Be Wise and Eat Age Wise (Part II)
You are no more in your teens. You might have already realised that life is not about giggling and shopping but a colourful bunch of responsibilities. Your needs have changed and so too your outlook towards life. As your needs change, your lifestyle unfortunately changes too. This is the time you got to hit back to a healthy lifestyle with enough exercise and right food to prevent lifestyle diseases and chronic disorders.
Managing weight is not a difficult thing at this age. It is an age where you need to increase your level of physical activity and consciously reduce the food intake and fat calories.
Control Fats to Maintain Required Weight
Early twenties up to late thirties is not a good time to eat less and work more. You need a good pack of steady energy to keep yourself busy and active 24/7. So eat wise and lose weight as early as possible.
Consume less oil. ‘Oil’ does include all kinds of saturated oils. Ideas for cooking with less oil is not limited. Grilling, baking, poaching and steaming work well! Using a half portion of onion can help your food not getting stuck to the non-stick cookware.- Stick on to low-fat dairy products for the adults while giving the children full milk products. Three servings or 600 ml of dairy products per day is ideal.
- Restrict your fat intake, as far as possible, to polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fatty acids. Vegetable oil, nuts, fish etc. are great sources of polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fatty acids. Only 35 per cent of your calories should come from fats.
- It is the golden rule to limit your trans fatty acid intake up to 10 per cent of your total daily calories.
Watch your Carbohydrates
- Ideally, you should consume 3 or more servings (1 serving = approximately 28g) of whole grains a day.
- Cultivate the habit of having salads in your children as well.
- Be liberal with fruits, veggies and whole grains. This will ensure the much required fibre for your body.
- Eat enough of starchy foods for a healthy brain and muscles.
- Go for artificial sweeteners.
Everything Else
- Consume alcohol in moderation. Be aware that even alcohol adds up to your calorie intake.
- Preferably, only less than 2,300mg of salt/sodium should be taken in a day. Count your pickles, salt in the foods and processed foods.
Since potassium plays a major role in preventing high blood pressure, building muscle and regulating our heartbeat eat bananas, mushrooms, potatoes and sweet potatoes with skin, dairy foods, green leafy vegetables etc. You will need 4.7 grams of potassium a day.
December 7th, 2009 at 8:54 pm
That’s very cool. You simply don’t hear enough about what people in their 20’s and early 30’s should be eating. Its only after that where there is advise, and yet proper nutrition during the 20’s especially can help a lot on down the road. Good article.