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Best Healthy Meal Plans

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Jun 16, 2022

Best Healthy Meal Plans

Best healthy meal plans

We all hear the term of healthy eating, clean eating and nutritious foods but have you ever think that do we implement such eating in our daily routine? Healthy eating is a broad term that emphasize on consumption of nutritious foods from all food groups of food pyramid. A healthy eating plan incorporates on the consumption of vegetables, fruits, whole-grain cereals, lean portions of meat and breads and fat-free or low-fat dairy products. There are many type of fad diets introduced in market that end up in extra weight gain.

healthy meal plans

 

In this guide, we will discuss some best healthy meal plans that will help you to maintain your weight in a normal body mass index.

  1. Flexitarian diet

The word flexitarian is a combination of two terms: Flexible and vegetarian. It was a term introduced by a dietitian Dawn Jackson Blatner in 2009 in his book named as The Flexitarian Diet. This Dietitian explained the fact that there is no need to eliminate all the sources of meat and meat-related products from diet. It is good and a healthy approach to include more vegetables in diet but we cannot totally skip meat and meat-related products. Eating more vegetarian diet and meat in appropriate amount has shown impactful results by improvement in the overall healthy, lower levels of heart diseases, diabetes and cancer.  

Working of a Flexitarian diet

Flexitarian diet emphasizes on incorporation of food items from all the five groups of a food pyramid. You should include non-meat proteins like beans, peas and eggs to compensate the protein value. Other than this, it is compulsory to add whole grain products from complex carbohydrates, low-fat dairy products and fats and oils from healthier choices. We cannot skip vegetables and fruits so there portion size should also be kept in mind.

  • You can follow a five-week meal plan that can provide you appropriate and economical food choices for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks with proper distribution of calories.
  • You can also follow a three-four-five calorie regimen for distribution of calories in the major meals. Your breakfast should include around 300 calories, lunch should include 400 calories and dinner must have 500 calories to meet the daily calorie requirements.

Pros and Cons of a flexitarian diet

  • Flexitarian diet is one of the most acceptable diet that everyone can follow easily. It has an acceptable amount of calories that can help to balance the weight according to the BMI. This diet has all the nutrients in them including the proteins, carbohydrates and fats.
  • This diet has flexible nature in it that it can compensate the calories and nutrient easily which everyone can follow.
  • There is wide choice of recipes in flexitarian diet. A person following this healthy diet can consume delicious and nutritious recipes on daily basis.
  • Flexitarian diet focus on home-cooking and includes all the food items that are economical and available at home.
  • This diet is sometimes difficult to follow if you are not a vegetable and fruits lover but once you develop the habit of consuming them, this diet will become the most favorite one of yours.

Flexitarian diet and weight loss

The question often arises that is flexitarian diet helpful in losing weight or not? Researches in 2020 claimed that a vegetarian diet emphasizes to consume fewer calories and helps in losing weight and to achieve a lower body mass index. Vegetables, fruits and complex carbohydrates are an excellent source of dietary fiber and are nutrient dense. These food items help to retain satiety levels and provide feeling of fullness. A person feels full for a longer period and tends to consume less calories.

With this calorie deficit diet and some physical activity, a person will shed few pounds in an effective way. Plant-based diet quickly keeps the weight track on pace and keeps the body mass index in normal amount.

 

  1. Mediterranean diet

Mediterranean diet is widely accepted diet all around the world especially among the people residing near the Mediterranean Sea. People over there have shown longer lifeline with less cases of cancer and cardiovascular ailments. They tend to follow a diet lower in red meat, sugar and saturated fat and place more focus on consuming complex carbohydrates, nuts and vegetables and fruits. Thus, it gave rise to Mediterranean diet that offers a lot of health benefits.

