When it comes to healthy eating, weight loss, or maintaining your weight, diet and nutrition plays a major role in these discussions. The discussions as to what to eat and what not to eat usually stir up loads of controversies that most times leave us confused.

So in this blog post, I have done my best to really simplify it down so you can make the best decisions when choosing your diet.

Just remember when it comes to diet and nutrition, there is no perfect optimal diet, as what works best for me, may not necessarily work best for you. So use this information to figure out what diet is best for you especially if you are looking to lose some weight.


# FRUITS

Fruits are loaded with vitamins, vital nutrients and anti- oxidants. They are really delicious too. And for those trying to lose or maintain their weight, since you are going to be avoiding refined sugar, fruits are a great replacement.

Yeah, fruits contain sugar but they also contain fiber and a whole lot more essential nutrients too. The fiber in fruits helps keep the sugar level in your blood at bay. For instance, an orange has sugar, so does a bottle of coke, but while the sugar in the coke may end up spiking your sugar level if consumed too much, the sugar in oranges wouldn't.

Fruits are great, I encourage everyone to eat them often. But that said, you don't want to chow on every fruit you come across as they also provide calories to the body and you know what too many calorie does to the body.

Related: Eating For Your Health: The Dietary Guide For Nigerians

# VEGETABLES

Vegetables should form a large chunk of your diet. Whether you are trying to maintain your weight or not, vegetables are beneficial to everyone.

Our body need a certain amount of nutrients to perform optimally and vegetables are a great source of getting these vital nutrients. They are loaded with fiber and essential vitamins.

And if vegetables provide the biggest chunk of your daily meal, then counting calories isn't really a problem because veggies makes you feel full a lot quicker than other foods because of the huge amount of fiber in them.

There are numerous kinds of vegetables for you to try, and the best part is, you can never go wrong no matter which one you decide to eat.


# WHITE FLOUR

White flour is refined, it is mainly used in white bread, pasta and this flour is completely stripped of its fiber, nutrients during processing, it is more like an empty calorie.

This means, when consumed, they turn into fat without adding any substantial amount of nutrients to the body. they also spike sugar level in the blood a great deal.

I strongly recommend you drastically reduce the products made with white flour in your diet.


# WHOLE GRAIN

These are like the opposites of white flour. They can still be part of a healthy diet but the trick is to look for the grains that have been minimally processed (brown rice, brown bread, millet, etc). They can provide you with a good souce of fiber, minerals, B-vitamins and a whole lot of other nutrients that the white flour wouldn't provide you with.

And if you are on a weight loss plan, they are super replacement for the foods made with white flour because they can actually make you control your portion because you tend to get full quicker.


# DIARY PRODUCTS

Diary products are really one of the food class that stir up controversies. Should we drink milk or not? Different people have different answers. But here is the thing, if you are going to eat diary product which I recommend you do, go for the healthy products.

If you are lucky enough to get the chance to choose, go for 'grass fed'. You want to make sure the cows making the milk are eating their natural diets too right? Sure!

Also and this is important, a lot of people go for the skimmed milk diary products, not good! Go for the full fat version because the fat actually makes it easier for the body to digest the diary product you are eating.


NUTS & SEEDS

Very briefly on this one, nuts and seeds are loaded with fiber, protein, minerals and healthy fat which are all important to helping us function optimally. You can use nuts and seeds for snacking.


# MEAT

People love meat, that's a fact! Should I eat meat or not? It is a very controversial question when it comes to diet, weight loss and nutrition. But from a health point, research has shown that eating a lot of red and processed meat has been linked to heart disease.

To be frank, I am struggling here because I'm also confused as to the best eating habit when it comes to meat. But I don't eat red meat, now I am not asking you to do the same but if you must eat meat, I recommend you don't over indulge in it.

Just to add, meat that have been cooked at an extremely high temperature such as 'SUYA' has some health concerns. Acrylamide is a cancer causing chemical that is produced when ever foods are cooked at those high temperatures.

So make a wise decision. That's it guys. Feel free to leave comments below. Stay fab!

Source: http://www.slimandbold.com/2017/07/what-to-eat-basic-nutrition-diet-tips.html