2023-10-16 05:27:00
There are a series of essential nutrients that every healthy dish should have (Infographic: Marcelo Regalado)
Carrying out a healthy and nutrient-balanced diet requires knowing which foods cannot be missing from daily nutrition, as well as which are the ideal quantities for their consumption. On World Food Day, Infobae summarized the recommendations of Harvard University experts to achieve optimal nutrition.
Nutrition specialists from the Harvard University School of Public Health designed the nutritionally perfect dish for optimal health. With more than 1.9 billion overweight and obese adults in the world, and increasingly knowing the importance of a healthy diet for a good state of overall health, these foods are essential to achieve well-being.
1- Vegetables and fruits: they should make up half of the plate. Specialists recommend looking for color and variety, and recalled that potatoes do not count as vegetables from a nutritional point of view due to their negative impact on blood sugar.
Lilian Cheung is a professor of Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health, and on this point she explained: “Potatoes almost behave like a refined carbohydrate. “They increase the level of sugar in the blood.” At the same time, she recommended “adding whole fruits to meals,” and consuming them that way instead of juice.
2- Whole grains: a quarter of the plate should be made up of whole, intact grains, such as whole wheat, barley, wheat grains, quinoa, oats, brown rice.
Legumes are a good vegetable source of protein and iron (Illustrative Image Infobae)
Specialists also point out that meals prepared with these ingredients, such as whole wheat pasta, have a more moderate effect on blood sugar and insulin than white bread, white rice, and other refined grains.
“Whole grains have many more vitamins and also phytochemicals and minerals, which is much healthier and does not raise blood sugar levels as quickly,” Cheung said.
3- Proteins: the other quarter of the plate should be made up of foods that provide protein, whether of animal origin, such as fish or chicken, or vegetables, such as legumes, nuts and seeds, which are healthy and versatile sources of protein.
Harvard experts advise limiting the consumption of red meat and avoiding processed meats and sausages.
Specialists advise using olive oil instead of trans fats for cooking (Illustrative image Infobae)
4- Healthy oils: to avoid the consumption of harmful trans fats, it is recommended not to use partially hydrogenated oils such as margarine and certain vegetable oils for cooking.
Instead, specialists advise choosing healthy vegetable oils such as olive, canola, soy, corn, sunflower and peanut.
5- Water: to hydrate, it is well known that nothing is better than water, and the recommendation is to drink two liters (or eight glasses) a day. Harvard experts recommended skipping sugary drinks, limiting milk and dairy products to one or two servings a day, and limiting juice to one small glass a day.
As for infusions, they propose coffee and tea as the healthiest. “The Harvard Diet encourages alternating between water, tea and coffee to accompany your meals, especially with little or no sugar,” Cheung said.
Physical activity is a fundamental pillar of a healthy lifestyle (Getty)
Harvard’s “ideal plate” graphic includes a running human figure. And it is nothing more nor less than a reminder that there is no eating plan that works with a sedentary lifestyle.
For Cheung, “what makes the meal plan stand out is the warning to stay active, which is almost as prominent as the food and drink breakdown.” “We need to dedicate half an hour a day, or at least five times a week, to vigorous activity,” he said. And in that sense, he recommended brisk walks and fitness classes. “The key is to avoid being sedentary for most of the day,” he noted.
Recent research along these lines, published in the journal Nature Metabolism, found that people who combine exercise with diet can double the metabolic health benefits of their weight loss.
“Exercise should absolutely be on the agenda,” experts agree (Illustrative image Infobae)
The study found that men and women with obesity and prediabetes who exercised while dieting improved their insulin sensitivity twice as much as people who dieted alone, even though they all lost comparable amounts of weight.
“These results demonstrate that regular exercise during a diet-induced weight loss program has profound additional metabolic benefits” compared to diet alone, the study authors wrote.
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