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A wholesome diet of fresh food can be about 20 percent fruit, 20 pc vegetables, 30 pc cereals, 20 pc meat and 10 pc dairy. That can give you enough daily protein, fats, carbohydrates, fibre, vitamins and minerals to meet daily requirements. It is enough food for energy, body functions, growth and repair.
Cheese or yoghurt and broccoli are good sources of calcium, which is needed for the growth and repair of bones and teeth.
Meat, nuts and cereals are good sources of phosphorus. Phosphorus, like calcium, is needed for the growth and repair of bones and teeth.
Bananas, pumpkin, tomatoes, avocados, broccoli and dates are good sources of potassium.
Red meat, eggs, heart, liver and kidney are the best source of the mineral iron. Iron is needed by the body to make healthy red blood cells which circulate oxygen.
Carbohydrates include cereals like wheat, maize and rice, and potatoes. Foods with plenty of protein include meats, fish, eggs, nuts, seeds and legumes, like lentils.
Care needs to be taken to receive enough nutrition from some foods. Those foods are discussed here.
Two glasses of water a day at least are needed above all the water that is in food.
Little or no salt needs to be added to food because there is enough salt in processed bread, cheese, peanuts and fish and in celery. Raw or unsalted peanuts are healthier than salted ones. The body needs a little sodium from salt and iodine from sea salt. A quarter of a teaspoon of sea salt meets the daily requirement and too much of it can be harmful. Too much salt is often added to too many packaged foods and restaurant meals.
Eating a little too much salt, sugar, sauce, wine, curry, mustard, chocolate, herbs, spices and other flavourings spoils the natural taste of plain fresh foods.
Do not eat any sugar or sweets as there is plenty of natural sugar in fruit. Too much processed sugar is bad for health. Limit honey to one tablespoon full a day. Let the body make some of its own sugar.
Avoid eating too much fat of pork, lamb or poultry. Eat the fat of lean beef or beef mince. Beef from grass-fed cattle which graze on pastures is best. There is plenty of fat in cheese or yoghurt without eating butter or cream or drinking milk. Restaurants often leave or add fat in their meals for taste. Too much of some fats can be bad for health. This is because hormones, antibiotics, pesticides, herbicides, insecticides, fluoride and other additives are concentrated in fat.
Eat eggs but not more than about four a week, to avoid too much fat.
Do eat the fat of fish. Fry fish fillets in a glass of water instead of with cooking oil to avoid other fats. Drink the fat and water left over from frying fish or from canned fish. Some oily kinds of fish like sardines, herrings and tuna are needed for a healthy diet. Saltwater fish are a source of iodine, a little of which is needed by the thyroid gland to function properly.
Good fibre for roughage is in foods like apples, raw celery, wholemeal bread, pancakes made of wholemeal flour, unpolished brown rice, and rolled oats raw or boiled for only two minutes. Eat an apple a day.
Eat an orange, a grapefruit, other fruit or a couple of tomatoes a day for vitamin C because the body cannot store that vitamin.
Without vitamin D, the body cannot use calcium or phosphorous. Vitamin D is needed for bone growth and development. The body makes its own vitamin D from sunlight on the skin. Sunlight is the main source of natural vitamin D. Oily kinds of fish like sardines, herrings and tuna are the only foods that give much natural vitamin D. Artificial vitamin D is often added to processed cereal foods.
Meat, eggs, legumes and liver are good sources of vitamin A, which is needed for body growth and repair, specially for the eyes, nose, throat digestive tract and lungs.
Pork, heart, nuts, dried peas and beans and wholemeal bread are good sources of vitamin B. But B vitamins are partly destroyed by heat and dissolve in water during cooking. Vitamin B thiamine is needed by the digestive system. Some people find that too many beans do not agree with them if they eat more than a cupful of them a day. That includes fresh, frozen, canned and dried beans.
Although husked, brown rice has a little vitamin B in it, white and bleached rice have too little to be of value. White bread has too little too although some artificial vitamins are often added to it.
Meat, eggs, cheese and green leafy vegetables are good sources of vitamin B riboflavin. Riboflavin is good for body growth, skin and eyes.
Meat, fish, nuts and legumes are good sources of niacin. A little niacin helps with oxidation in body tissue.
Fresh foods have more natural vitamins and minerals in them than do processed foods, like those which come in jars, cans and packets. Except some snap frozen foods are alright, such as frozen fish or peas. Brown rice and wholemeal flour is more nutritious than white rice and flour. Wholemeal bread can be made quickly and easily at home with the right recipe.
Uncooked foods like fruit, including avocados and tomatoes, and lettuce, celery and raw nuts, keep most of their vitamins and minerals. Overcooking food destroys much of its vitamins and fibre.
Cooking meat on high heat for too long can make chemicals which are risky to health.
Roasted nuts may be too hard and brittle to be eaten safely by many people with plastic fillings in their teeth. Nuts can be boiled for 20 minutes to soften them.
Buy fresh fruit and vegetables that are not bruised of wilting. Fruit and vegetables that are in season and not too costly are best.
Wash fruit and vegetables before cooking to remove dirt and chemical residues. Some of the insect sprays used by fruit and vegetable wholesalers, supermarkets and other retailers can be washed away. But chemicals like weed killers and insect sprays used by farmers cannot be washed away as they become part of the fruit or vegetable as it grows. Do not soak vegetables.
A salad should be balanced by some protein food like meat, fish or egg; or avocado which is higher in protein than other fruits.
Cook vegetables for the shortest time until they are tender when pressed with a fork but not crumbly or mushy, and still have their colour. Do not cook with bicarbonate of soda.
Frozen vegetables should not be defrosted before being cooked.
Except for frozen fish fillets, defrost frozen meat overnight to reduce cooking time.
Pressure cooking and steam cooking keep food more nutritional with more flavour and texture. Microwaving avoids the overheating which can happen with other forms of cooking. Overheating or burning food can destroy vitamins and may cause harmful bi-products.
Cooking meat at high temperatures can make it tough and hard to digest. So cook protein foods at medium temperatures to avoid overcooking. Roast meat and vegetables at about 160 degrees Celsius or 325 Fahrenheit.
As meat takes longer to bake, add vegetables later when roasting them with meat. Roast the meat for an hour then cut it with a knife to check that it is not raw inside before adding the vegetables.
Before stewing meat and vegetables together, cut away fat and cut the meat and vegetables into small pieces. Otherwise by the time the meat is cooked the vegetables will be overcooked. Soak dried lentils in water overnight before cooking them in stew or soup.
Fry fish fillets, meat chops or eggs with a little water instead of cooking oils, and top up the water as you go if needed.
If low-grade, fatty mincemeat is cooked, cook it on a grill so that some of the fat runs away.
Keep kitchen sinks, bench tops and stoves clean and wash tea towels and scourers each day to avoid bad germs and prevent disease.
Diet and the amount and variety of foods eaten depends on whether a person is more active or less, young or old, man, woman or child, healthy or ill, living in a hot or cold climate, in a land of plenty or little, rich or poor.
This diet is based on science.
Just as important as food is good exercise, fresh air and some sunshine.
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