We have long known what a balanced diet is. But do we understand in practice how to have a balanced diet? In this episode, you can understand how can you practically start having a balanced diet
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Speaker 1: In this episode, I will define what a balanced diet
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Speaker 1: really means and talk about practical tips for you to
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Speaker 1: start having a balanced diet.
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Speaker 1: Makara and welcome to the Stronger Men project. If you
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Speaker 1: want to be a better man, become a stronger fitter
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Speaker 1: and a better looking version of yourself and fulfil your
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Speaker 1: fullest potential in all areas of your life. You have
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Speaker 1: come to the right place. I'm also on the same journey.
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Speaker 1: I'm your host, a Desai, a mechanical engineer, turn fitness
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Speaker 1: coach and a gym owner. And here I'm going to
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Speaker 1: share my knowledge, experience and lessons and also bring on
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Speaker 1: experts and achievers who can help us all win together.
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Speaker 1: Get ready and let's dive into today's topic.
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Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure you know what is a balanced diet.
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Speaker 1: We all have learned it in our schools, but I
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Speaker 1: have seen many people do not understand what it means
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Speaker 1: or do not really care to think of it in
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Speaker 1: practical terms, partly because our school curriculum did not do
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Speaker 1: a good job of
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Speaker 1: teaching the practical application and partly because there are a
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Speaker 1: lot of different opinions and advices floating around us and
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Speaker 1: because of that people fall back to whatever their families
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Speaker 1: have been practising for a long time at home or
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Speaker 1: what their tongue demands. And believe me, that's the major
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Speaker 1: cause of problem of people being unfit and unhealthy.
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Speaker 1: Now let's begin by defining what is a balanced nutrition
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Speaker 1: in practical terms, by definition, a balanced diet is something
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Speaker 1: that fulfils all the necessities of our body to stay alive,
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Speaker 1: functional and healthy.
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Speaker 1: So what are these necessities? There are basically three necessities.
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Speaker 1: Necessity number one is energy. Energy is essential to stay alive.
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Speaker 1: Move around, do your day to day activity and exercise.
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Speaker 1: It comes from the macronutrients present in the food like carbohydrates,
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Speaker 1: fats and protein. And every day you spend some energy
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Speaker 1: to stay alive and do your day to day activity
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Speaker 1: and exercise, and you get it from your food,
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Speaker 1: and the food you're eating should meet this demand. Energy
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Speaker 1: is measured in terms of calories. Let's say you're spending
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Speaker 1: 2000 calories in a day. Those 2000 calories of energy
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Speaker 1: should come from your food. We can talk about this
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Speaker 1: topic in much more detail in another episode. Now let's
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Speaker 1: go to the second necessity. Second necessity is nutrients. Nutrients
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Speaker 1: are the raw materials for our body to function properly.
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Speaker 1: If your body is functioning properly, it means that your
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Speaker 1: body is healthy
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Speaker 1: and these nutrients are proteins, fats, micronutrients like vitamins, minerals
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Speaker 1: and trace metals, fibre and water.
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Speaker 1: Our body requires each of these nutrients daily in a
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Speaker 1: specific quantity to stay alive and function normally. We'll talk
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Speaker 1: about this more later in the episode,
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Speaker 1: and the next important necessity is pleasure. The feeling of
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Speaker 1: having a tasty and fulfilling meal. That is what I
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Speaker 1: mean by pleasure. We naturally gravitate towards eating more and
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Speaker 1: more food that we like, isn't it? We don't have
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Speaker 1: to learn it specially. It is innate and comes naturally
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Speaker 1: to everybody. The feeling of pleasure is necessary because we
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Speaker 1: are more likely to continue to eat the food we
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Speaker 1: like rather than the ones we don't like.
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Speaker 1: And the food we eat should not only be appropriate
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Speaker 1: to our energy and nutrient needs, but also it should
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Speaker 1: taste well so that we continue to eat it and
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Speaker 1: sustain it for a long period of time. And any
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Speaker 1: diet should take care of all these three necessities.
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Speaker 1: But the problem is that we heavily rely on the
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Speaker 1: taste and pleasure to choose what we eat, and most
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Speaker 1: of us are not well equipped to take care of
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Speaker 1: the other two necessities. And with the expansion of the
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Speaker 1: modern food industry, there are infinite options available to fulfil
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Speaker 1: this one necessity, but not necessarily all our nutritional needs.
