how to eat healthy?

Question

ok so this is my problem, I have been married ro 3 years and all this time I been thining i was cooking healthy foods but maybe am not, last week the doc told my husband he had high cholesterol, so my question is, whats a healthy diet for an every day life style, what is the diff between a carbs diet, fat free diets and so on, I am not sure about the carbs exactly what is carbs? whats bad? and whats fat free? sometimes I hear that fat free may not necesarily be fat free, so am veru confused now, and i have been putting on some wieght after the birth of my 1 year old child, and i have tried everything to lose the weight but please, help me change my lifestyle and how to cook healthier foods, give me websites, suggestions, tips, what to buy when i go to the supermarket, and is vegetable oil the best for cooking? Thanks

Answer 1

Food labels are confusing and the claims made are as close to lying as possible. There is much deception in advertising as well. "Lite" really means nothing, a jelly bean claims "no fat" but is 100% sugar. You need to read up on general nutrition, skip the fad books etc.

In general, serve lots of vegetables, fruits and lean meats. Red meat is the worst but lean red meat is not bad. Skinless chicken, fish, lean cuts of pork and beef are OK. Stay away from hi fat meats like hamburger, bacon, ribs, sausage, hot dogs etc.

Extra carbs like crackers, chips and other processed foods are often loaded with fat, salt and calories. Watch how you prepare foods too. A salad is great, drowned in French dressing it's not so great. Baked potatos are fine, with loads of butter and sour cream not so fine, french fries not good either. While popcorn is naturally low cal and low fat, with butter and salt, that changes.

Try using spices in place of grease, oil and butter when possible , just limit salt use.

Finally, cholesterol is part hereditary, part diet. Exercise and a healthy diet should lower it though.

Answer 2

Ok...here is a little food 101 that might be helpful.
Cholesterol is produced by the body. All animals produce cholesterol hence if you eat animals (i.e. fish, beef, poultry) you consume cholesterol. Meat consumption is easier for ensuring we get certain tyes of essential nutrients. (i.e. B12 in the case of a strict vegan diet) An essential nutient is something which our body cannot produce on its own.

Carbs=Carbohydates are simple molecules made from carbon that are used by the body to transport and store energy (way easy version). There are two basic types of carbs people deal with in food they are Mono (simple) saccharides (sugars) and poly(complex) saccharides. Stay away from simplified carbs. Refined white flour, sugar, enriched white rice. If it says refined or enriched be very wary of it.

Blank (insert any thing such as fat, sugar, or transfat) "free" labeling means that for the specific portion the package states they are using as their basis the amount of that substance it contains is less than 0.5 Grams. This means the amount you actually consume may have an accumalitave amount of what you are trying to avoid.

As for oils, the type of oil you chose is dependent about taste and type of cooking. Extra virgin olive oil is great for flavor and high in Omega acids but bad for cooking at high temperatures. It smokes too easily. Canola oil is great for cooking at high temperatures but the flavor may not be optimal though tends to be neutral. Stay away from saturated oils such as palm oil, cotton seed or vegetable oils comprised of them. Also stay away from anything with the word "Hydrogenated" in the ingredients. These are chemically altered fats that your body cannot process naturally.

Pick a diet based on your families tastes and what you think you can commit to. The food we eat really does affect us and our children that have yet to be completely understood. Good luck. I have added a couple of links that may help with your journey.

Answer 3

carbs are shugers from starches which are complex to glucose which is a simple shuger, GI is the messure of how quickly foods relise shuger into the blood stream eating low GI foods (whole graines milk ect) is normally recommended because they relise glucose into the blood stream slowly. high GI foods (cordeial shuger ) relice glucose quickly this can lead to problems later in life such as type 2 diabetes.
carbs should make up the bulk of energy needs i think it is around 50-90%

fat free means that it contains a very small amount of fat different countrys have different regularizations but they are all around less then .5g of fat per serve.

if you want to loose weight you can try to reduse your fat intake (all fats have 37kj so the light ones are no better)but other then that i carnt offer you anything elce sorry.

you should also try to avoid trans fats these come from hydronated vegtable oils (such as margarine and natela) they are not found in nature and have been linked to heart disease.

and sorry about my spelling i hope it helps

Answer 4

baked, grilled, broiled lean meats. fish twice a week. steamed vegetables. raw fruits and vegetables. whole grain bread and cereal. low fat dairy. you really need to read the labels. that's the only way you can know what is in the package. to lower cholesterol, eat oatmeal or cheerios or other high fiber foods. go to the library and lookat their cookbooks and diet books.

Answer 5

try to focus on fruits and vegetables. Starches are fine as long as they are not too much. Steer clear of refined sugar, red meat and processed food. Eat only until you are satisfied. You may want to think about going vegetarian.

Answer 6

just don't fry things and do not do anything with wheat (pies, cakes and so on), and it will be fine. Everything boiled or baked is good. Use oil, not margarine or butter.

Answer 7

breakfast: green vegetable,pea,milk,a piece of wheat bread lunch: 2 kinds of green vegetable,rice,fish or marine food supper: 1 other kind of vegetable, chicken egg, soup and silvervine