Often we are stifled with what to put on our plate. Most people know what counts as unhealthy food. The problem is not too many people know what counts as healthy. Fatty, sugary, fried and processed food is obviously not a great option if you're going for a healthy lifestyle.

 

 

What's not so obvious is what exactly you should be eating in order to set yourself on a wholesome path. There is so much information and so many trends to choose from.

Fad diets and marketing buzz words such as “fat free” “gluten free” have all lost their essential value due to the fast paced commercialization of health and nutrition. This makes choosing a healthy diet and equipping yourself with useful information a task in itself, let alone actually committing to a plan.

 We understand how hard it can be, we’ve been there. But we’re here to help. Knowing what to put in your plate is the most essential step towards a healthy lifestyle, so here are a few list of healthy foods to eat everyday you can start enjoying today and every day.

 

Best Food For Humans – List of Nutritious Foods

Fruit.

Your sweet tooth, as it is commonly referred to, is an evolutionary response to our need for a constant and efficient energy supply. Sweetness indicates the availability of carbohydrates, which are the most easily metabolized nutrient for energy.

Originally, nature’s intention was for us to obtain this sweet goodness from plant sources. Fruit from flowering plants as well as the tissue of other forms of plant life served as a wholesome source of healthy carbs.

However, with the advent of advanced agriculture, industrialization and food processing, we have learned to extract and mass produce carbs from their origin source, and gain access to pure, refined and isolated sugar. A dream come true yes? Well, it doesn’t take much to realize that this advancement in food processing and preparation has become the bane of modern health.

The crisis brought on by excess consumption of refined sugar and carbs is one of the battles of our generation. Obesity and type two diabetes are amongst the leading killers in modern society, and they both owe it to the excess amounts of sugar we consume.

 You’re probably thinking, doesn’t sugar come from plants anyways? How can eating it with plants be any better than eating outside of the plants. Well, the magic word here is fiber. Fiber slows down the uptake of sugar. It is present in even the sweetest of fruit. It acts by moderating the rate of uptake of sugar from the digestive system to the bloodstream. This lowers the insulin response and ultimately lowers the risk of diseases such as diabetes and obesity.

 

Fruit also comes packed with many essential nutrients such as vitamins, minerals and antioxidants.

 

Nuts and Seeds

Nuts and seeds are awesome sources of healthy unsaturated fat. These fats are essential to the healthy functioning of the body.

Unsaturated fat, especially polyunsaturated fat contains omega fatty acids. For example alpha linolenic acid, or ALA is a type of omega 3 fatty acid that coats your nerve fibers as well as helps nourish your heart and blood vessel muscles.

 

 

These fats also increase levels of good cholesterol or high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL). This is essential in maintaining heart health and in the production of important hormones like testosterone.

 Aside from the presence of healthy fats, nuts and seeds are also a viable source of dietary fiber, great for optimizing digestive health, but even better for its benefits to your insulin response system.

 Many seeds and nuts are so abundant in antioxidants and micro nutrients that they even possess healing qualities. The oil from black cumin seeds for example, has a plethora of potent health benefits including anti inflammatory, antimicrobial and antiviral properties. Others such as pumpkin seeds are high in zinc and have been shown to help boost testosterone production in men.

 

Cruciferous Vegetables.

Cruciferous vegetables are a health hub if ever there was one. These vegetables include spinach, broccoli, kale and brussel sprouts to name a few. They get their name from their cross like (crucifix) arrangement of their leaf growth pattern. The most important common trait besides their looks is the abundance of nutrients these plants hold.

 

 

The first most obvious benefit of these vegetables is the fiber content. Being leafy greens, they are an automatic ticket to nailing your daily fiber goals. Loading up on them ensures an in shape digestive system and a healthy insulin response.

 Then we look into the micro nutrients found in these plans. Being that they are leafy green vegetables for the most part, they contain a high concentration of antioxidants sourced from the phytochemicals that give them their colour and flavour. Cruciferae as they are also known, are rich in minerals as well. Magnesium, iron and zinc are commonly sourced from these plants. Vitamins such as C, D, A and K are found in cruciferous vegetables as well.

 

Vegetables are also super low calorie foods, so losing weight is that much easier if you have a high intake of these.

 

Fish

Fish is an abundant source of complete protein. It is also one of the few animal sources of essential fatty acids and polyunsaturated fat. This helps improve HDL cholesterol levels and is also an awesome way to have a protein source that doesn’t come with a hefty weight gain risk.

 

 

Being that its animal tissue, fish also has a great deal of nutrients such as iron and zinc and is also a good source of b vitamins.

 

In Conclusion.

Eating healthy has become such a complex mess. An information overload from so many fads and marketing campaigns all jostling for relevance in your spending and consumption habits. The thing is, you really need to keep it simple, dial back from all the packaging and labels and source your nourishment from nature itself.