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Not all foods are created equal. When you go to the grocery store, there are endless choices and options, and the variety can be dizzying. You know you need to watch how much fat you ingest, you have heard that you need fiber, you think to watch your calories. You have the desire to be healthy, but at times it may feel like you are walking through a dense jungle to get to where you want to be - a state of radiant health.
Good nutrition and healthy living is a process, and something that you will work on daily for the rest of your life. The goal is to have the rest of your life be filled with energy and all of the benefits of good health and staving off debilitating diseases.
Take a look at refined foods. You may have heard the term, but what exactly does it mean? It is a process where a once whole food is stripped of the very ingredients that could make it nutritious, and those ingredients are replaced with refined sugars, salt, excess fat, and chemical additives.
In refined foods, all-important fiber is usually deleted. Fiber is important because it helps guard against constipation by increasing the volume and fluid content of stools, and it may work with certain types of bacteria to inhibit the formation of cancer cells in the colon. Some types of fiber, found in oat bran, beans, apples, and grapes, may lower elevated blood cholesterol. The National Cancer Institute recommends 20 to 35 grams of fiber per day. The average American is consuming only about 12. Fiber is also very filling, so you don't have to eat as much to feel full, which cuts down on the amount of foods you need to eat overall.
When eating processed and refined foods, the fiber has generally been removed, and then synthetic fibers are added back in so as to appeal to those who are concerned about their health. Isn't it better to eat the original, closest-to-nature variety, then to eat something that is added in later as an after-thought? It is better to eat a bowl of bean soup and follow it up with an apple than to eat a couple of slices of white bread with some processed meat and cheese in the middle. Guess which one will fill you up longer and give you more for the mouthful in terms of nutrition?
It is recommended that we eat 3 to 5 servings of fruit and 5 servings of vegetables a day. A serving of fruit can be an apple, a cup of grapes, a banana, half a cup of canned peaches. Servings of vegetables can be a cup of fresh, or a half cup of frozen.
With a steady diet of refined foods, you may constantly feel hungry, literally starving your own body. Make a conscious decision to replace these types of foods with ones that are fiber-rich, so that your body can feel like it actually had something to eat!
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