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Speaker 1: Because almost all ready to eat items available in the
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Speaker 1: market are engineered to taste good and feel good. That
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Speaker 1: is what sells more. And since we don't really think
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Speaker 1: about the other two necessities when we are eating our
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Speaker 1: food and we mostly think about the taste and pleasure
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Speaker 1: we get from our food nowadays it is very, very
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Speaker 1: easy to eat a lot of food without taking care
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Speaker 1: of the other two necessities. And inevitably, what happens is
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Speaker 1: these food items are low in nutrition
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Speaker 1: and also, in most cases high in calorie. And that
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Speaker 1: is what is leading to obesity problem, coupled with the
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Speaker 1: fact that we are more and more sedentary in the
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Speaker 1: modern life. Having said that, let's get to the simple
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Speaker 1: practical framework to make your diet balanced.
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Speaker 1: Now imagine you have a plate filled with all the
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Speaker 1: food you need,
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Speaker 1: which is taking care of all these necessities. And let's
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Speaker 1: start looking at each item one by one.
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Speaker 1: The item number one and the highest priority is protein.
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Speaker 1: You get protein from vegetarian food options like pulses dairy,
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Speaker 1: which includes milk curd and yoghurt, Greek yoghurt, panir and
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Speaker 1: soya products like soya chunks, tofu and protein powders,
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Speaker 1: non vegetarian items like eggs, chicken, fish and seafood, and
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Speaker 1: other meats.
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Speaker 1: So the rule of thumb is the protein in your
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Speaker 1: plate should occupy 40% of the plate in volume, and
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Speaker 1: you have to make sure that 50% of that on
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Speaker 1: an average should come from low calorie food options like
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Speaker 1: Greek yoghurt, soya chunks, low fat tofu and paneer, protein powders,
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Speaker 1: egg whites, chicken breast, white fleshed fish and select free
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Speaker 1: food and lean meats. Because
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Speaker 1: we also have to take care of our calorie needs.
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Speaker 1: If you eat more calories, that means you will store
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Speaker 1: more fat and gain weight. We also have to take
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Speaker 1: care that we don't end up eating food items which
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Speaker 1: are very high in calorie.
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Speaker 1: So the second item on your plate is fats. Fats
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Speaker 1: come from the oils we use ghee, butter, nuts, coconuts,
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Speaker 1: avocado and oily seeds like flax seeds and chia seeds,
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Speaker 1: fish and seafood and most of the meats. I would
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Speaker 1: not give any percentage of place for this in the plate,
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Speaker 1: but you should keep in mind that fats are very
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Speaker 1: high in calorie and they have to be taken in moderation.
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Speaker 1: And if you're including these food items which I mentioned
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Speaker 1: in your food
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Speaker 1: and if you take it in moderate quantities, then you're fine.
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Speaker 1: The third item on your plate should be micronutrients and fibre,
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Speaker 1: and the food items which are rich in micronutrients are vegetables, fruits,
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Speaker 1: milk and, in general, having variety of food. Micronutrients include vitamins,
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Speaker 1: minerals and trace metals, which we need in very small quantities,
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Speaker 1: like in terms of milligrammes.
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Speaker 1: And these play a very, very important role in different
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Speaker 1: functions of our body. You need not really go deep
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Speaker 1: into this subject because you don't have time to do it.
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Speaker 1: Just make sure that on a daily basis you are
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Speaker 1: eating 2 to 3 varieties of vegetables and fruits of
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Speaker 1: different varieties by varieties. I mean colour size, shape and
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Speaker 1: seasonal vegetables and fruits, and you're also taking care of
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Speaker 1: other food items and having different variety in those areas.
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Speaker 1: Also
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Speaker 1: having vegetables, fruits and grains will also take care of fibre.
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Speaker 1: They contain a lot of fibre and your fibre needs
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Speaker 1: will be taken care of. The next item on your
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Speaker 1: plate should be carbohydrates. I'm bringing up carbohydrates in the
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Speaker 1: end because
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Speaker 1: in general, Indian food is very high in carbohydrates and
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Speaker 1: we don't really need to try hard to eat carbohydrates,
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Speaker 1: because that is what we eat most of the times.
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Speaker 1: But we have to make sure that we are eating
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Speaker 1: enough protein because more than 70% of Indians are deficient
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Speaker 1: in protein, meaning they don't even eat the recommended daily
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Speaker 1: allowance of 0.8 grammes per KG of body weight of
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Speaker 1: protein on a daily basis. That is why I put
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Speaker 1: carbohydrates in the end,
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Speaker 1: and the food items which provides carbohydrates are all the grains,
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Speaker 1: including cereals and pulses, fruits and starchy vegetables like potatoes
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Speaker 1: and sugar and Jagger. And once you fill your plate
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Speaker 1: with 40% of protein, you have to allocate 25% of
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Speaker 1: the space for micronutrients and 25% of the space for carbohydrates.
