The Balancing Act

Do you remember your school's health teacher or parents going on for what seemed like hours about the food pyramid and a balanced diet? Good, because I'm about to tell you they were half right. A balanced diet is important for your health and fitness. But there is a little more to a healthy and well balanced diet than just eating the 'ideal" number of serves of certain food groups and counting calories. It's also about what sources of food the calories come from. Here, I'd like to give you an overview of balanced nutrition without going into school teacher or parental mode.

What are Calories?
Calories are a unit of energy obtained from nearly everything we eat or drink each day.
When we want to lose weight or increase lean muscle mass, we need to know how many calories we are giving our body and what foods those calories are coming from. To help you understand it better, consider the table below. It only contains the Macro-Nutrients we need each day, because the Micro-Nutrients like vitamins and minerals have a near zero caloric value.
1gm of proteins =4 calories

1gm of carbohydrates = 4 calories
1gm of fats = 9 calories

                                

Proteins 
Proteins are the premium building blocks for your body. Because of this, they should form a large part of your diet. A person who is moderately active should aim for 25-30% of their daily calories from proteins and up to 40% for people involved in heavy physical work or sports like bodybuilding.
Try to include proteins in every meal you have throughout the day the day. This can actually help you eat less and control cravings,because protein rich foods digest slowly. This helps to make you feel fuller for longer and reduce between meal snacks.

Great sources of proteins are meat, fish, poultry and dairy products (watch out for the fat content). Also legumes and some nuts. Be careful with the amount of nuts you eat though because while they are high in protein, they're also very high in fat and calories.

Carbohydrates
Carbs have been painted in a poor light recently and it's mostly been unfairly so.(thanks Paleo gurus)

Carbohydrates are our body's naturally preferred energy source, especially during exercise or physical work. They only become a "problem", when our diet has more carbs in it than our body needs for energy each day causing the excess carbohydrates to be stored as fat.
Carbohydrates don't just provide us with energy, they provide fiber and other nutrients important to our overall well being and should make up around 40-50% of your daily meals. Good sources of carbohydrates are: wholegrain breads and pastas and brown rice which are high in fibre, meaning you feel full for longer, fruits and vegetables.

A couple of important things to consider here are: Try to stay away from processed grains like white breads, pastas and white rice. The processing which they undego robs them of important nutrients and leaves them higher in sugar than a serving of wholegrain the same size.When it comes to fruits and vegetables try to choose the varieties high in fiber and / or water content such as apple, pears and watermelon and veges like lettuce, cabbage and  celery. These are low in calories and high in fibre and will help you feel full for a longer period of time while not impacting too heavily on your calorie budget for the day.

Fats
For years we've been told by the gurus that we should be eating as little fat as possible or eliminating it completely from our diets to stay healthy. Now, common sense is returning as research sheds new light on the former bad guys..
Put simply, our body's need fats to function properly. They assist in lubricating joints, digestion, protection of our skin and other vital functions. A healthy range of fats in our diet is about 20-25% of your total daily calories.
All fats are different. There are good fats, bad fats and really bad fats, so I'll give you a brief run down on them so you know what to look out for when eating healthily.
The Good.
Heart-healthy unsaturated fats which come in two main types. Monounsaturated and Polyunsaturated.

Monounsaturated fats have been shown to lower overall cholesterol but in particular the bad cholesterol (LDL) . Good sources of monounsaturated fats include nuts (preferably raw), nut butters like almond and peanut butters, olives, avocados, safflower oil and coconut oil.
Polyunsaturated fats include Omega-3 fats found in cold-water fatty fish like salmon, herring, some varieties of tuna and mackerel (including sardines) Pumpkin, sunflower and Flax seeds are also high in Omega-3s
Conjugated linoleic acids (CLA) are fats found in mainly in red meats and dairy foods and are also good for you. Research has proven that these fats actually help in weight loss but inhibiting the uptake and storage of other fats.
Saturated fats such as butter should be included in your diet. The key here, is moderation and you should limit, not eliminate eating saturated fats. As an example, coconut oil is an extremely healthy saturated fat and adds a great flavour and aroma to meals.
The Bad
Omega 6 fats have been linked to arthritis, cancer and heart disease and should be kept to a minimum in your diet. Some common Omega-6 fats in our lives are soybean oil, sunflower oil, peanut oil, corn oil, sesame oil and cottonseed oil. If you cook with any of these oils on a regular basis, try swapping them with coconut oil or a small amount of animal lard.

 
The Worst

Try to eliminate Trans fats from your diet totally. They are most commonly found in packaged and fast foods. If your diet is too high in trans fats, you are at a high risk of heart and cholesterol problems. Always read the labels on any packaged and snack foods you buy. If they have more than 0gm of trans fats listed as an ingredient, look for an alternative that doesn't.

Water

Water enables your body to flex muscles during work and exercise, removes waste, carries life giving oxygen and nutrients to your body's cells and assists in converting food to energy among other functions.

We've been told over and over again "8 glasses a day" and some people find that amount daunting. However, it isn't as difficult as you may think, because it includes the water used in tea and coffee and other drinks you probably enjoy more than plain old life giving water.. Also, many foods contain large amounts of water. This counts toward your water intake. A good example is watermelon which is about 90% water and lettuce at about 95% water. Some proteins like fish contain as much as 70% water.

Keep it simple
I'll admit, that counting the calorie content and nutrient ratios for every meal does take time at first and may seem a little daunting. But after a short time, preparing a meal with the correct balance of macro-nutrients will become second nature.

Finally, eating a balanced diet, containing quality ingredients is a lifestyle not a diet.It doesn't have or need an expiry date. Putting it simply, count calories, watch your macro-nutrient ratios and avoid the bad stuff to get the most out of life.