HEALTHIEST FOODS

Majority of the foods our planet offer provides at least several of the nutrients our bodies require. These foods constitute the World's Healthiest Foods and they are the common "everyday" foods. These include the fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts and seeds, lean meats, fish, olive oil, herbs and spices that are familiar to most people.

Many foods that are exceptionally nutritious are not readily available in different areas. The World's Healthiest Foods are foods that the majority people can easily find at their local market. These foods are also not only familiar and available to the people, but are affordable, while retaining their freshness and great taste.

The World's Healthiest Foods have been selected because they are among the richest sources of many of the essential nutrients needed for optimal healthy. These Foods are also whole foods complete with all their rich natural endowment of nutrients. These foods have not been highly processed and they do not contain synthetic, artificial or irradiated ingredients. Purchasing "Organically Grown" foods is a highly recommended healthier way of eating, since they not only promote your health, but also the health of our planet.

NUTRIENT DENSITY

Nutrient density is the concept used to determine the foods that have the highest nutritional value. Nutrient density is a measure of the amount of nutrients a food contains in comparison to the number of calories. A food is said to be more nutrient dense when the level of nutrients it contains is high in relationship to the number of calories the food contains. Eating the World's Healthiest Foods, provides an individual with all the essential nutrients that he requires for excellent health, including vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients, essential fatty acids, fiber and more for the least number of calories.

HEART FRIENDLY DIETS

The human heart remains one of the important organs found in the body and its operation is greatly affected by the quality of food that is taken into the body. If you want your heart to remain strong and able to continue to perform its basic function of pumping blood efficiently throughout the entire body, it is important that you eat healthy and heart friendly diets always. The right choice of heart friendly foods can help an individual prevent attack of heart diseases.

CHOLESTEROL INTAKE

When it comes to eating heart-healthy foods, Cholesterol is the most important thing to consider. Cholesterols are of two types; good cholesterol and bad cholesterol. Good cholesterols are called HDL, and their job in the body is to take excess bad cholesterol LDL (low-density lipoproteins) to the liver, where it can be broken down and eventually eliminated from the body.

The human body makes enough of LDL on its own and so do not require additional LDL derived from food. It is these excess LDL cholesterol that hurts the heart. HDL cholesterol on the other hand helps the heart by reducing the amount of LDL cholesterol in the body. As the name goes, this substance has a low density, and hence does not flow through the blood stream as readily as it should. The red blood cells easily release the LDL cholesterol which then sticks to the walls of the blood vessels, especially in the arteries leading to the heart.

This is bad for a number of reasons:

1. As the LDL cholesterol builds up on your arteries, the artery becomes smaller, hereby reducing the amount of blood that can fit through at a time.

2. The heart then works extra hard to pump the same amount of blood through the body, making the heart tired and weaker over time.

3. In the worst-case scenario, the blood vessel becomes so built up with LDL cholesterol that the artery could close completely.

4. You can also have a heart attack from LDL cholesterol build up if a piece of the build-up, called plaque, breaks off and floats down the blood stream.

5. If the piece of plaque travels to the brain instead of the heart, it will cause a blockage in this area of the body, which in turn causes a stroke.

It is simply important therefore, to cut out of your diet the foods high in cholesterol so that you can prevent heart disease and other problems in the body.

YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT

If you eat unhealthy foods you are prone to be an unhealthy person. The foods we ingest are extremely important to our ability to grow, maintain function, and prevent illness. Healthy eating is important from the day we are born. As a child, we grow quite rapidly and this is due in part to the foods we eat. Foods all contain nutrients that provide us not only with fuel to live our daily lives, but also with the very substances that build our bones, muscles, and organ tissues. If you don’t eat healthy foods, you will find that you are storing more fat that necessary or that you aren’t getting enough and you feel sluggish or weak.