It is a well-known fact shared across the board by health gurus, fitness conscious, as well as across the medical and scientific fields that eating healthy can dramatically help you to be healthier and live longer.  It does not matter which way you chose to put it, whether it is what you put in is what you get out or what you sow you will reap, or we are what we eat. The reality is that eating a balanced diet has huge, often life-saving benefits. What are the benefits of a balanced diet and how can eating healthy help you?

Improving chronic disease

The correlation between chronic disease and nutrition has been a hot topic. As we are stretching our resources to cater for the ever-increasing population by introducing genetically modified foods into our diets, spiced with fertilizers and other chemicals to manipulate faster growth and bigger yields, we have seen a huge rise in chronic diseases such as cancer, type 2-diabetes and cardiovascular disease. According to the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, the prevalence of chronic disease linked to diet and lifestyle is on the increase. We know that it is not only our food supplies that are being stretched. Our busy lifestyles having to work long hours that leaves us short on time for nutritious food shopping and wholesome home preparation also adds a strain to being able to provide ourselves with nourishing meals.  There are some great solutions to this such as making use of organic meals delivered to your home to help you eat balanced and healthy.

Preventing osteoporosis

Osteoporosis is a condition where the bones become brittle and fragile to the point where even a minor bump will cause a break. It is directly linked to the deficiency in dietary calcium and lack of vitamin D. Unfortunately there are often no symptoms until it is too late. Losing some amount of bone mass is inevitable with normal ageing, but there are definite steps you can take to keep your bones as healthy as possible, even when in old age.  The importance of eating healthy foods every day will affect your bones as keeping up sufficient calcium levels will help to maintain a healthy bone mass.

Increasing immunity

Immunity is not something we think about every day until we are too weak to take on our daily responsibilities.  There is a complex relationship between eating healthy and having a strong immune system. Let us put aside contributors such as alcohol, smoking, environment and no exercise and the effect they have on breaking down our immunity. Dietary intake still plays by far the largest role in immunity and though the previously mentioned contributors are important, not having a healthy diet adversely affects your immunity ability.  Immunity has everything to do with fighting off infections and illnesses and if you have a good backup of vitamins and minerals in store, you will not have an impaired immune function. Eating a balanced diet will help your body to fight diseases instead of having to fight to stay healthy.

Delayed ageing

As our bodies age, we lose bone mass and skeletal muscle mass.  Many individuals also struggle with cognitive changes that gradually set in.  Diminished brain function, Alzheimer’s disease and dementia are all very real struggles for the increased ageing population. We cannot stop getting old, we might slow it down a bit, but we can certainly take steps to make sure we do not bring forward ageing faster.  By modifying your lifestyle through eating healthy you will live better for longer. Research has shown that eating healthy can indeed slow down the ageing process, which is only one of the many benefits of a balanced diet. Ditch the sugar, drink more water and remember it is important to eat healthy.

Correcting metabolic imbalances and obesity

You cannot run any mechanism successfully with the wrong fuel.  This also holds true for our wonderful, but complex bodies. With continued unhealthy diets, our body chemistry eventually goes out of balance and this creates a whole set of other problems.  Doctors believe there are ten different imbalances and have divided them up into five pairs. Not surprising, nutrition is used to correct metabolic imbalances.

Acid and alkaline imbalances are two of the easiest to understand.

Acid imbalance can vary from too much acid and too little alkali to too much alkali and too little acid. The result is poor digestion, joint pain, allergies and fatigue.

Benefits of healthy food mean that correcting metabolic imbalances usually results in major health improvement.  It also addresses obesity as a balanced body are able to cope with digestive problems, blood sugar levels, insomnia and other health problems contributing to not being able to lose weight.

It is easy to see the benefits of a balanced diet and that you have everything to gain from the benefits of healthy food.