Mediterranean diet is helpful in weight loss strategies, heart and brain-related disorders, cancer and diabetes prevention and control in the other metabolic diseases. Mediterranean diet offers a consumer-friendly diet pyramid that includes the healthy guidelines about filling the plate with nutrients and lower calories for maintaining diet.

Pros and cons of Mediterranean diet

  • A Mediterranean diet is a balanced form of diet that offers an excellent amount of protein, carbohydrates and fats in appropriate amount. All the nutrients are divided into proper amount of calories into major and minor meals.
  • This diet sounds nutritionally adequate and offers nutrient-dense foods instead of calorie-dense foods. It has all the nutrients that can provide an extensive amount of macro and micronutrients.
  • This diet has diverse range of foods that can provide various food choices and recipes so that a person does not gets bored due to diet.
  • It is an economical diet that includes all the economical food items from food groups available easily in anyone’s kitchen.

 

Working of a Mediterranean diet

Mediterranean diet is a balanced eating pattern based diet that does not involves a fixed and structured diet. It has flexibility in its eating pattern that can help you to lose, gain or maintain your weight by proper distribution of calories for each meal. Mediterranean diet includes food items from food pyramid according to the restriction and allowed foods. This diet works by placing emphasis on eating fruits and vegetables along with complex carbohydrate sources like whole grain breads and cereals. Other than this, this diet includes the consumption of eggs, poultry, cheese and low-fat dairy products in moderation and the least allowed foods are red meat and sweets. A person can also enjoy alcohol according to their doctor’s recommendation with two glass for men and one glass for women.

  1. DASH diet

DASH stands for Dietary approaches to stop hypertension is a diet that is promoted by the National heart, lung and blood institute to stop the prevailing condition of hypertension in people all around the world. This diet place emphasize on consuming food items that are low in fat, oils and sodium. It is recommended to include food items that are rich in complex carbohydrates and dietary fiber. Moreover, food items that are high in potassium, calcium and protein leading to rise in blood pressure are kept lower in amount.

DASH diet is known to lower hypertension too much extent and other than this, it provides various health benefits such as:

  • Lower risk of cardiovascular diseases
  • Lower chances of stroke
  • Reduction in metabolic disorders like obesity and diabetes

Pros and cons of DASH diet

  • DASH diet provides all the necessary nutrients that are required by the body to maintain a healthy weight. It provides an acceptable amount of proteins, carbohydrates and fats according to daily caloric intake.
  • This diet is heart healthy as it has lower levels of sodium and potassium that are the leading cause of heart related disorders.
  • DASH diet is nutritionally adequate providing all the nutrients in the major and minor meals with healthier food choices divided among calories.

Working of DASH Diet

  • DASH diet works by distribution of calories and macronutrients in major and minor meals to make an adjustable and easy-to-follow diet plan.
  • It is recommended to include one or more servings of vegetables in every meal
  • Two or more servings of lean meat should be incorporated in the diet per week
  • Use the herbs and spices according to taste to remove blandness from foods but limit the intake of salt
  • A person can munch on nuts and seeds instead of a pack of chips
  • Switch the refined and white sources of carbohydrates with the complex carbohydrates that provide feeling of fullness
  • Take a 15-minute walk after lunch or dinner (or both).

 

 

SAMPLE MEAL PLAN

Pre-Breakfast

1 medium-sized grapefruit

Breakfast

ü  Two poached eggs

ü  Two slice whole-wheat bread

ü  One cup low-fat milk

ü  One cup herbal tea

Mid-day snacks

ü  1 medium-sized banana

ü  One cup plain yogurt

Lunch

ü  6-ounce roasted chicken breast

ü  1 cup garden salad (tomato, onions, croutons, oil and vinegar or salad dressing)

Afternoon snacks

ü  One cup sliced carrots

ü  Three tablespoon hummus

ü  1-half piece pita bread

ü  One cup herbal tea

Dinner

ü  One cup brown rice

ü  One cup mixed vegetables with steamed beef

ü  One cup mixed salad with dressing

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