They help your body use the food you eat to make your body function. Each vitamin and mineral that your body needs performs a unique task to keep your body working and keep you healthy. In fact, beyond the known vitamins and minerals that foods offer, there are also hundreds of naturally occurring substances in foods that may protect against chronic health problems.
A key message about healthy eating in this book is to look to food first to get most of your essential nutrients. In the pages ahead, you’ll learn more about the importance of eating a wide variety of foods to get all the vitamins and minerals you need. Learn more about vitamins, minerals, and dietary supplements in chapter 7.
Water
Water makes up about 60% of your body weight. Water is considered an essential nutrient, and a constant supply of water is vital to the proper functioning of your body. Water contains no calories. You get water from the liquids you drink and the food you eat. Foods like vegetables, fruit, and milk contain a high percentage of water. People need about 8 cups (64 ounces) of fluids per day. This varies greatly with the climate you live in, the type of work you do, and your level of physical activity. It’s important to keep yourself properly hydrated and to use thirst as an indicator of how much water or other liquids you need. By far, water is the best beverage to choose to quench your thirst. You can learn more about choosing healthy beverages in chapter 16.
QUICK TIP
Water makes up 60% of your body weight. Make sure you drink at least 8 glasses (64 ounces) of fluids per day.
The next two chapters describe the general healthy eating guidelines and the specific diabetes nutrition recommendations. This information will help you put the nutrition puzzle together.
Healthy Eating Guidelines for All
What You’ll Learn:
• the nine key healthy eating guidelines for everyone
• what and how people typically eat
• how the healthy eating guidelines for everyone match the healthy eating goals for people with diabetes
As a person with diabetes, do you wonder whether you should follow the healthy eating guidelines for everyone or if you need to follow a special set of guidelines? Do you wonder if you can (or should) lean toward vegetarianism or continue being a vegetarian if you already are? If you have heart problems, do you wonder whether you need to integrate yet another set of recommendations? Facing all these questions can be confusing, but don’t despair! Take a deep breath and get ready for a lot of good news and easy-to-follow healthy eating guidelines.
Today, most nutrition advice is quite simple and straightforward. In this chapter, you’ll see that the healthy eating guidelines suggested for everyone are very much in sync with the nutrition recommendations from the American Diabetes Association (ADA), which you’ll get the full details about in chapter 4. In fact, these guidelines are in sync with healthy eating recommendations from other important health associations, like the American Heart Association and the American Cancer Society. In other words, when it comes to healthy eating guidelines, today there’s essentially one set of guidelines for all.
Key Messages of the Dietary Guidelines
The Dietary Guidelines for Americans are revised every five years. The 2010 edition will be available late in 2010. Look for these on the United States Department of Agriculture’s website, www.usda.gov It’s likely that nine key healthy eating messages will again emerge. Once you have read chapter 4, along with the rest of this book, you will see how closely these healthy eating guidelines echo the ADA recommendations.
1. Eat a variety of foods within the basic food groups while you stay within your calorie needs. In other words, make your calories count. Choose foods packed with vitamins and minerals. Don’t use your calories on foods that are high in added fats and sugars. These foods end up being high in calories and low in nutrition.
2. Control the amount of calories you eat to get to or stay at a healthy body weight. Staying at a healthy body weight through-outyourlife is a key to good health. It helps you prevent or delay many diseases, such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and high blood pressure. To achieve and maintain a healthy body weight, don’t eat more calories than you burn each day. If you find that your weight is creeping up, or has crept up over the years, shave off calories here and there by choosing healthier foods and burning more calories with physical activity.
3. Increase the amount of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and fat-free or low-fat milk and milk products you eat each day. These foods provide essential vitamins and minerals to keep your body functioning properly. The best way to get the vitamins and minerals you need is to choose more of these healthy low-fat foods and less of the foods with lots of added fats and sugars.
4. Choose fats wisely for good health. Keep the amount of saturated fat and trans fats you eat as low as possible. Use healthier fats and oils—those that contain mainly polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats.
5. Choose carbohydrates wisely for good health. Get about half the calories you eat each day from foods that contain healthy carbohydrates—whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and low-fat dairy foods. Choose fewer processed foods and foods with added sugars and fat.
6. Choose and prepare foods with little salt. Limit your sodium intake to no more than 2,300 milligrams a day or less. Research shows that it would be better to get sodium intake down to less than 1,500 milligrams a day, which is a challenge. Eat fewer processed and prepared foods and limit the amount of salt you add while preparing and eating food.
7. If you drink alcoholic beverages, do so in moderation. In other words, if you drink, don’t drink too much and don’t drink too much atone time. The recommendation is no more than 1 drink per day for women and 2 drinks per day for men.
8. Keep food safe to eat. Although this guideline doesn’t directly have to do with nutrition, it’s important to handle your food carefully to stay healthy. Practicing good hygiene is the watchword of food safety. Wash your hands regularly and keep all surfaces that food touches clean. Wash all fruits and vegetables. Keep raw meats, poultry, and seafood away from cooked food. A surprising recommendation is that you don’t need to wash or rinse meat or poultry. This prevents spreading potentially dangerous bacteria.
9. Be physically active every day. In late 2008, a new set of physical activity guidelines were published by the U.S. government giving recommendations for children, adults, and older adults. See daily activity recommendations on page 23. This report notes:
1. some activity is better than none,
2. activity is safe for almost everyone,
3. health benefits of physical activity far outweigh the risk,
4. people without a diagnosed condition and without symptoms of a medical problem do not need to discuss whether it is ok to be active with their health care provider.
Are your food habits similar to those of most people? Use the chart on the following pages to find out, and then decide which food choices and habits you may need to change.
Do you see a few themes here?
• Eat more fruits, vegetables, low-fat dairy foods, lean meats, and healthier fats and oils.
• Limit unhealthy saturated and trans fats.
• Limit foods that contain added fats (particularly saturated and trans fats) and added sugars.
• Choose minimally processed foods as much as possible.
These ideas may sound simple and repetitive of what you know, but following these guidelines regularly is easier said than done in today’s world.