruits

A vitamin cocktail useful for a healthy diet is a mixture of dried fruits and nuts. An important feature is their ability to retain such useful substances as pectin, fiber, organic acids and minerals for a long time, which tone and strengthen the body. In the honorary three - dried apricots, prunes and raisins.

desserts

The main thing to understand is that healthy eating and dessert are compatible!

Delicious and fragrant, they not only benefit, but also cheer up, improve the emotional background.

To Light desserts that should be included in the diet include:

• fruit salads;
• Jelly;
• Mousses;
• sorbets;
• marmalade;
• Flambe.

Conclusion

Healthy eating is the first step towards a healthy lifestyle. And as pleasant bonuses, you will get a slender figure, an organism debugged like a watch, a feeling of cheerfulness and a good mood. Isn't that the beauty of life?

As you can see, you do not have to radically change anything and make any efforts on yourself. A small adjustment, understanding and awareness of what you eat and what your dishes consist of, and the result is guaranteed.

The important point is that there are more and more followers of a healthy diet. Include your family and friends in this. Feel responsible for them too!

Healthy food is an essential part of a fulfilling life. The right diet ensures excellent health, strengthens the nervous and immune systems and at the same time helps to maintain optimal weight. Many products of plant origin have amazing properties and comprehensively affect our body. And if you want to slightly adjust your menu, then we will try to help you with this today.

Daily diet: what should it be?

Everything is extremely simple. Add plant foods to your menu. Whole grains, unprocessed vegetables, fresh fruits, greens - thanks to them, the body receives strength and vigor, and the figure acquires harmony. Such nutrition is useful both for improving the functioning of internal organs and for the skin. Therefore, a balanced diet will be the first step not only to good health, but also to natural beauty. And the whole secret is hidden behind the natural composition of plant products!

• Beta carotene. They are rich in carrots, pumpkin and sweet potato. This substance normalizes metabolism, takes an active part in the production of collagen and takes care of cell growth.
• Omega-3 fatty acids. Their sources are flax, walnuts and some green vegetables. Such products are endowed with anti-inflammatory properties.
• Vitamins C and E. These are powerful natural antioxidants that ensure normal cell interaction and rejuvenate our body. The first can be obtained from citrus fruits, currants, fennel, bell peppers, broccoli and kiwi, the second - from avocados, sweet potatoes, sunflower seeds and almonds.
• Probiotics. These substances will take care of the microflora and the work of the digestive organs. With normal absorption of useful and nutritious components, immunity is strengthened, and the body receives additional resources to protect against bacteria and viruses.

And, of course, such nutrition should be accompanied by the consumption of a sufficient amount of fluid. Drink purified water, and replace ready-made drinks and tea with freshly squeezed juices and fruit drinks. In this way, you will restore a healthy balance and maintain the normal functioning of all systems.

Where to begin?

The transition to the right diet does not have any special secrets. A healthy diet includes quite affordable products, but only fresh and natural. And if some of them require heat treatment, then it is desirable that it be minimal. The best way out is to use a steamer. With this preparation, it is possible to preserve a maximum of biologically active substances.

The diet should be varied and include all food groups. Legumes and vegetable oils, fruits, herbs and vegetables - you can adjust their ratio in the menu yourself, based on your own preferences. But remember that you need to cover the entire spectrum, since only in this case the body will receive all the vitamins, minerals and other substances necessary for its normal functioning.

Try to eat regularly, eating small portions, keeping time accurate. This habit brings only positive results:

• sleep becomes strong and healthy;
• regulation of the nervous system;
• pressure stabilizes;
• improves the condition of blood vessels.

Plus, fractional nutrition ensures the smooth operation of the gastrointestinal tract.

Snacks are also worth paying attention to. Cookies, buns, cakes and sweets are best put aside. Learn to control yourself, and it will not require any special effort. It's simple: put a box of nuts or dried fruits in your pocket, in the summer you can take a handful of fresh berries, apples, pears and even young peeled carrots to work. They quickly satisfy the feeling of hunger and bring exceptional benefits to the body. In terms of taste, some of them are able not only to compare, but also to surpass many of the products that you used to snack on earlier. One has only to try, and you will certainly see that healthy food has a positive effect on your well-being.

And don't forget about the evening. Dinner is an indicator of how you will sleep, in what mood you will wake up. At this time of day, light foods should be present on the plate. Let it be a green salad seasoned with any vegetable oil, or steamed vegetables.

It is important to remember that a sudden transition to healthy food can be stressful for the body. Here it is important to observe gradualness and restraint. If before you ate mainly fried foods and semi-finished products, then it is advisable to carefully switch to a new diet. Replace one product with another every day. In the early stages, make it a habit to cook a healthy breakfast, then move on to the right snacks, and so on. Thus, the body will have time to rebuild and begin to quickly work in a new mode.

How to find the right balance?

Some people think that healthy eating is just a list of certain foods. But in fact, everything is not quite so. The diet should not only be balanced, but also supplemented with appropriate physical activity. This is elementary - walking in the fresh air or playing sports as a hobby will help you adjust your lifestyle. You don’t need to exhaust yourself with many hours of staying in the gym, but you also shouldn’t constantly lie on the couch after eating an apple. Everything should be in moderation and in pleasure. The benefits of proper nutrition will be complete only under the condition of normal physical activity.

Plus, don't give up on foods that you think are tasteless. Try cooking them differently. This will diversify your menu. Don't you like beans in borscht? Then use a double boiler or stew it in the oven along with tomatoes and carrots. Add nuts, herbs and other flavorful ingredients, experiment, because in fact the whole secret lies in the cooking methods. Vegetable fats provide energy, proteins improve all metabolic processes in the body, and carbohydrates give endurance.

• Morning - at this time, the body needs light, but at the same time enough high-calorie food. An excellent choice would be oatmeal, vegetable stew and a glass of freshly squeezed juice.
• Lunch - it should be complete. For the first, you can cook vegetable soup, for the second - stewed potatoes with onions and mushrooms, and as an addition, use a salad of cabbage and celery.
• Dinner - a vegetable salad with olive or linseed oil or a small portion of buckwheat porridge.

For snacks and afternoon snacks, prepare bananas, nut mix, berry juice. And try to eat different foods every day. The choice of plant foods is so great that with its help you can make a fairly varied menu. In winter, it is advisable to add a slightly larger amount of cold-pressed natural oils to the diet. They will help strengthen the body's defenses and support the immune system at the proper level.

Such nutrition will certainly affect your well-being and lifestyle. You will feel lightness and a surge of strength, as a result, your efficiency will increase. You will be open to new achievements and understand that being healthy and cheerful is extremely simple and pleasant!