Balanced Diet and Crash Diet..!!

• What is a Balanced Diet?

A balanced diet is the one that gives all types nutrients (vitamins, proteins, minerals, carbohydrates and fats etc) in the appropriate quantities to the body in order to function properly.

• Importance of Balanced Diet –

1. It helps the body organs to function effectively and efficiently.
2. It supports the immune system.
3. It helps in the proper growth and development of the cells and hence the body as a whole.

• How to we strike this balance in our diet?

We can have a balanced diet by including more food items that are rich in vitamins, proteins and other nutrients whereas low in unnecessary carbohydrates and fats.

Source of Nutrition –

1.  Vitamins – Green leafy vegetables, fruits, salads, honey and dairy products like milk, curd, cheese, etc are rich in vitamin content.
2. Proteins – Food grains, lentils, dry fruits such as walnuts and almonds, nuts and beans, and tofu are rich in proteins in the vegetarian food category while meat, eggs, fish, chicken, beef and pork form the non-vegetarian food items rich in proteins.
3. Carbohydrates – Bread, grains, starchy vegetables and food have high content of carbohydrates.
4. Fats – Ghee, oil, butter constitute the major part of fats in the food we consume,
5. Minerals – Sodium, Potassium and Calcium are the major mineral requirements of our body which can be fulfilled through fruits, vegetables, honey and milk and milk products.
6. Water – Enough of water ( at least 8-10 glasses) of water should be consumed daily. This is the medium to transport the nutrients to various parts of the body.

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• What is Crash Diet?

Crash diet can be defined as the rapid weight – loss diet. It is undertaken with the aim to reduce weight quickly i.e. to say in short time. Moreover, there are chances to re-gain weight once you stop such diet.

In my opinion, such diet can be harmful as it doesn’t let our body enjoy the natural balance between the essential nutrients and hence is dangerous in the long run. Regular fasts or low in-take of food or irregular food habits makes the body organs function improperly over a period of time.

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– Balanced Diet vs Crash Diet – 

1. Balanced Diet helps to loose and control weight moderately while crash diet does the same at a fast pace.
2. Balanced Diet keeps us healthy as it provides proper nutrition which supports the body to function effectively while crash diet reduces metabolism.
3. With crash diet, you feel food craving and hunger all the time and staying hungry deprives you of the energy required by the body. How long can one go without proper diet?
4. And, most importantly you re-gain the lost weight as and when you stop crash diet. So, the very purpose of the diet fails, then isn’t it better to try out ways to loose weight moderately.

So, in my opinion instead of going to the extremes, we should try to strike a balance between the eatables we intake. We should do exercise regularly. Avoid having fast food on a regular basis but don’t mind having them on special occasions. So, for me, ‘a balanced life is a healthy and happy life’.

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P.S. – In connection with Dabur Honey‘s Honey Diet.