Fueling Your University Journey: A Guide to Balanced Nutrition
Nutrition is one aspect of living a healthy lifestyle. There is so much we know about how food impacts our body and our health AND, there’s still so much to learn!
There’s also so much information out there about what it means to “eat healthy” and it’s easy to get overwhelmed. Keeping it simple, here’s a few key tips to consider for planning balanced meals, and how to get the most from your daily food choices.
The Power of Nutrition for a Healthy Lifestyle
We now know that eating a wide variety of colourful, whole foods and fibres, feeds the gut and increases the diversity of our microbiome. This has been shown to impact how we feel day-to-day and is correlated with many things including mental health, metabolic health, body weight, skin health, immune health, energy levels, and more. We are seeing that the more variety we have on our plate, the more benefit we get from our foods. The take-home message here is to try new things; shop for fresh, minimally processed foods found on the outer aisles of the grocery store, cook at home as much as you can, and experiment with different foods, and flavours. Have some fun with colourful fruits and veggies, try a variety of proteins, and look for ways to incorporate whole grains, nuts and seeds.
In addition to variety, we that know that the macro nutrient content of foods plays a role in our individual health and performance. Macro nutrients are where calories are found in foods, and can come in the form of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. Generally speaking, a balanced diet, includes all of these nutrients on your plate throughout your meals and snacks, since each nutrient has its own specific and important role to play in our body. If you have diabetes, you may find that carbohydrates coming from fibrefull whole grains and starchy vegetables, have a better impact on blood sugar levels.
The Plate Method: A Simple Guide to Meal Planning
It’s true that different individuals have different needs, depending on their size, gender, age, activity level and goals. But, for most individuals, following the Plate Method is a good guide. The Plate Method provides a great portion visual for ensuring a balanced diet, which helps you meet your macro and micro nutrients needs to support your health, and the calories you need to fuel your day.
The “Plate Method” divides the plate into 3 parts: 1/4 plate protein foods, (ie. poultry, fish, tofu, eggs, greek yogurt);1/4 plate whole grains or starchy foods (ie. potatoes, rice, quinoa, oats, whole grain breads); and 1/2 the plate full of colourful fruits and veggies. Don’t forget to add a bit of heart healthy fats through fatty fish, nuts, seeds, avocado and plant based oils like olive oil. These provide great anti-inflammatory benefits and are great for your brain! Lastly, don’t forget to hydrate with water.
Enjoy Your Food and Fuel Your Future
Whether you have Diabetes or not, following these tips to maintain a balanced diet, optimizes energy through the day, helps to keep us full, allows our body to build and retain muscle and and correlates with long term health.
