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A good first step is to picture a healthy plate. One half of the plate is for fruits and vegetables, and the other half is for proteins and healthy carb.
Whats your opinion?
A good first step is to picture a healthy plate. One half of the plate is for fruits and vegetables, and the other half is for proteins and healthy carb.
Whats your opinion?
The quick answer to the question is, “yes.” The truth is, we need all three every single day, and ideally at every single meal. Protein and carbs are more than a food group, they are actually macronutrients. Protein makes up a part of every cell in your body. It is a major part of the skin, muscles, organs, and glands. We need protein in our diets to help repair body cells, and make new ones. The primary function of carbohydrates in our diets is to provide energy for the body, especially the brain and the nervous system. While vegetables themselves aren’t a macronutrient, they do contain a little of each, (i.e. roughly 3 grams of protein and 5 grams of carbs per half cup).
So what makes vegetables stand out compared to protein and carbs? Vegetables are a huge provider of micronutrition to our diets, (i.e. vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, enzymes, phytonutrients, etc). Another thing that makes vegetables stand out is the teeny-tiny amount of calories they contribute to our diets. A serving of vegetables only has 25 calories. That’s why dietitians call them a “freebie,” meaning the calories are so low, we don’t even need to count them! Not too fast though—there is a category of vegetables called starchy vegetables, (i.e. potatoes, peas and corn). These vegetables have the carbohydrate equivalent of a slice of bread with roughly 80 calories.
So from my point of view, vegetables are the most important food group of any of them (bread/cereals, dairy, fruit, meats and fats). Science would seem to back me up as well. Back in 2011 the USDA launched My Plate, a visual icon to replace the more complicated Food Guide Pyramid. What jumps out about My Plate is that health experts are recommending that half of what we eat at each meal be composed of fruits and vegetables. So instead of counting how many servings we are having from the various six food groups, an easier approach is just to make sure half of our plate is full of fruits and vegetables. This way we can be assured that we are getting the nutrition we need, while keeping our calorie-intake on the lower side.
While proteins and carbs have their place in our diets, the priority needs to be vegetables. Final Answer: Fill your plate with vegetables, and you can’t go wrong.
What I have often noticed on the internet as well as in real life is that people do not understand exactly what the term "diet" means. Everyone thinks this is giving up all food and stuff like that. In fact, this is not the case because the diet includes all possible products, but all that is important is to know how to combine these foods correctly and when is the right time to consume them.
A good first step is to picture a healthy plate. One half of the plate is for fruits and vegetables, and the other half is for proteins and healthy carb.
Whats your opinion?
I think this is a good goal for everyone - no matter what they weigh. Everyone needs plenty of produce in their diet.
I get really annoyed that our culture is so focused on weight loss, and not as much on nutrient density and good health. If we decoupled this idea that "thin" (no matter what you eat or how you got there) from health, we could actually put in good systemic changes to make sure everyone eats well and gets in activity - because our society and environment makes it the easiest choice.
Everyone would benefit! And public health would improve. Health care costs would decrease.
But as long as we continue to think about weight as some individual marker of success or failure, we aren't willing to make the large scale changes that work for the greater good.
A good first step is to picture a healthy plate. One half of the plate is for fruits and vegetables, and the other half is for proteins and healthy carb.
Whats your opinion?
iirc, it's now recommended to have 10 servings of fruits and vegetables per day (UK) up from 5.
Juicing can help people get this if they want more servings.
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