Nothing will help you keep your figure better than the right foods in your daily diet. They improve health and keep you fit. In the article you will find answers to questions about proper nutrition: about the price of products, their benefits and how to use them.
The very first and exciting question is the price. Increasingly, store shelves are littered with sky-high price tags for products labeled as organic without additives. Departments of “proper” food are a marketing ploy of modern companies that have followed the fashion for sports, proper nutrition (PP) and a healthy lifestyle (HLS).
It is not necessary to buy everything from their shelves and spend a lot of money in the process. If you look closely, you can see a lot of the right products around you:
Proper nutrition: a list of products for the week
- vegetables, fruits and herbs – it is cheaper to buy seasonal products, and much more useful, because they will contain more vitamins and useful elements;
- nuts, seeds and dried fruits – although they are not considered cheap products, they can replace sweets, the price of which is much higher;
- meat, fish, eggs – the main components of a healthy human diet. It is not necessary to buy marbled beef. If the budget is limited, you can purchase chicken breast;
- dairy – it is better to buy natural, for this, go to the market, there are farm shops;
- groceries – this includes cereals, pasta, bread, butter. Cereals are rich in fiber, so they should always be in the kitchen cabinet;
- spices and seasonings – many spices are not used for PP. Only natural – pepper and salt.
PP – food that supports good health, good health and beautiful appearance. Therefore, things such as alcohol, tobacco, soda, chips, etc. are not included in the menu. This can save a lot of money and improve health indicators.
Tips: how to combine products + information about their compatibility
To make it easier to understand the products, nutritionists have developed a unique thing – a table of healthy foods. It spells out the compatibility of food for PP.
Such a table will be useful for everyone in order to quickly remember what and with what to eat: lean meat is best combined with green vegetables, and cottage cheese with herbs or sweet fruits.
How to combine:
- Never combine proteins and carbohydrates at the same time. These products are digested by different acids, their combination leads to decay processes.
- Gastric juice of different acidity is needed to digest vegetable and animal proteins, their combination only harms digestion.
- The combination of sugar and starch is a silhouette bomb. Dishes such as pies with jam or confiture, buns with raisins, have a huge calorie content and inability to be digested in one step. Starch begins processing in the mouth, then in the stomach, and sugar only in the small intestine.
Basic rules of healthy eating
To get good results after switching to proper nutrition, you need to follow some rules.
Below are 13 such conditions:
- Don’t limit yourself to monotonous products. You should eat interestingly, otherwise everything that you do will not bring any benefit. Eating boredom usually leads to relapses into junk food.
- Each session must include one of the following: cereals, pasta, rice or potatoes. They contain a lot of protein and fiber, and are needed to normalize nutrition.
- Include snacks in the form of fresh vegetables or fruits in your diet. Seasonal, vitamin-rich foods, preferably from local farms, are best suited.
- Eat dairy every day. It is rich in calcium and protein, while it has a small percentage of fat.
- Fatty meat should be replaced with chicken, fish or eggs, you can switch to legumes.
- You need to eat less fatty foods: choose lean meat, or cut off harmful pieces at the cooking stage. Fat in cereals and sandwiches should also be avoided.
- It is worth limiting sweets. This item also includes drinks, including store-bought juices rich in sugar. Despite the energy indicators, there are almost no nutrients in the sweet that contribute to the normal functioning of the body. If there is a lot of sugar, caries and other diseases will appear.
- You should try to consume no more than a teaspoon of salt per day, taking into account its content in various dishes. Iodized is best.
- To maintain the tone of the body, you need to engage in physical activity daily. If sports do not fit into life, you can arrange hiking, replacing transport with them.
- Don’t drink alcohol. It only slows down the processes in the body and destroys what is created by PP.
- The best way to cook with a healthy diet is by steaming. Also great for boiling and baking. With these methods, all the useful properties of the product are preserved.
- Pick products for PP for a week according to earnings, no need to spend a lot of money on it. Products can be simple, but most importantly – useful.
- Try to consume food at the same time every day, so it is easier for the body to tune in to the right rhythms.
We got acquainted with the permitted and proper food, now we can go to the list of prohibited ones.
What should not be used:
- fatty meat (pork or lamb)
- any sausage
- fatty cheese (blue, melted)
- white flour bread and buns
- sweets
- quick soups and cereals with flavorings
- mayonnaise and other sauces
- chips, crackers, burgers
- chocolate
These products are unwanted guests of the grocery basket. It is best to avoid putting them in the refrigerator.
Sample menu for the day
For clarity, an exemplary menu with a permitted diet is provided. It is not necessary to strictly adhere to this option, you can adjust the menu for yourself and your taste preferences.
Breakfast
- Muesli 60 gr, add a glass of milk and one apple.
- Snack – you can eat 20 almonds.
Dinner
Greek pita
To prepare it, take a ready-made pita and put 100 g of tuna or boiled chicken breast into it. Plus a fresh salad of cucumber and cabbage. Fill everything with low-fat classic yogurt.
A snack
As a snack, 250 ml of yogurt is suitable.
Dinner
potato frittata
Boil 100 g of potatoes, fry in a pan with three stalks of green asparagus. Add arugula, then pour over the egg. Wait for readiness, sprinkle with grated cheese (30 g).
Salad with beans
Wash and dry 100 grams of canned beans. Cut the stalk of celery into the same plate, add a quarter of the red onion. Oil is suitable as a dressing.
Weekly grocery list example
A list of products for proper nutrition should be compiled in advance and take into account the dishes that you will cook.
An example plan looks like this:
- whole grain bread – 2 saiches
- tea – 1 pack
- dried fruits and nuts – 400 gr
- buckwheat – 500 gr
- rice – 500 gr
- pasta – 500 gr
- cottage cheese – 600 gr
- milk – 1 liter
- beans – 500 gr
- beef 1.2 kg
- chicken breast – 1 kg
- eggs – 10 pcs
- tomatoes and cucumbers – 1 kg each
- onion – 4 pcs
- apples – 1 kg
- potatoes – 1 kg
The list should definitely be adjusted to your preferences, but you should not include prohibited products in it.
How to make a menu yourself: advice from a nutritionist
The main feature of proper nutrition is that it is not a diet, but a way of life. Therefore, there are no strict postulates of how the diet should look like. The menu is compiled taking into account the characteristics of a particular person and his preferences. The main thing is to use the rules of product compatibility and not violate them.
The main advice of nutritionists when planning your own menu:
- Breakfast should contain a large amount of carbohydrates for energy for the whole day.
- Dinner should be rich in protein.
- Every time you eat a meal, be sure to include fiber in the form of vegetables, fruits, or bran.
- If you want sweets, it is better to use it in the first half for, at this time the metabolism in the body is most active.
- It is important to properly distribute calories per day.
The main rule of PP – it should not be a burden. Healthy food can be delicious, you just need to turn on the imagination and culinary skills. The main thing is that it brings great benefits to the body and improves well-being, isn’t this what the modern rhythm of life requires?