You are what you eat. How does eating meals right benefit your health?

Do you have a balanced diet? Nutritionist (营养学家) Lambert believes it’s more important what you eat than when you eat. “Your nutrition has more meaning than a time schedule or a number of meals. The foods you choose to consume (摄入) will have an effect on your whole health,” she says. A balanced diet, Lambert adds, should include a handful of carbs (for example, rice, pasta), an outstretched handful of protein (chicken, tofu), two handfuls of vegetable, and a thumb-sized part of fat (olive oil for cooking), but how many meals you choose to eat and their size depend on personal preference, lifestyle, and health goals. If, for example, someone wants to lose weight and sits all the time in the evening, Lambert suggests that a smaller part at dinner than lunch would make sense.

When did you last eat? “Timing is a key factor,” says Hyde, nutritional therapist. “Looking at the best times to eat can not only help you control weight, but also reduce inflammation (炎症) and help you sleep better.” Intermittent (间歇性的) fasting (禁食) has become popular over the years, meaning that you can consume food within a 10-hour time window and fast for 14 hours overnight. Then, consider the time between your last bite and going to sleep. Another nutritionist Mark says, “You should stop eating two hours before going to bed.” Different lifestyles can make this difficult. If you’re getting home late, and therefore don’t have that two-hour window before bed, Mark suggests a smaller, lighter dinner, such as a bowl of soup.

The sounds you make while chewing (咀嚼) have an important effect on the amount of food you eat, a new study has found. Researchers carried out an experiment, and the results suggest that people are likely to consume less if they can hear themselves eating. So Elder said, “Chew each mouthful, enjoy it and think of the taste, then you will start to realize when you’re full. So take your time and you won’t have chocolate afterwards.”

In a word, whether you try to control the food you eat or the time you eat it, you should choose the most suitable eating style that can continue, rather than it being an instant return.

“An apple a day keeps the doctor away.” Similarly, if we drink a little more water every day, we may find that we need to go to the doctor less often. A healthy diet is made up of water and different kinds of foods. We know that healthy foods like fruits, vegetables and fish, are important as they offer energy and fiber, without giving us much fat and sugar. But why is water important?

The human body needs water to survive. Water is important as it carries poisons and waste out of our bodies. However, doctors advise us to drink plenty of water, much more than the small amount we need to stay alive.

Some doctors believe that water is important for health in all kinds of ways. They believe that many illnesses and health problems appear as a result of dehydration—a lack of water. Most people are dehydrated at least some of time, although they probably don’t know it. It is surprising to learn that if we feel thirsty, we are already in the first stages of dehydration. In fact, we are advised to drink water before we feel thirsty.

These doctors think that health problems such as headaches, high blood pressure could be helped if people drink more water. They also believe that drinking more water can help people who are fat. Water contains no calories so it will not make us gain weight. If we drink water, we will probably drink less sugary soft drinks. Doctors also believe that drinking more water may stop people from overeating. They say that many people think that they are hungry when they are, in fact, thirsty. Doctors suggest, therefore, that we eat less food and drink more water.

There are still many health problems that cannot be solved by drinking water, so we should not stop going to see the doctors completely.

Some foods, like fruits, are naturally sweet. Other foods and drinks are sweet because sugar is added to them. Sugar-sweetened foods and drinks have lots of extra calories (卡路里) but no added nutrients (营养物) .

Some of the most common sources (来源) of added sugars include

●sugar-sweetened drinks, especially sodas, energy drinks, coffee and tea, and juices with added sugars

●desserts like ice cream, sweet snacks, and candy

Less than 10% of your daily calories should come from added sugars. For example, if you take in 2,000 calories a day, fewer than 200 of those calories should come from added sugars. One can of soda often has 150 calories from sugar!

Tips for cutting down added sugars include

●reaching for an apple, banana, grapes, or other fruit instead of a candy.

●limiting or not adding any sugar to foods and drinks.

●avoiding or cutting down flavored (风味) coffees, teas, sodas, milkshakes, and other drinks sweetened with sugar, which are sold in many coffee shops and fast-food restaurants.

●choosing foods and drinks low in added sugars. You can check the amount (量) of added sugars in packaged foods by reading the Nutrition Facts label(营养成分表) (see example in Picture 1).