1.2. The diet
The body needs many different type of food to obtain all the nutrients necessary to keep a well-balanced state. We call DIET to the amount and type of food that we consume everyday. The diet could be healthy or not and, in this case, probably will cause illnesses.
It is necessary understand there is not a unique diet for everyone. The diet depends on factors as age, sex, physical activity... But in all cases should have a well-balanced diet.
A well-balanced diet have to give to our organism the amount of energy necessary and all the essential nutrients according to our lifestyle.
There are graphics and im
ages that show the average healthy diet and they can be useful as a rule in the diary life.
In this image you can see the proportion of each type of food in the diet but, remember, it is only a useful guide about diet and it is possible you need other type of diet.
In this video you can see how much sugar contains a tin of coke. Do you think this could be a good food in your diet?
It is interesting
Mediterranean diet was recognized by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage in November 2010. It is the typical diet of Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece.
The principal aspects of this diet is the low consumption of olive oil -as the principal source of fats-, high consumption of legumes, unrefined cereals, fruits and vegetables, moderate consumption of milk and dairy products, fish and wine and low consumption of red meat and eggs.
Don't forget that wine contains alcohol and its consume is illegal to underage people.
The new food wheel is a classification of food into different groups depending on their functions in the organism and the type of nutrients that they give to it.
- Food is classified into six groups.
- The colours show the function of each type of food: yellow for energetic function, red for building function and green for regulating function.
- A bigger a group is, more important in the diet it will be.
- In the same group, smaller images represent less amount of those foods in the diet.
- Water and exercise are included because they are very important for a healthy life.
A well-balanced diet has to:
- Mix food of all groups of the food wheel, but in the correct amount.
- Give us just the necessary energy according to our lifestyle.
- Use olive oil and oily fish as sources of fats.
- Contains less than 40% of proteins in the diet.
- Include enough fibre.
Think about it
Imagine you have to decide which breakfast is better for your family:
a) Continental breakfast. Normally it is composed by coffee,tea or fruit juices, slices of cheese and cold meat, pastries, cereals and fruit.
b) Mediterranean breakfast. Composed by a toast with olive oil and tomato (sometimes with some slices of ham) and coffee.