Can eating healthier protect me from diseases?
- dedar_dev
- January 14, 2016
- Blog
- No responses
A healthy diet can actually help you lower your risk for disease. To avoid disease, the 2012 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend eating a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and nonfat dairy products. The guidelines also emphasize watching calories to prevent weight gain, limiting alcohol, and cutting back on foods high in salt, saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol, and added sugar. Activity is also an important part of the picture. The guidelines suggest 30 to 90 minutes of activity per day.
Specifically, a healthy diet may help in the following ways: Eating a low-fat diet that includes whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and low-fat dairy products can lower your risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, and diabetes. It may also prevent certain types of cancer. Limiting saturated fats, which are found in animal products such as fatty meats, cheese, cream, and butter, can reduce your cholesterol levels and lower your risk of heart disease and high blood pressure. Replacing saturated fats with monounsaturated fats, such as olive and canola oils, can help you lower “bad” (LDL) cholesterol. Omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids found in polyunsaturated fats (in foods such as fish, nuts, soybeans, and flaxseeds) may have a protective effect against heart disease.
Eliminating or reducing trans-fatty acids found in hydrogenated oils (for example, partially hydrogenated vegetable oil) may help you lower cholesterol. Eating a diet rich in fruits and vegetables provides antioxidants (such as beta-carotene and vitamins E and C), which protect the body from damage caused by oxygen free radicals and lower your risk of heart disease, cancer, and high blood pressure.
Should I be eating a low-salt, low-carbohydrate, or low-fat diet?