The Importance Of Diet Control To Maintain Fitness

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Dietary elements are one of the most important parts in making a body Fit and Healthy. 

Fruit and vegetables are an excellent source of vitamins, minerals, and fibre which we need to help maintain a healthy body and fight diseases.  Unfortunately, most of us don't eat enough of them. 

Try to eat at least five portions of fruit and vegetables each day. This may sound a lot but the good news is that a glass of orange juice, an apple or a small can of tomatoes or baked beans all count as one portion. Potatoes don't count here although they are important in the diet for other reasons.

Different types of fruit and vegetables provide different nutrients in varying amounts, so it is important to include a wide variety of them within your diet.  With a bit of forward planning you will see that it's easy to meet the five a day goal without having to make major changes to your eating habits.

• Eat fruit at breakfast, for example, eat a banana with your cereal or have a glass of fruit juice.  Eat a variety of fruit and vegetables.
• Add salad to your sandwiches
• Add extra fruit to your dessert
• Put more vegetables in soups, stews and pasta sauces
• Add sliced vegetables to pizza

Many fruits and vegetables can make handy snacks, such as raisins, grapes, dried apricots, satsumas, tomatoes, carrot sticks, slices of red or green pepper, apple pie, bananas, pears and kiwi fruit. 

Starchy foods such as bread, potatoes, cereals, rice, and pasta should the basis of your main meals.  An example of this would be to have a slightly bigger helping of pasta and a smaller helping of the sauce.  Increasing the proportion of carbohydrate in our diet can actually help control weight.  Eating starchy foods, especially wholegrain varieties, increases your fibre intake too.

Be careful to increase just the carbohydrates and not the fat in your diet.  Limit how much fat such as butter, margarine, mayonnaise, and creamy sauces you add to bread, pasta and other starchy foods.  Choose boiled rather than fried rice and try baked or boiled potatoes sometimes rather than roast or fried potatoes. Use skimmed or semi-skimmed milk for mashed potatoes and less butter.

Snacks are also a useful source of carbohydrates and other nutrients, especially as you become more active, but remember to check out food labels to keep track of the fat content.

Without a doubt, fruits have wonderful natural benefits for the human body.  Fruits are packed with vitamins, antioxidants, and fibre, much like vegetables. But they come in a wide variety of sweeter, more palatable flavors.  Adding fruits to your diet is an excellent thing to do. 

It is important to drink liquids like water or juice more when the weather is warm and when we are physically active.  We should not wait until we feel thirsty before drinking, as thirst is a sign of being dehydrated. Water is a good way to replace liquid and we can also choose from a wide variety of other refreshing drinks such as fruit juice, carbonated drinks, squash, fruit flavored drinks, milk, soya milk and yogurt drinks, in moderation.  Milk and milk-based drinks are also important as they provide calcium and protein.