Eat Variety to Stay in Good Health
There is no single food that will provide all the nutrients that your body needs. The solution to getting the best out of food is to eat variety. Even nutrients with anti-oxidant properties are varied. Different fruits and vegetables, coffee, beans, all, have anti-oxidants but although, as anti-oxidants, they perform the same function, boosting the immune system and preventing damage to the body, they are chemically different. When you eat only one type of food, considerd to be high in an anti-oxidant, you easily reach an accumulative saturation point of the particular anti-oxidant in the body and as this quota is attained, eating more will only lead to increased elimination of the particular nutrient out of the body. Mind you that any substance taken in too high an amount, additionally and inevitably, becomes toxic.
Sticking to a staple diet, even if it contains all the conventional classes of food, may not be such a good an idea, since you will not get all the nutrients in the right proportions, which only varieties can and will provide. You gain more from eating oranges, carrots and tomatoes in one serving than just carrots alone. Oranges are rich in the anti-oxidant, vitamin C; carrots contain the A vitamin, still an anti-oxidant and tomatoes are rich in lycopene, yet another potent anti-oxidant.
The so called nutritional supplements(vitamins, trace elements and now fiber ) are no more than just that; supplements. It is becoming more evident that whole foods may well be containing some unknown substances that are beneficial to our health. Not so long ago fiber was not considered to offer significant health benefits and was sieved out of most whole foods through the process of grain polishing; the motive being mainly esthetic and, possibly, to appeal to acquired human flavor preference.
Eating nuts is the best way to get the most out of whole foods in their native form. They are raw, contain all the conventional classes of food(carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins, trace elements and fiber) and have not suffered the harm and damage of excessive temperatures that occur in the process of cooking. Fruits provide additional benefits. Vegetables eaten in salads are much better than when cooked. Plant protein food like beans does not only provide fiber and carbohydrate but it is also a good source of anti-oxidants.
The key to eating right is to know all the classes of food, choose your menu to reflect these classes and then to vary the food types while keeping your diet balanced.
How do you know when you eat right? You see it in your renewed mental and physical vitality, good hair and nails, radiant skin and perceived energy reserves. Pain is better managed and you do not fall ill all too often.
Balancing diet and exercise are the best measures to promote health. They nourish cells, make them function optimally and ward off disease. Like with everything else, in health, a combination of good habits is additive, if not synergistic.
Dr Oliver Verbe Birnso,MD
Sticking to a staple diet, even if it contains all the conventional classes of food, may not be such a good an idea, since you will not get all the nutrients in the right proportions, which only varieties can and will provide. You gain more from eating oranges, carrots and tomatoes in one serving than just carrots alone. Oranges are rich in the anti-oxidant, vitamin C; carrots contain the A vitamin, still an anti-oxidant and tomatoes are rich in lycopene, yet another potent anti-oxidant.
The so called nutritional supplements(vitamins, trace elements and now fiber ) are no more than just that; supplements. It is becoming more evident that whole foods may well be containing some unknown substances that are beneficial to our health. Not so long ago fiber was not considered to offer significant health benefits and was sieved out of most whole foods through the process of grain polishing; the motive being mainly esthetic and, possibly, to appeal to acquired human flavor preference.
Eating nuts is the best way to get the most out of whole foods in their native form. They are raw, contain all the conventional classes of food(carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins, trace elements and fiber) and have not suffered the harm and damage of excessive temperatures that occur in the process of cooking. Fruits provide additional benefits. Vegetables eaten in salads are much better than when cooked. Plant protein food like beans does not only provide fiber and carbohydrate but it is also a good source of anti-oxidants.
The key to eating right is to know all the classes of food, choose your menu to reflect these classes and then to vary the food types while keeping your diet balanced.
How do you know when you eat right? You see it in your renewed mental and physical vitality, good hair and nails, radiant skin and perceived energy reserves. Pain is better managed and you do not fall ill all too often.
Balancing diet and exercise are the best measures to promote health. They nourish cells, make them function optimally and ward off disease. Like with everything else, in health, a combination of good habits is additive, if not synergistic.
Dr Oliver Verbe Birnso,MD
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