Our diet is very important. It is necessary to eat healthy food, not only for good health but also to have enough energy throughout the day. However, there are some more reasons to have a healthy diet, for example, to stop premature aging or to have a fuller life. In addition, good food and nutrition are vital from the time babies start complementary feeding. Healthy food for children helps them to grow and develop properly, avoiding many diseases.
How to have a healthy and balanced diet?
To have a healthy and balanced diet it is important that our meals contain the necessary nutrients and in the right quantities. Only in this way a person would have all his needs covered and would not have deficiencies.
You will obtain a healthy diet if you follow the following advice:
- Take all types of food. No food contains all types of nutrients, so it is important to take food from all groups. It is necessary to take fruits, vegetables, cereals, dairy products, legumes, meat, and fish….
- In the case that you are vegetarian, for example, if you do not take meat or fish, you can change those foods for others that contain vegetable proteins, such as legumes. If you cannot consume dairy products, or you do not like them, there are other foods that contain calcium, such as spinach, broccoli, asparagus, salmon, sardines…
- The more fruits and vegetables you eat, the better. Take animal foods in moderation. The Mediterranean diet is a perfect example of healthy eating. It gives priority to fruits, vegetables, cereals, legumes, vegetables, fish, and olive oil. Meat is consumed less.
- Healthy eating habits do not include junk food. Try to eliminate or reduce as much as possible industrial pastries, sausages, snacks, and fast food in general.
- Eat in moderation. When we eat we are looking for the energy intake that our body needs to function properly. It is not necessary to eat more than we need, and, besides, it can be a problem, because it would bring us overweight. With obesity come diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, or even some types of cancer.
- Eat five meals a day. This way you will avoid arriving too hungry at mealtime and eating excessive amounts.
- Don’t forget the water.
What are the healthiest foods for children?
Perhaps now you have a doubt about which are the healthiest foods for children. Every day they try to sell us special foods for children, which claim to include a lot of vitamins, minerals, and nutrients that they say are important for them. However, the foods they try to sell us are full of sugar, and not only are they not necessary for children, but they are not even suitable for them.
Children, like adults, need to follow a balanced and varied diet that includes all food groups so that their needs are covered. They need to take vitamins, minerals, proteins, carbohydrates, and (good) fats. Feel free to visit the right place to find more useful information about health.
It is important that before one year of age, certain foods are not given, such as honey (due to the risk of botulism), spinach and green leafy vegetables in large quantities (due to the concentration of nitrites), large fish (due to the concentration of mercury), meat, fish and undercooked eggs, low-fat or skimmed foods, whole milk or its derivatives (until one year of age they should only drink breast milk or formula), salt (causes liver problems) and sugar.
