A healthy and balanced diet is essential for our body.
But, are you getting it right?
Keeping the body healthy is one of the largest daily struggles of one's life.
It is important that our diets be in balance so that we have energy, look our best, and stay at our healthiest.
Here are just 10 signs that prove your diet has a lack of nutrients and is not a healthy diet.
1. Normal Weight Fluctuation
This may seem like an obvious sign, but it is an important one.
If you are having a noticeable weight gain or weight loss, it is probably a problem in your diet.
"The loss of weight could be less about what you’re eating, but more about how much you are eating. However, weight loss could also be a sign of a lack of necessary nutrients in your diet."
Weight gain, on the other hand, could be from eating too much, the simplest explanation, or it could, too, be caused by what you’re eating.
A heavy take of unhealthy fat, excessive calories, or too many carbs could cause an increase in weight gain.
A good way to combat this is to simply watch what is in what you eat and how much you eat.
2. Lack of Energy
The human body gets energy via food. The calories and carbohydrates consumed go through a process in the body and are converted into energy.
So what causes lack of energy?
If you are feeling tired, it could be because you are lacking some of the necessary nutrients.
The number of calories you should take in a day can depend on age, gender, and body type.
It is important to know how many calories you should take in a day and try to stay at about that number.
Another important nutrient that affects energy is protein. This is another source of energy, though lesser than carbs and calories.
Once a protein is in your body, it is put through a series of processes that turn the protein into amino acids, which are broken down further into fatty acids and glucose. These provide some, though not the majority, of energy to your body.
3. Low Libido
The reproductive system, like the rest of the human body, can be affected by our diet.
Some foods and diets can lower sex drive and even fertility levels. This is for a variety of reasons.
Some tie into a lack of energy, if there are a poor diet and a lack of energy, it can lead to simple exhaustion which naturally lowers human desire.
Another culprit can be high cholesterol. This can cause less blood flow to the reproductive organs in the body so they simply don’t work quite the way they should.
In addition, foods that are likely to have a lot of chemicals, such as in processed foods, are likely to lower fertility and libido because of hormonal imbalances.
4. Missing Food Groups
Another indicator of a poor diet isn’t a physical symptom at all.
Rather it comes from taking a look at the food you’re eating.
When you look at your diet, all of the Five Food Groups should be present. What do we actually call it a balanced diet?
These include: vegetables and beans, fruit, grains, milk and cheese, and finally a group including the lean meats as well as fish, poultry, eggs, tofu, nuts, and seeds.
If you look at your diet and not all of these groups are there, then your diet probably isn’t a balanced diet.
5. Drastic Changes in Appetite
Small fluctuations in appetite are normal. Some days you will naturally eat more and some days not much. However, being hungry all the time or never being hungry can be signs of problems in your diet.
A meal should leave you full. You should not constantly be feeling like you haven’t eaten.
A good way to fix this is to eat more proteins such as meats rather than empty calories such as rice or starches and carbs such as cookies and cakes.
On the other hand, never feeling hungry is a problem as well.
One reason that can cause this is a low carb diet which can cause ketosis, which is a state of metabolism when the body tries to run off fat for energy rather than carbs.
While some diets would call this state advantageous, it can be dangerous too.
6. Unhealthy Skin
An unhealthy diet can lead to an unhealthy skin. This can be characterized by an increase in acne or even a pale complexion on your face.
For example, fats aid in skin growth. Without the right amount of these in your diet, you could experience a problem with your skin and even problems with your hair.
Another example is a lack of vitamins.
Vitamin C, vitamin E, and vitamin D all help with protecting skin and keeping it looking its best.
Minerals can also play a great role in skin nourishing. Zinc, for example, keeps up the pallor of skin. A deficiency in zinc can cause a discoloration to the skin.
7. Stomach Problems
It doesn’t seem like a hard conclusion to come to: if you don’t eat right, your stomach hurts.
However, the presence of symptoms such as gas, constipation, or diarrhea, can be more than just an allergic reaction to something you ate.
Some foods are simply hard to digest or have something in them that irritates the stomach.
For example, nuts take a while to digest, which causes gas and bloating, while also containing tannins, which bother the stomach lining, making you sick.
The best way around to these problems are to look at your diet for stomach irritating foods while keeping your own food sensitivities in mind.
8. You Get Sick a Lot
A poor diet can weaken your body and specifically, your immune system could take a hit.
This is important because your immune system is your main line of defense in not only not getting sick, but not getting worse once you are sick.
Diets that are high in fat, seem to bother the immune system.
However, cutting fat out entirely is not a good idea, the body needs everything in moderation, and in this case, it does need the presence of fatty acids.
Probiotics, which can be found in various foods including yogurt, also aid in immune health.
9. The Brain
A poor diet can also affect your mind. If you are having trouble keeping a thought or remembering things, your diet could be the culprit.
Studies show that the increase in mental activity and our diets revolve mostly around the consumption of fruit and vegetables.
The consumption of these foods can also aid in a more balanced and typically better mood.
Some studies even show that a good diet can ward off long-term diseases, like a likelihood of suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.
10. Menstruation Cramps
This particular thing only affects women.
An irregularity in your period, while a possibly an effect of several things, could be a dietary problem as well.
In example, a lack of the vitamins and minerals that a woman needs can cause not only irregularities in the periods itself but worsen premenstrual syndrome symptoms as well as make you feel worse on your period.
On the other hand, there are some who claim that eating certain foods on your period will lessen cramps.
Foods such as bananas are said to help with cramps and the potassium will help with bloating and how much water the body holds.
Conclusion
A healthy and balanced diet is essential for a healthy and fit body.
And what makes a healthy diet is not any secret now?
Get all the essential nutrients in your diet and reap the benefits.
How do you think about the above tips? Please share your thoughts and diets as well.
Article Updated On: 07.07.2017