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Speaker 1: and we are left with
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Speaker 1: only 10% in the plate. And that is where the
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Speaker 1: fun foods come into picture, which are pizzas, burgers, charts, sweets,
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Speaker 1: snacks and baked items and all the packaged food items,
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Speaker 1: which you eat on a daily basis. Because, like I said,
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Speaker 1: pleasure is also an important necessity. And if you cut
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Speaker 1: out all these food items totally from your food,
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Speaker 1: you start craving those items and these foods are really
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Speaker 1: fun and really tasty, and you don't really need to
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Speaker 1: completely restrict yourself from eating these food items. You just
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Speaker 1: have to be mindful that it only forms a small
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Speaker 1: portion of your well balanced diet and there is no
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Speaker 1: harm in having some fun, right. And you also have
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Speaker 1: to make sure that the food you eat is also
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Speaker 1: made tasty.
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Speaker 1: You can use any seasoning and spices, and the way
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Speaker 1: you cook your food is also completely up to you.
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Speaker 1: You don't really need to make your food bland and
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Speaker 1: un tasty. To make it healthy, you can have all
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Speaker 1: these food items and also make it tasty as per
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Speaker 1: your needs. And that brings us to last, but not
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Speaker 1: the least and very important part of our nutrition. That
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Speaker 1: is water because we are made up of 60 to 70%
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Speaker 1: water and we keep losing water to the environment
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Speaker 1: through different ways, and you have to keep replenishing the water.
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Speaker 1: And if I give you a general recommendation, you should
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Speaker 1: drink somewhere between 2 to 4 litres of water on
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Speaker 1: a daily basis, and it changes from individual to individual,
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Speaker 1: and you can know if you're drinking enough water. If
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Speaker 1: you have these indicators in the right place, the first
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Speaker 1: thing is your urine colour
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Speaker 1: should be very pale yellow or almost clear as water.
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Speaker 1: The second thing is that you don't have any digestive
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Speaker 1: issues like gas and constipation. The third thing is that
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Speaker 1: you don't have excessive pimples and stuff like that.
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Speaker 1: So this is what makes a balanced diet in practical sense.
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Speaker 1: 40% of your plate should be protein, and out of
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Speaker 1: that 40% 50% should come from the low calorie options. 25%
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Speaker 1: of the plate should be micronutrients, which are vegetables and fruits,
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Speaker 1: and 25% of the plate should be carbohydrates, which are
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Speaker 1: mainly the grain based food like bread and chapati and
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Speaker 1: roti and most of our breakfast items. And you have
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Speaker 1: to allocate 10% to fun food items which you like
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Speaker 1: and which
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Speaker 1: makes you feel good. And don't forget to drink enough
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Speaker 1: water as simple as that. I hope this episode has
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Speaker 1: been informational and has helped you understand what is a
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Speaker 1: balanced diet, and you found the practical tips useful and implement.
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Speaker 1: And if you love this episode, I would highly recommend
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Speaker 1: you subscribe to this podcast and give me a rating
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Speaker 1: and review. It will really help me to reach more
00:11:00
Speaker 1: and more people and also get your feedback.
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Speaker 1: And if you're someone who wants to start your fitness
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Speaker 1: journey or if you're struggling in your fitness journey, you're
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Speaker 1: putting a lot of effort but not really getting the
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Speaker 1: results you're expecting. Then I can really help you by
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Speaker 1: coming on a free 30 minutes, 1 to 1 consultation
00:11:17
Speaker 1: where I'll answer all your questions and help you with
00:11:20
Speaker 1: strategies to overcome the challenges you
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Speaker 1: facing currently. And if we both feel we are a
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Speaker 1: good fit, we can also start a coaching relationship and
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Speaker 1: take your fitness to the next level How you can
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Speaker 1: do it is by clicking on the link, which I
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Speaker 1: have left in the description. Click on the link and
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Speaker 1: fill the Google form. And once you submit the Google form,
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Speaker 1: you will find a link to book a call with
00:11:40
Speaker 1: me on calendar,
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Speaker 1: where you can choose the date and time for the
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Speaker 1: call and I'll come on the call. And, like I promised,
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Speaker 1: I'll answer your questions and give you tips and strategies
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Speaker 1: to overcome your current challenges and also explain my coaching services.
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Speaker 1: And if you feel we both are suitable for each other,
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Speaker 1: then we can start off with the coaching journey.
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Speaker 1: And with that, we come to the end of this episode.
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Speaker 1: Thank you so much for tuning in today. I'll see
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Speaker 1: you in the next one. This is others always here
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Speaker 1: to help you become the best version of yourself.