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World Health Organization had further updated on the above topic in April 2020.
By Mahmood Hussain, Wednesday 13thOctober 2021, the article is written for www.babyfirst.com.pk BABY FIRST PAKISTAN and on Facebook.babyfirstPakistan, and other social media such as LinkedIn, Twitter, and so on. Writer Mahmood Hussain is from Karachi, Pakistan. Currently, I am in New Haven, Connecticut, USA. Staying with my son and his family. They are associated with YALE University
Below are the critical facts in this regard.
- Eating a healthy diet will help us to guard ourselves against malnutrition in any form.
- It protects us from Non Communicable Diseases (NCDs), referred to as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, stroke, and cancer.
- If we consume unhealthy food and the least or no physical activity, these lead to global health risks.
- Daily consuming energy intake to be in balance along with energy spending. We need to avoid unhealthy weight gain. Intake of total fat in our diet should be less than 30% of total energy intake. Saturated fats intake to be less than 10% of total energy. Trans-fat to be less than 1% of the daily consumption.
- Check your daily sugars intake; it should be less than 10% of your energy intake for having a healthy diet. If we are looking for further reduction of sugar to 5% to our total energy in daily take, which will lead to additional health benefits.
- Daily salt intake needs to be watched and controlled. It should be 5 g or less per day, equivalent to 2g sodium per day. If we manage it carefully, it will prevent adults’ from high blood pressure and reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and stroke.
- Follow the guidelines and practices for a healthy diet from the early stage of life. In females breastfeeding nurture and raises healthy growth for both the mother and baby.
- Eating of healthy diet improves cognitive development, which means mental health. It will help us have long-term benefits, and it will reduce the risk of weight gain and maybe fall into the category of obese. Delay in the life of having Non-Communicable Disease (NCDs)
WHO further stresses two things agreed by the member countries to reduce salt intake by 30% by 2025. They further decided to decline the incidence of diabetes and obesity among adults and children with stress on overweight adolescent children by 2025.
Healthy diet for adults. It includes the following that is fruits, vegetables, lentils/beans, whole grain & nuts.
400g is five portions of fruits and vegetables to be taken per day, excluding potatoes, sweet potatoes, and the number of starchy roots.
Free sugars mean all sugars added in the food or drinks in packed consumed by the individual. The sugars are naturally available in honey, fruit juices, syrup, and fruit juice concentrate.
Nearly or less than 30% of total energy intake is from fats. Unsaturated fats found in fish, nuts, sunflower, soya bean, canola, and olive oil are better and desirable to saturate fats which is available in fatty meat, butter and oil such as palm and coconut oil, cream, cheese, ghee and butter. All kind of trans-fats which include both industrial produce and pre-packed snack and foods. It is advisable intake of saturated fats to be reduce to less than 10% and trans-fats less than 1% of the energy intake per day. Industrial produce trans-fats not to be the part of healthy diet and to keep yourself away from it.
Healthy diets ingredients for baby.
This include infants, children and adolescent.
During first two year of child’s life. Right and needed amount of nutrition nurtures, healthy growth and it improves mental development. This will also lead to manage weight control, it reduces chances of being overweight and later this may lead to obesity. Chances of developing Non Communicable Disease (NCD) in later part of the life.
Information and guidance on infants and children healthy diet is resemblance to that of adult. A cautious advice to be exercise and is important to follow, which are mentioned below:
Neonates and infants should be exclusively breast fed for the first six months.
Infants later on should be continuously breast fed till attain age of two years. After six month the breast feeding may be supplemented with solid foods which is full fill its growth need, it should be safe and having right nutrients in foods. Avoid adding salt and sugar in complementary foods given to child.
Guidance and information on taking regular healthy diet.
This comprise of fruits and vegetables, daily intake to be minimum of 400gram or five portion of fruit and vegetable each day. This will lead to healthy life and reduce chances of NCDs, This will help for adequate intake fiber in the diet.
The intake of fruits and vegetable can be enhance by:
Make sure to include vegetable in the meals.
As starter of meal you can have raw vegetable and later eat fresh fruits as snack.
Look and to have seasonal fresh variety of vegetables and fruits to eat.
The outlook for Fats consumption.
We need to work out to reduce the amount of total fat consumption and it should be less than 30% of total energy consume per day. This control will help in preventing individual to be overweight and obese among the adults (18years and onward). It will lower the chances of NCDs.
A cautious to be exercise in regard to intake of saturated fat and trans-fat which are industrially produced, it can controlled and reduce by:
Food to eat can be cooked by steam or boiling instead of frying.
We have to find substitute for butter, ghee and margarine such as oils which is rich in polyunsaturated fats for example soybean, corn, canola and sunflower oil.
Consuming reduced fat, dairy foods and lean meats which will be reducing fat from the meat. It is needed to avoid or limit the consumption fried and baked foods, bakery and prepackaged snacks such as Samosa, cupcake, cookie, doughnut, biscuit, pizza slices, petties, biscuit, pastries and more bakery items available at shop. These item are rich in rich in trans-fats
Mahmood Hussain writes this article for the Baby First website, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and other social and digital media
