When it comes to health there are so many contradictory messages thrown at us by the press and social media. One minute an ingredient is a super food and the next minute it makes you overweight.
What are we support to believe? In a world where conflicting facts spiral around our minds, it is important to step back and assess the true situation. Honestly, there is no ‘magic’ ingredient to make you skinny, nor is there a perfect recipe for clear skin. Our bodies are completely unique from each other and there is no one size fits all method to make everybody healthy.
Whilst you’re rustling up raw chai energy bites, your friend might prefer to munch on a bag of nuts. We need to celebrate being different as individuals and realize that personal tastes matter. You cannot be truly healthy if you are restricting yourself from eating and causing a toxic relationship between yourself and vital nutrients. It is important to know the facts from the fiction in terms of the health industry.
Sourcing fresh ingredients, exploring new foods and embarking on exciting fitness ventures will enrich your life in the long run. So, take on board these fabulous fifteen explanations, which will tell you exactly why health is wealth and food is fuel.
1. Food Makes People Happy
It is a proven fact that certain foods can trigger happy hormones inside your body. When you eat fresh, delicious ingredients you will instantly feel more energized and revitalized. A particular food that can really lift your mood is seafood; look into the freshest catches at Citarella Market. Buying good quality seafood such as this will make your dishes taste all the more delicious. If you have guests coming over they will always be asking for more!
2. Food Can Act as Medicine
If you are feeling under the weather try and steer clear from medicine and look for natural remedies. Food is the best cure to many aches and illnesses, so instead of popping pills try one of these innovative options: Instead of sucking on throat pastilles when it’s feeling sore, try a squeeze of fresh honey in a hot drink. If you have headache bananas and almonds are well known for clearing up that kind of dull pain. Tea tree oil is also a great antiseptic, perfect for cuts and grazes.
3. You Literally Are What You Eat
When you indulge in a greasy calorific meal your body and skin start to repair its cells based on the foods you have just eaten. You’re likely to look and feel groggier if you aren’t eating well, so try and eat a wide variety of whole foods. High volumes of protein are needs to repair muscles in your body, so if you aren’t getting enough of this you aren’t going to be able to recover quickly after exercise or build new muscles.
4. Carbohydrates are not the Devil
Stop avoiding carbs because you think they are going to make you fat; this is the biggest myth out there. If you eat a wide range of wholegrain and brown carbohydrates such as oats, brown rice, seeded bread and wholegrain pasta you will be nourishing your body with the energy it needs. Slow releasing carbohydrates like this are the perfect addition to any meal, especially just after exercise when your body needs to absorb the sugars and process them quickly.
5. Sugar is Sugar
We have all been made aware of the dangers of sugar. Chocolate bars, cakes, and cookie are jam-packed full of the dangerous white stuff. Refined white sugar is one of the emptiest ingredients in the world in terms of nutritional value. Alternatives such as maple syrup, honey, coconut sugar and date syrup do contain more fiber and vitamins, however, they are still just sugar. Keep treats such as these to a minimum and try not to overindulge on the sweet stuff if you can.
6. Whole Foods are better than Supplements
You might believe that you are lacking in vital nutrients such as vitamin A, vitamin C or iron. You could easily walk straight into your local pharmacy and buy a supplement for these over the counter, but they have no other nutritional value to them. Instead of a supplement seek out foods that contain the minerals you need, spinach is amazing for iron and oranges, tomatoes and carrots are bursting with essential vitamin C.
7. Hydration Will Make You Happy
If you drink enough fresh, filtered water first thing in the morning, it might just provide you with enough energy to skip your morning coffee. The more water you drink the more hydrated your body will be; this will fuel you with vitality and give you a spring in your step every single morning.
8. Diets Don’t Work
Everybody has that familiar saying running around their minds on a Sunday evening; ‘the diet starts tomorrow.’ The truth is when you are telling yourself that, you will be setting yourself up to fail and relapse into bad habits. Try to adopt a generally healthy lifestyle with the occasional treat now and then. Forget the diet altogether and start enjoying a wide variety of delicious foods, with no restrictions or banned ingredients.
9. Your Skin Will Show Everything
If you are stressed, unhappy or undernourished, your skin will show all the signs. Some of the best foods for your skin include nuts, oily fish, leafy green vegetables and berries, so try and weave all of these ingredients into your day to day meals. Instead of eating pre-packaged snacks you should try and eat foods in their original forms when possible. This ensures there are no extra sugars and salts that will make your skin break out.
10. Mental Health Matters
Although you may look happy on the outside, you might not feel too great about yourself on the inside. Many people suffer in silence about their mental health issues, when they should really be speaking out about how they are feeling. Your mental health is just as important as your physical state, so always be honest about any problems you are having and keep your mind clear.
11. Worry Less, Smile More
Life is too short to worry about unnecessary obstacles that may or may not happen in your life. Try to reduce your stress levels and remain positive in all situations. This will not only benefit your health, but you will also come across much happier to your friends and family.
12. Fitness is Key
Your body needs to move and be active on a regular basis in order for you to live a long and fulfilled life. If you struggle to motivate yourself to head to the gym, then don’t be disheartened or force yourself to complete strenuous activities when you simply aren’t up for it. Go for regular, brisk walks, take the stairs more often and get off a bus stop earlier than usual. These small, everyday tweaks will increase your fitness levels over time and give you a better exercise regime overall.
13. You Can’t Outrun a Bad Diet
When you have been out for an overindulgent meal or overeat in the evenings, you might think that going for a run the next day will be enough to counteract the calories. The truth is that diet is more important than exercise, so don’t think you can eat whatever you want as long as you go for a run. Balance is key, so try not to overdo it with food or exercise.
14. Don’t Allow People to Bring You Down
Don’t ever let people tell you what to eat or how to exercise. Make sure you do whatever you enjoy and makes you feel good; other people’s opinions simply don’t matter. By all means, ask people questions about health topics, but don’t feel pressured into making any changes you don’t feel completely comfortable with.
15. Confidence is Created from Within
When you feed your body nourishing foods and you enjoy regular exercise you are automatically going to feel more confident in yourself and your abilities. Make sure your lifestyle, food choices and fitness regimes make you feel wonderful so that you can become more and more self-assured by the day.
Realizing that happiness doesn’t come from having the perfect figure or a flawless complexion. It comes from having a fully functioning body that can do amazing things such as run, swim, meditate and even sleep. As long as you are fuelling your body with the correct nutrients that make you personally feel good, you will be winning at life.
Remember to always be confident in yourself and don’t let any snippet of controversial information sway you from doing your thing. Keep these notions close at hand, so whenever you are feeling low you can pick them up and start your day feeling fresh and revitalized.
No matter how wealthy you are, you will feel rich if your health is in top form; always remember this as put your body first at all times.