Poor Diets - article by MOREinfo-About.com

Poor Diets

One reason why many with sufficient means have a poor diet is the widespread use of fast foods. It is so easy to take the children and drop in at a fast food place, the home of fatty, starchy foods, that this is often the choice rather than cook at home and assure a balanced diet. Prepared foods are also frequently the enemy of a balanced diet, and contributor to a poor diet. Often such foods not only err on the side of fats and starches, but also have additives which are not healthy.

Another reason for the prevalence of poor diets is simply lack of knowledge of what constitutes a balanced, healthy diet. It seems to many that the inclusion of some meat, potatoes or rice, a vegetable and dessert constitutes a balanced diet. They are unaware of the vitamins and minerals supplied by specific vegetables and fruits, and often limit, by habit, vegetable intake to two or three standbys, ignoring the need for dark, leafy green vegetables or a variety of fruits, or even the importance of raw food in the diet. One can eat well in terms of quantity and still be on a poor diet.

Indiscriminate dieting to lose weight often leads to a poor diet, deficient in important vitamins and minerals.

Weight loss diets should be carefully designed with healthy nutrition in mind. Diets such as a high protein diet can put strain on the kidneys and leave the body deficient in important elements. Any extreme diet is a poor diet.

Another element in poor diet is over consumption of white breads and sugar. Whole grains provide excellent nutrition, and often oat breads or cereals are preferable to wheat products. Sugar should always be kept to a minimum in a healthy diet, as it causes erratic blood sugar levels, contributing to poor diet and health problems.

Information on nutrition, including specific values of various meats and vegetables, fish and grains, is available from many sources from the library to the internet, and should be consulted to help develop menus which assure proper nutrition and avoid a poor diet.

Take a good look at your daily diet. Perhaps you need to take steps to change from a poor diet to a healthy, balanced diet for the well being of yourself and your family.

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