Healthy Food

By Bob Pardue

Are you finding yourself in need of dropping a few pounds, doing something to pick up a little more energy? If you are a person who tends to eat a lot of fast foods from restaurants, or you eat a lot of prepared foods while you are at home, chances are this is the cause for your fatigue and those extra pounds. There are ways to help both of those issues without going on a horrible diet that makes you feel like you are killing yourself. You do not need to work out at a gym till you cannot move.

All you have to do is make healthy fast food choices and watch portion control and you will be fine. The USDA has put out a Food Pyramid. The latest one was in 2005, but an updated one is due out next year so watch out for it.

The food pyramid tells you that there are five major food groups, and it tells you how many servings you should have from each food group each day. If you find yourself eating these recommended foods and snacks, the health benefits will be amazing.

Fruits and vegetables are two of the food groups. Between the two groups, you should consume 11 items each day. You are probably saying wow, I can never eat that much fruit or vegetables. But if you start being creative, it will be very easy to consume.

When you go to the grocery store, start looking through the fresh produce and see all of the different things that you've not tried before. Have you eaten a mango? a fresh pineapple? a kiwi? a pomegranate?

There are all kinds of healthy fruits that you could make into a fruit salad. You could add fruit to yogurt and have your fruit and milk serving.

The other food groups are grains, milk, meat and beans. As you eat your grains, which includes rice, breads, etc, try to use the dark colors as they are healthier for you.

In the meat group, try to use lean meats and stay away from prepared meats like lunch meats, etc. You can substitute peanut butter, or legumes in your sandwich. This is only the beginning of healthy fast food choices. Please consult with your doctor or nutritionist, and do all you can to stay healthy. The choice of what you eat is yours.