Stocking Your Kitchen With Healthy Food

Let's not beat around the bush.

If you purchase unhealthy foods and stock your kitchen with them, then it follows you will eat them. That in turn will have a detrimental effect on your overall health and your weight.

So, it goes without saying that you should make sure your various cupboards are full of food that will be good for you rather than otherwise.

Eating healthily versus eating healthily to reduce weight

It's worth stating that there is occasionally a difference of approach in terms of eating healthily versus eating healthily to lose weight.

For example, many healthy eating regimes will stress the importance of consuming adequate amounts of dietary fibre through things such as wholemeal bread. That may be fine advice if your weight is under control but if it isn't, you may find that you need to carefully monitor your consumption of carbohydrates and things such as bread.

So, what we are talking about here is primarily focused on the basics of healthy eating. You may need to modify some of this advice in a situation where you need to be thinking carefully about specialist weight loss programs.

Cut down on Trans Fats

A few years ago, many medical experts were warning against the consumption of just about any form of fat, linking it closely to arterial disease through the intermediary effects of cholesterol.

It's now known that cholesterol comes in two categories - HDL and LDL. It is the second category that may be prejudicial to your health and which should be avoided. A good technique to try and remember which is which is to think about that first 'L' as standing for 'Lousy'. By contrast, HDL is actually necessary for the maintenance of good health.

So, your food purchasing and kitchen stocking strategy in terms of fats should be:

Fats you can purchase and eat (in moderation - examples only)

• Nuts
• Oily fish
• Eggs
• Dark natural chocolate
• Olive oil.
• Reduced or low fat yoghurt, milk, 'butter' and other dairy produce

Fats to be avoided or radically reduced

• Full fat dairy produce such as butter, cream, and some cheeses.
• Lard and other animal fats for frying or baking liquids/semi-solids
• Confectionary - including biscuits, cakes and puddings
• Sugared drinks
• Sugar
• Ready to cook meals (unless they are certified to be very low in trans-fats)
• Fried food including crisps and chips
• Animal fats - examples including fatty bacon, fatty lardons, pates, dripping etc.

Meat

Few subjects have been more controversial over the years than discussing the pros and cons of meat consumption.

Most experts now accept that the over-consumption of certain types of meat can be bad for your cardio-vascular and digestive systems and even more controversially, some types of meat appear to be linked to an increased chance of cancer.

At the time of writing, the consensus appears to be:

Meat that is 'OK' in moderation

• All forms of freshly cooked meat providing it is relatively lean and not overly fatty
• White meats and those that are low in fat including turkey, chicken and rabbit should be seen as being better than red meats such as beef.
• Lean mince.

Meats where extreme moderation or avoidance is advisable

• Highly processed meats such as dried sausages and smoked meats (they are usually high in salt!)
• Fatty meats and offal including things such as sausages, faggots, many mass-produced pies, higher fat content mince, fatty bacon, pate.

The indisputable good guys

Your larder should be full of things such as:

• Fruit and vegetables (including potatoes providing you cook them healthily)
• Pulses
• Wholemeal pasta
• Fish
• Spices (as long as they are pure with no added salt) and fresh herbs
• Lean (largely white) meat.

Taking a few basic steps such as purchasing based on the above guidelines may help to improve your overall health.

Ratna Rashid is an author and business manager in Adventures in Weightloss team. Adventures in Weightloss is a medically designed, personalised weight loss program resulting in rapid and permanent weight loss.

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