Why We Eat Healthy

Eating healthy keeps you healthy. A well-balanced and nutritious diet can stave off disease and keep you living a longer, fuller life. According to the American Heart Association, 81 million Americans have been diagnosed with some form of cardiovascular disease. The progression of obesity, overweight, physical inactivity and an increasingly poor diet may be contributing to disease.

Weight Control

The amount of food and the calories you eat contribute to your weight. Controlling your weight matters because being overweight or obese contributes to the development of many diseases, such as diabetes, arthritis, metabolic disease, heart disease, stroke, sleep apnea, fatty liver, gallbladder disease and even cancer. The key to controlling your weight is eating foods in moderation and consuming only as many calories as your body needs. The USDA reports this amount may vary between 1,600 to 2,400 calories daily for women and 2,000 to 3,000 calories for men. Your calorie consumption depends on how physically active you are.

Cholesterol Control

Eating a diet high in fat and cholesterol contributes to rising cholesterol levels. More specifically, it is the saturated fats in your diet that directly affect your cholesterol levels. High cholesterol raises your risk of chronic conditions like heart disease. To reduce cholesterol, try to eat 7 percent or less of your calories as saturated fats and less than 200 mg of cholesterol per day.

Hypertension Prevention

The key to controlling your blood pressure through diet is limiting your sodium intake. When you eat too much sodium, your body must balance it out, so you retain water. Water retention increases the volume of your blood, which raises blood pressure. The USDA recommends limiting your sodium intake to no more than 2,300 mg per day. Less is better, so keeping sodium around 1,500 mg may be even more helpful for your condition.

Type 2 Diabetes Prevention

Type 2 diabetes is a condition in which your cells become unable to take in glucose from your blood. A resistance to the hormone insulin develops. This is a concern because insulin mediates the transport of glucose from the blood into the cells. Contributors to type 2 diabetes include high cholesterol, high blood pressure, uncontrolled blood glucose and being overweight. All of these factors can be affected by diet.