Eating Healthy Foods: What Are The Benefits & What Is ‘Healthy Food’

For years, we’ve always been told to eat our greens or get our five a day. Parents and teachers are forever telling us to eat healthy foods. And we always oblige, but for what reason? It’s likely lots of people all over the world don’t know the actual benefits of eating healthy foods.

For starters, if you consume natural healthy foods you’re likely to not suffer from obesity or weight gain. Natural foods aren’t high in calories or added fats, so there’s no worry for someone to gain weight. Also, lots of healthy foods can aid our bodies and really benefit us in the long run. For example, there is a range of ‘superfoods’ out there that help combat diseases. Certain fruits and vegetables can have cancer-fighting properties and reduce the risk of heart problems. With benefits like these it’s no wonder people are always telling you to eat healthily.

And then there’s the way food can have an impact on athletic performance. Most athletes, or active people, need to eat protein for their muscles to grow and recover. Eating a healthy diet is key for lots of people looking to get in shape and change their lifestyle.

One of the main problems with healthy eating is that people don’t know what’s healthy and what isn’t. Some people think they can eat what they want as long as there’s salad on the plate. A recent study found that Mcdonald’s salads actually contained more salt and fat than an average salad should. So although it looked healthy, it wasn’t. People fall for this trick time and time again, eating foods they think are healthy, that turn out to be harmful to their bodies. Then we have all the processed foods and microwave meals that we think are good for us but they aren’t. Just because something is labelled as fish, we assume it’s 100% fresh fish.

However, there has been a change in the tide. These days we see techniques like high pressure processing (HPP) that change the way food is processed. HPP of meat and seafood leaves the products with the same nutritional makeup as before they were processed. So foods that go through HPP are still going to be healthy, they have no additives in them. It just means you can now buy produce that keeps for longer and is still incredibly fresh when opened.

Healthy food is simply food that hasn’t had anything bad added to it. Look at the ingredients of the food you buy and you can easily tell if it’s healthy or not. If you notice any chemicals on the back of a packet of food, then it’s probably not going to be healthy. When you’re buying meat or fish, make sure there aren’t any fats or additives added. It’s often best you buy food in its simplest form and then add any flavouring yourself.

It’s important more people know the benefits of healthy eating and how to identify healthy foods. We’re living in a society that is suffering from obesity, and our children are getting fatter on less healthy. If we can start educating them in how/why to eat better, then we can start seeing a healthier tomorrow.