How often do you eat ‘Healthy’?

Universal Health Coverage is the theme of World Health Day 2018 and diet is most important

By- Meghna Khanna, INN/NEW DELHI, @Khanna_Meghna10

Every individual must get the basic health serviceswithout any financial distress and its the theme of World Health Day 2018. And health starts from healthy diet for every single person be it young or old, rich or poor.
“All the money in the world can’t buy you back good health.” said by Reba McEntire is so true and appropriate, may be that is why people spend a lot of money on gyms and expensive ‘healthy’ food to fill their refrigerator for the sake of living a Healthy life.

Situation in this world is so bad that globally, over two billion children and adults suffer from health problems related to being overweight or obese, and an increasing percentage of people die from these health conditions.

Obesity means having too much body fat and it is different from being overweight, which means weighing too much. The weight may come from muscle, bone, fat, and/or body water. It happens over time when a person consumes more calories than they use. The balance between calories-in and calories-out differs for each person. Factors that might affect your weight include your genetic makeup, overeating, eating high-fat foods, and not being physically active.

There are many myths related to eating healthy, which obviously are of no use but still are being followed blindly.
Ten “Healthy-Food” Myths you have to stop believing right now are listed below in this article, so that we remove the cover from our eyes and actually work towards being ‘Healthy’ from this World Health Day.

1. You might have just started getting the pleasure to eat since your parents told you eating carrots will improve your eyesight. Not their fault obviously, even they got to know about this ‘myth’ when they were a child. So, now that we are breaking your myth, unless you’re way deficient in vitamin A, more carrots won’t make bad vision any better.

2 Those who say, Carbs are unhealthy have always kept you in dark, like all other nutrients, Carbohydrates are also an important portion of your diet which you cannot miss. For a healthy body and a proper diet, you just have to consume more complex carbs and avoid simple carbs.
3. If you have a problem, you fix it right? You obviously don’t leave it hanging. Same is the case with sweets when you are a diabetic.
4. No ‘sugar-free’ or less sugar food item is better than having full content of sugar in your food.
With packaged, processed foods, manufacturers remove a certain ingredient (fat) from a certain food (cookies), they need to compensate for the taste by adding other not-so-healthy ingredients (sugar). Companies are constantly tinkering with the ratios of sugar, fat, salt and other ingredients in such foods. Now, most nutrition experts believe you’re better off avoiding artificially fat-free foods and opting instead for whole foods with healthy fats, like nuts.

5. Since a few decades, while people have become more work oriented and have no time to eat proper food, canned fruits and vegetables have become a wonderful option to easy go-buy and maintain good health. But, to every good thing there is a barrier and here the barrier in consuming canned fruits is the myth that Fresh fruits and vegetables are more nutritious than the frozen and canned variety—the instant they are picked.

However, the foods you find in the produce section have often had a long journey, often spending days or even weeks in transit from the farm or orchard. During shipping and storage, natural enzymes are released in fresh fruit and vegetables that cause them to lose nutrients. By contrast, food processors quick-freeze fresh-picked produce, which preserves much of its vitamin and mineral content.

6. If we eat before 6 in the evening, will it be even known as ‘Dinner’?
This superstition of ‘eating after 6 is bad for health’ is very old and the most believed one. With our pace of life, having a meal after 6 pm is not just healthy — it’s common sense. Many people today go to bed later than our ancestors did, and starving may damage your health.

7. You have been living in a bubble, if you think the bread is brown, it has a lot of fibre. The “healthy’’ brown colour could be due to caramel in the dough.
The energy contained in brown bread is almost the same as in white bread, and you could gain weight in either case. The healthier kinds are whole-grain breads or crispy breads.
8. No apple keeps the doctor away, Apples are packed with vitamin C and fibre, both of which are important to long-term health, but they aren’t all you need.
9. Sugar that’s the colour of dirt doesn’t make it more “natural” or healthier than its white counterpart. The colour comes from a common residual sticky syrup, called molasses.
Brown sugar retains some of that molasses. In fact, brown sugar is mostly white sugar with some molasses — so refining it further would give you white table sugar.
While molasses contains some vitamins and minerals like potassium and magnesium, there is not enough in your standard brown sugar packet that should make you reach for it if you’re trying to eat healthier.
As far as your body is concerned, white and brown sugar are one-in-the-same.

10. What you eat is as important as how much physical activity you engage in. Therefore, exercising doesn’t give you a right to eat anything.

There is nothing called ‘Healthy’ or ‘Right’ eating, even in the balance diet chart there has to be the proper balance of nutrients, however you intake them.
So, eat properly, break the myths of replacing the colour of your sugar and bread to brown or ignoring carbs.