Women and their eating habits

There are times in a woman’s life when she needs to takecare of her diet. During adolescence, the rate of growth in a girl is secondonly to that infancy. Her growth spurt usually begins and ends earlier than inboys, but it is not possible to predict when it will happen.

The greatest influence on a teenager’s diet is her peergroup. It is more difficult to have control over an adolescent’s choice offoods the way parents can when children are younger. Eating also becomes partof a social activity and family meals assume less importance. Most teenagegirls are very concerned about their shape and weight and as many as one girlin ten may try to control her weight by some means. This usually involves excluding nutritious foods such asbread, cereal and protein and filling up on empty calories – junk food in theform of snacks and soft drinks.

In pregnancy, your body is providing nutrition for bothyou and your baby. There are foodstuffs that you may not be able to tolerate,particularly during the first four months. This is an important time for thebaby and you need to eat well when you feel like it. The best idea is to snackoften with healthy foods. That way you will not feel uncomfortable and you’llbe well fed. Your medical advisers will suggest supplements with folic acid, iron,and calcium if this is necessary. Do not take supplements unless your doctoradvises.

One of the major problems for post-menopausal women is osteoporosis,which is the loss of protein from bones. Research has shown that osteoporosiscan be halted (not cured) by having hormone therapy. This does not mean thatevery woman needs hormone therapy, but if you get aches and pains in your bonesand muscles, backache and pins and needles in your hands and feet, go to yourdoctor to ask for a diagnosis. If your bones are beginning to look thin on X-ray,your doctor should consider hormone therapy. 

How to reduce cholesterol

Lose weight the easy way

Nutrition is the basis for everything related with weightloss. Eat three meals every day, forget about the sausages and French fries,limit the amount of sugar you use every day and start eating a lot ofvegetables, poultry and fruits. Also drink at least 2 litters of water everyday. And, you are allowed to snack in between – see more about snacking.

Stay away from junk or fast foods. If you eat a lot of junkand processed food, then you can forget about weight loss altogether. Thesefoods are very high in calories and will always cause weight gain. Keep a good stockof fresh fruit and vegetables.  Cookingyour own meals will really help you to stick to healthy foods. Limit yoursaturated fat and sugar intake to an absolute minimum.

Eat more frequently and in smaller portions: Eating largemeals infrequently will not serve you well when it comes to weight loss. If youwere to eat, let’s say 5 or 6 small meals each day, then your weight loss willproceed more efficiently. Each time you eat, your metabolism rises and thishelps your body with fat burning. It is total allowed to snack in between butremember to snack the right way!

Cut back on your calories but don’t deprive yourself. In thelong run, if you want to lose weight, your intake of calories must be less thanthe amount of calories you burn. Start out slow and decrease your calories by asmall amount every day.

The importance of exercising cannot be overemphasised.  Weight loss without exercise is extremelydifficult. Working out builds your muscle mass and speeds up your metabolism.When your muscle mass and metabolism are increasing, you will burn off muchmore fat. Try to increase your physical activity all throughout the day.

The key to weight loss is a change in attitude and onceaccepting it, dietary changes will not be a problem.

How to snack the right way

Dietary changes to help you lose weight