Your diet is a big part of who you are whether you think so or not. What you eat is a reflection of your lifestyle. A healthy diet benefits you by boosting immunity, improving brain functions, strengthening bones, muscles, and teeth, supporting digestive health, and many more amazing advantages. People think that to have a healthy diet you need to be a hardcore vegan and go on insane juice diets, when having a healthy diet consists of balance and variety.
The first step in developing healthy eating habits is eating the first meal of the day! As corny as it sounds, breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Breakfast means exactly what it sounds like, break-fast. When you wake up in the morning your body needs to be replenished with glucose and other nutrients. This is vital to your metabolism and energy for the whole day. A nutritious healthy breakfast includes a mix of whole grains, fruits, vegetables, protein, and healthy fats. An example of the perfect breakfast is a bowl of oatmeal with some fruit and peanut butter on top.
The next meal that will get you on the road to having a healthy diet is lunch. Lunch is important as a midday pick-me-up. When it comes to lunch you simply just need a balanced meal to take you through your day. An easy and classic lunch is a sandwich. Sandwiches provide carbs, proteins, fats, fibers, and sugars.
As you close out your day you need a meal to ensure your body will have the nutrients it needs to hold you over until the next morning, dinner. Dinner, like every other meal, should be balanced. There should be protein, grains, fruits, and vegetables. A healthy dinner idea is a grain bowl.
As mentioned, three meals is the ideal amount of meals to be healthy but many people ask, what about snacks? Snacks are important to maintaining healthy dietary routines, however, it’s what you snack on that is important. A healthy delicious snack is pita chips and hummus.
Now the moment we’ve all been waiting for…dessert. Everyone enjoys a sweet treat here and there, but will a sweet treat interfere with your health? The answer is yes! The key to a healthy dessert is not eating it every day and balancing how much sweets you eat. A small dessert portion will do just fine to satisfy your sweet tooth.
Diet is especially important for athletes. You have to make choices that will energize you for games and practices without eating too much. Coral Glades High School’s Clovens Challenger is a sophomore on the baseball team, he talks about healthy eating by saying “It’s important because “you are what you eat” as an athlete, what you eat can determine how you feel and perform, you can’t outperform a bad diet so if you wanna maximize your strength, recovery, and performance, you have to eat well” Junior Crystal Carreras also comments on healthy eating as a student-athlete. “It’s always important to eat healthy as an athlete, our body is a temple and it’s the most important thing to keep healthy. It’s also good so I can perform at my peak level”
Whether you are an athlete or just a regular high school student you truly are what you eat and implementing healthy dietary habits into your everyday life can impact your mind, body, and wellness.
