Eating Happily

Is Eating Happily Possible Without any Consequences?

For the majority of us, long gone are days that the sole purpose of eating was satisfying the hunger*. Nowadays, food is more about pleasure than a necessity and cooking is often more about passion than a chore. Now, it is about eating happily delicious and beautiful looking food while enjoying the company and surroundings.

However, is eating happily possible without any consequences? Can we enjoy food without worrying about our waistline and all diseases caused by food? Luckily the answer is positive: yes we can, BUT we have to follow a healthy diet.

How to be on a Healthy Diet?

What really is a healthy diet? It probably means something slightly different to each of us. Some people will say it is about reducing salt or saturated fat intake, others – that about eating more fruits and vegetables. Somebody else may suggest eliminating animal products. So who is right? Possibly all of these answers are correct because there is not just one way of eating healthy. However, to make sure our way is, we shouldn’t concentrate on one aspect of our diet only. We should take a holistic approach and remember these key characteristics of any healthy diet:

* Adequacy – every day we should eat sufficient amounts of food from each of the nutrient groups: carbohydrates, protein, fats, vitamins and minerals (so no point of avoiding carbs;-))
* Balance – on a daily basis we should eat food that represents each of the food groups: proteins, grains, pulses, dairy, vegetables and fruit,
* Variety – it is better to consume many different ingredients in small portions than a few in massive quantities and also
* Correct amounts of calories and nutrients (please check this post to find out how many calories you should have per day).

If we follow all of the above guidelines, our diet will provide us with adequate nutrients that will promote our health and if not prevent, then at least reduce the risk of chronic diseases.

And what about “bad” food that is often connected with eating happily? The food that evokes a smile on our faces and at the same time causes remorse? Having an occasional exception from the rule of maintaining a healthy diet is alright as long as this is an exception and not the rule. Because there are no “bad” foods, there are only bad diets.