Healthy Diet Menu

A healthy, well balanced diet is a must for everybody. Taking a balanced diet ensures that a person does not gain weight and thus, is least likely to suffer from any of the lifestyle diseases, like cancer, diabetes and heart diseases, which have become so wide spread today. A healthy diet is the one which provides the body with all the essential nutrients. Scroll down for some samples of healthy diet menu.

Healthy Diet Menu for Weight Loss

For those of you aiming to lose weight, the healthy diet plan menu should be designed in such a way that the number of calories consumed through food is lesser than the number of calories burned through exercises and other physical activities. That's why, high sugar foods as well as junk food are completely eliminated from this diet. Here is a healthy weight loss diet.

Breakfast
The breakfast should be the heaviest meal of the day so that the body has enough energy for carrying on various tasks throughout the day. Various breakfast options for weight loss are - cereals with low fat milk and fruit salad or hard boiled eggs/scrambled eggs with whole wheat toast and a weight loss shake. You may go to weight loss shake recipes. If coffee is a must have for you, replace the shake with decaffeinated coffee.

Lunch
For lunch, a salads made from low calorie foods like tomatoes, cucumbers, capsicum, lettuce leaves, olives with a low fat dressing should be taken along with boiled or grilled chicken. You can replace chicken with fish few times in a week. Also, the foods should be properly chewed so that they get digested easily.

Dinner
In a diet meal plan for weight loss, the dinner should be very light and consumed at least two hours before going to bed. The dinner can include a bowl of fruits and a whole wheat toast with a spoon of low fat butter on top.

Snacks
Snacks should be taken twice a day in between the meals to keep hunger at bay. Dry fruits such as pistachios and pine nuts, apples, non-fatty biscuits and lemon juice make for low calorie healthy snacks.

Healthy Diet Menu for Pregnancy

The pregnancy diet should be such that it keeps the pregnancy symptoms such as nausea, constipation, body pain, etc. at bay and at the same time provides enough nutrition for the healthy growth of the baby. A pregnant woman needs about three hundred more calories from healthy sources such as fruits, vegetables, lean meat, low fat diary foods and whole grains to achieve this. Given below is a plan for healthy diet during pregnancy.

Breakfast
A pregnant woman should start her day with crackers if she is feeling nauseated. For breakfast, she can opt for either of these - eggs, whole grain toast and orange juice or dairy based fruit smoothie with whole grain toast or whole grain cereals with low fat milk and banana.

Lunch
Options for lunch in pregnancy diet include - vegetable soup, whole grain bagel with hummus, fruit salad and sprouts or green leafy salad and whole wheat tortilla with a topping of black beans, cheese, salsa and corn.

Dinner
For dinner, a pregnant woman should opt for pork or grilled chicken, which are rich in proteins along with whole grain rice or pasta. Instead of a dessert, vegetable and fruit salad should be taken.

Snacks
Snacks should be such that they combine carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins and minerals. Low fat yogurt, banana, apples, dry fruits, dairy based fruit smoothies and wheat cereals make for healthy snacks during pregnancy.


Healthy Diet Menu for Men

Healthy diet is the one which fulfills the body's daily requirement in terms of calories, vitamins, minerals, nutrients, fats, proteins, carbohydrates and calcium. The following healthy balanced diet menu is designed to fulfill all these requirements.

Breakfast
For breakfast combine cereals with low fat milk, a cup of strawberries and a whole grain toast. Another option is to eat eggs with toast and some fruit juice.

Lunch
Vegetable salad made from broccoli, tomatoes, cucumber, cauliflower and lettuce leaves with an olive oil dressing should be combined with grass-fed beef and whole grain rolls. Another alternative is to eat grilled chicken with pita bread along with fruit and vegetable salad.

Dinner
Dinner should be light and nutritious. So, include cooked vegetables like spinach and asparagus, ground turkey and whole wheat pasta in the dinner menu. You may further refer to diets that work for men.

Snacks
Apples, dry fruits, walnuts, tofu, carrot sticks, whole grain crackers and pumpkin seeds make for healthy snacks, so either of these should be eaten twice a day.

All the above mentioned healthy diet menu plans should include beverages like water, green tea, natural fruit juices, to keep the body hydrated. Also, to increase the effectiveness of these diet plans, exercise every day!
By Aastha Dogra

Posted in: Diets