“Health is wealth” is what we learned in our school days. But, it seems like most of us have forgotten about our true wealth. With our busy lifestyles, our food habits have deteriorated drastically. We have forgotten what healthy eating is all about!

Eating a balanced diet has umpteen benefits. These benefits are exceptional and long-term. That is why it is vital that we understand the benefits of eating healthy and the impact it has on our well-being. Read on to know what they are…

Top 15 Benefits Of Healthy Eating

1. Helps Lose Weight

Obesity and excess body weight are global health issues. Thankfully, healthy eating can help reduce this problem. Consuming more green vegetables, whole fruits, healthy fats (olive oil, fish oil, nuts, and seeds), lean protein (skinless chicken breast, fish, eggs, mushrooms, tofu, and lentils), and whole grains helps lower calorie intake, increase satiety, and lower BMI (1), (2), (3), (4).

Healthy eating also helps balance the hunger hormones, improves insulin sensitivity, and maintains normal thyroid function, which aids weight loss and helps you live a healthy life.

2. Helps Manage Diabetes

Type-2 diabetes affects millions of people worldwide, irrespective of age (5). Unhealthy eating habits, obesity, insulin resistance, and genetic factors may lead to diabetes type 2 (6).
Changing your eating habits and lifestyle can certainly help reduce the risk or type-2 diabetes and related complications. Avoid consuming sugary and junk foods. Eat healthy greens, beans, low-glycemic index foods, dark chocolate, and healthy snacks to keep your cravings and hunger pangs at bay (7).

3. Improves Heart Health

Excessive consumption of unhealthy foods, alcohol, and smoking leads to an unhealthy heart. The cholesterol and triglyceride levels rise and cause heart blockage, ultimately weakening the heart muscles. Eating healthily by including fresh green vegetables, fruits, fruit juices, and plant sources of protein in your diet, limiting the intake of meat, and avoiding junk food, animal fat, and sugary foods helps reduce cholesterol and improve heart health (8).

4. Decreases Cancer Risk

Cancer is the second leading cause of death worldwide (9). An unhealthy lifestyle and genetic factors can cause the cells in your body to divide exponentially, leading to abnormal cell functions (10).
Researchers have found that consuming organic and unprocessed foods is the best way to keep cancer at bay. There are certain foods that have nutrients that may inhibit cancer progression. These include berries, watermelon, broccoli, cabbage, tomato, garlic, turmeric, ginger, and leafy greens (11).

5. Increases Immunity

A healthy immune system helps keep infectious diseases, autoimmune diseases, and the common flu at bay. It aids faster recovery and healing. Consume foods that are loaded with antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals.
Eating healthy foods like blueberries, strawberries, oranges, grapefruit, leafy greens, carrot, tomato, cheese, milk, fatty fish, herbs, and spices help improve your immunity (12).

6. Boosts Brain Health

Healthy eating boosts brain health and elevates your mood. Foods loaded with omega-3 fatty acids (olive oil, fatty fish, fish oil, nuts, and seeds) help maintain the cell membrane and normal brain function and facilitate synaptic plasticity. These foods are used as “diet therapy” for people suffering from dyslexia, attention deficit disorders, schizophrenia, depression, and bipolar disorder (13).

7. Improves Digestion

Vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and probiotics are essential for maintaining good gut health and improving digestion. Dietary fiber is found in fruits and vegetables. Dietary fiber cannot be digested by humans, but the good gut bacteria ferment it, which helps them thrive and survive (14).

Dietary fiber also adds bulk to the stool and improves bowel movement, thereby reducing constipation (15).

Probiotics like yogurt, buttermilk, kimchi, probiotic drinks, and sauerkraut help add more good gut bacteria, which, in turn, help improve digestion (16).

8. Strengthens Teeth And Bones

Eating healthy also helps strengthen bones and teeth. Fish, milk, tofu, soy, leafy greens (except spinach), oranges, soaked beans, and nuts are a great source of calcium. You must also get morning sun or eat egg yolks, liver, and saltwater fish for vitamin D (17).

9. Delays Aging

Eating healthy foods has a direct impact on how fast you age. Fresh greens, fruits, lean protein, fatty fish, whole grains, green tea, herbs, and spices are loaded with antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, and omega-3 fatty acids that help flush out the harmful free oxygen radicals from the body. This, in turn, helps maintain the DNA structure and slow down the aging process (18).

10. Improves Skin Health

Unhealthy oily junk food leads to breakouts and acne. The key to getting healthy skin is drinking water, green tea, and coconut water and eating fruits, vegetables, fatty fish, nuts, seeds, and whole grains (19).

Consume foods loaded with vitamin A, C, D, and E and omega-3 fatty acids, and avoid trans fats and sugary foods. Also, maintain good hygiene, and you will start to see an improvement in your skin.

11. Reduces Stress

Vegetables and fruits are loaded with antioxidants. Antioxidants help reduce oxidative stress in the body, thereby reducing inflammation (20). Unhealthy foods do just the opposite. They have no nutritional value, and the trans fats and high sugar increase inflammation in the body, leading to an increase in oxidative stress (21), (22).
Avoid eating heavy, unhealthy, fat-loaded foods. In the long run, eating light and healthy foods is the best solution to physical and mental stress.

12. Improves Sleep Quality

Healthy eating also helps improve sleep quality. Late-night snacking on junk food or ice cream, having dinner at an odd time, and consuming oily and heavy foods disrupt the normal biological cycle. This increases the chances of obesity and metabolic syndrome (23). It leads to poor digestion and concentration and leaves you feeling uneasy.
Eating healthy and at least three hours before you go to bed aids digestion, lowers stress, and helps you get sound sleep.

13. Increases Productivity

Light and healthy food helps keep your energy levels high and your brain alert and makes you more active. This, in turn, helps increase your productivity (24). Try consuming superfoods that can help you lose weight, improve your energy levels, and keep your brain active.

14. Increases Longevity

Eating healthy has a direct correlation with living longer and your quality of life. Healthy foods decrease inflammation and reduce the risk of various diseases (25).

15. Good For The Environment

The less processed a food is, the less impact it has on the environment and climate. Eating organic, fresh vegetables, fruits, whole grains, plant proteins, farm-raised chicken and eggs, and wild-caught fish and avoiding dairy (as much as possible) is a smart way to contribute toward sustainability.

Conclusion 

Eating healthy has a number of health benefits. So, stop consuming unhealthy foods today and improve your life by choosing to eat healthy foods. You will not only get in shape but also feel mentally better and calmer. If you found this post helpful, click the smiley button on the right. Share it with a friend who needs a major intervention. Comment below if you have any questions. Take care!

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Charushila Biswas

Charushila Biswas is a Senior Content Writer and an ISSA Certified Fitness Nutritionist. She is an alumni of VIT University, Vellore and has worked on transgenic wheat as a part of her Masters dissertation from NRCPB (IARI), New Delhi. After completing her Masters, she developed a passion for nutrition and fitness, which are closely related to human psychology. And that prompted her to author a review article in 2015. She has written over 200 articles on Fitness and Nutrition. In her leisure time, Charushila loves to cook and enjoys mobile photography.