Eating for Health and Weight Loss

Being overweight can considerably increase your chances of contracting major diseases such as diabetes, cancer and heart disease. Yet reaching and maintaining a healthy weight can seem difficult, particularly following treatment for breast cancer. However, weight reduction is possible provided you are committed to restricting your caloric intake and taking some form of regular exercise.

Ensuring that your diet is loaded with nutrient-rich, low-calorie foods such as vegetables, fruits, whole grains and pulses will both increase your general wellbeing and help you avoid those high-fat snacks. Drinking plenty of water helps, too – ideally around 2 liters a day. And cutting out, or at least cutting down on alcohol will keep your calorie intake down while at the same time protecting you from an increased risk of several types of cancer.

The only way to successfully slim down and maintain a healthy weight is to change your eating habits. Drastic slimming diets, special drinks, meal substitutes, pills and injections simply don’t work in the long run, as well as potentially endangering your health. This is because, although you may lose a fair amount of weight quickly with these measures, when you resume your old eating habits, you will eventually regain the weight you lost.

Looking on the bright side, by eating foods that are good for you, not only will you be in great shape – you will also have that healthy glow that comes from really taking care of yourself. And if you combine some gentle daily exercise into your routine (experts now think that around one hour’s gentle walking, or its equivalent, each day will bring significant health benefits), your metabolism will actually start to use your food in different ways – nourishing your muscles first, because it knows you’ll be using them, rather than storing energy in the form of fat. Fit people use more calories at rest than unfit people. It’s a fact.

Here’s what the World Cancer Research Fund Organization has to say about eating for health and weight loss:

• Don’t declare any foods forbidden – simply limit how much you eat.
• Experiment with new foods – try some of the exotic vegetables and fruit that you’ve see in the supermarket.
• Build up a repertoire of quick, healthy and tasty dishes.
• Stir-frying vegetables is great – only a minimum of oil is needed because the vegetables steam in their own juices.
• Cook with herbs and spices, and try some flavored vinegars in order to make food taste good without having to add extra fat or calories.
• Look out for recipes in magazines that make healthy eating appetizing and fun to prepare and serve – and why not treat yourself to a healthy eating cookbook?
• Eating smaller meals more frequently will help fight off hunger pangs.
• Eat and drink slowly and give yourself plenty of time to enjoy your meal, which will aid digestion.
• If you really want take-home, choose vegetable pizza (easy on the cheese), or something from the vegetable, seafood or chicken sections of the Chinese take-home menu.
• Healthy Eating in A Nutshell
• Reduce your fat intake by eating less meat and dairy foods.
• Cut down on red meat and substitute with more fish and poultry.
• Eat less processed foods.
• Grill or stew meat and steam or stir-fry vegetables.
• Increase your intake of foods such as fruits, vegetables, cereals, beans and whole grains.
• Reduce your alcohol intake.

The information provided in this article is not a substitute for professional care and should not be used for diagnosing or treating a health problem or a disease. If you have, or suspect you may have a health problem, you should consult your doctor.