Eating Well Does Your Body Good Now and in the Future
Eating a healthy, well-balanced diet today continues to serve you well into the future - by lowering risks for weight gain and certain diseases. Nutrition's enduring health benefits are a perfect complement to physical activity and a healthy lifestyle.
"We know now that nutrition is one part of a long and healthy life," says Liz Weinandy, MPH, RD, LD, outpatient dietitian in The Ohio State University Medical Center's Department of Nutrition Services. "Without exercise and kicking bad habits, like tobacco use or extreme stress, you can't achieve maximum nutritional benefits."
Good and Gone
Long considered separate concepts, eating to be healthy and eating to lose weight are now one and the same, provided that you're dedicated to being healthy, patient about losing weight and focused on long-term health. A healthy daily diet is packed with energy, protein, vitamins and minerals from all the food groups, including grains, vegetables, fruit, milk, meat, beans and healthy oils. Processed foods should be eaten sparingly. If weight loss is your goal, slow and steady - a loss of no more than one to two pounds per week - should be your target.
Here's where a healthy diet today influences a healthy weight tomorrow. A nutritious, well-balanced diet gives your body what it needs to function, which includes feeding your metabolism so it efficiently burns calories for energy. While quick-fix diets bring speedy results, they generally result in more lost muscle and water than body fat. To rebalance itself, the body slows down your metabolism, a disadvantage that can continue long after the rapid weight-loss diet ends and in part causes you to regain weight.