Chapter
You have one body. Treat it well so as to maximize its ability to serve you throughout your life. Often physical health gets moved to the bottom of the priority list when we are busy. Taking care of your physical health doesn’t mean six-pack abs or training for a marathon.
Questions to Consider
- What is healthy eating?
- Why is it important to stay hydrated?
- How important is exercise to a healthy body?
- Are you getting enough sleep to be healthy?
- What are toxins, and how can they affect your health?
Healthy Eating
While it’s not the only thing that contributes to great health, what you eat makes a huge difference. We have 37 trillion cells in our body. The only way they function optimally is with good nutrition. As a college student, you will be surrounded by temptations to eat poorly. Although it is okay to choose unhealthy food options in moderation, your goal will be to focus on making healthier choices to fuel your mind and body daily.
One way to ensure you are making healthy meal choices is by using the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Healthy Plate Guidelines. MyPlate illustrates five different food groups considered the building blocks for a healthy plate for each meal—vegetables, fruits, protein, grains, and dairy.
Whole Foods vs. Processed Foods
Choose whole foods. Whole foods are any foods that have not been processed, packaged, or altered in any way. Whole foods are an essential part of a healthy diet because they contain the vitamins and minerals our bodies need.
Examples of whole foods include the following:
- Vegetables: Carrots, broccoli, kale, avocados, cauliflower, spinach, peppers
- Fruits: Apples, bananas, blueberries, strawberries, grapes, melons, peaches
- Grains: Brown rice, oatmeal, barley, buckwheat, quinoa, millet
- Beans: Black, pinto, kidney, black-eyed peas, chickpeas
Minimize non-whole foods, often called processed foods. These are foods that have been processed, such as cookies, hot dogs, chips, pasta, deli meat, and ice cream. Even seemingly healthy foods like yogurt, granola, and other cereals are processed and should be checked for added sugar and other unhealthy ingredients. Review the label on these items and look for products that have less than 5 grams of fat and 10 grams of added sugars per serving. Also, review the dietary fiber and select products that have at least 3 grams per serving. Dietary fiber is a good thing; the higher the number the better. Fiber makes you feel full, and helps with digestion. Following these simple guidelines will help you select the best foods.
The average American eats 62 percent of their daily calories from processed foods.22 In order for your body to be as healthy as possible, it’s extremely important to include lots of whole foods in your diet.
— Michael Bernard Beckwith
How to Read a Food Label
The U.S. government requires food manufacturers to put a label on every processed food product. This is so we, as consumers, know what we are putting int