Two liters of water, seven slices of wholemeal bread and fruit and vegetables five times a day. Sounds hard, but with small tricks you can eat optimally. What nutrition experts recommend to us is virtually the ideal state to keep disease risks as low as possible: five times vegetables and fruit, 35 grams of fiber, two liters of fluid. Hardly manageable. It’s not so bad, either. Even if you stay below the bar, there’s a lot you can do for your health. What does that mean for our daily diet? Here are the five most popular dietary rules:
Five servings of fruits and vegetables
600 to 700 grams is recommended. If that is not always managed: Just 200 grams of fruits and vegetables daily, such as a peach and a small tomato salad, reduce heart risk by 60 percent.
Sea fish 2 x per week
Fish contains a lot of iodine, which we need for the thyroid gland. And the omega-3 fatty acids in fish are good for the arteries. But not even in northern Germany is so much fish eaten. It is important that women eat more unsaturated fatty acids and reduce the saturated ones. Anyone who saves just five percent of their daily calories in saturated fatty acids and replaces them with unsaturated ones reduces their heart risk by 30 percent. That means a good tablespoon of vegetable oil (e.g. olive, sunflower, safflower oil) more and 20 grams of butter or clarified butter less. And the iodine? It’s best to use iodized table salt.
Grain products several times a day
Whole-grain bread, pasta and rice, along with fruits and vegetables, provide the 30 to 35 grams of fiber that reduce our risk of colon cancer by up to 40 percent. But eat seven slices of bread or a kilo of apples every day? That’s not necessary; every gram more improves the situation. Tip: Make sure there’s variety – when watching TV, instead of half a bar of milk chocolate (zero fiber), simply nibble on 50 grams of dried fruit (5 grams of fiber).
Drink 1.5 to 2 liters of water daily
If a few times a week drink only one liter – is not bad, this amount is enough for everything in the body to work properly. However: as we get older, the body’s ability to retain water decreases. And when we move more (which we should) and then sweat more, we simply need more. It’s best to get used to drinking a large glass of water before meals. And, variety makes drinking easier: apple spritzer, fruit tea, mineral water with a dash of lemon juice or other flavors.
300 to 600 grams of meat and sausage per week.
Women can really relax now! They eat on average about 700 grams a week. This means that many of them are already on line. For the others and the men (over 1000 grams per week) applies: 100 grams more than the “allowed” amounts, increase the risk of heart disease by 150 percent. Therefore eat if possible also low-fat.
Week example: three small steaks / cutlets and three times lean cold cuts (turkey breast, aspic, ham). Or twice a thick steak and on the other days vegetarian – already man is in the green range.