A Balanced Diet for Good Health
There are many very good reasons to take a keen interest in what you eat, most of all opting for a balanced diet for good health, good looks and feeling great!
While a great many people in this world tend to only think of dieting along the lines of losing weight, the main function of a diet should always be for maintaining the best health possible.
The saying, "You are what you eat" is very apt.
The evidence for the need to adopt this concept on a wider basis is all around you if you care to look.
The healthiest looking people tend to be those who eat a healthy, balanced and nutritious diet, while the unhealthy looking ones tend to eat a poor diet, lacking in nutritious ingredients.
Poor diets are often primarily made up of junk or processed food. 
This kind of food may well be cheap to buy but it works out to be very expensive in the long term when it leads to those medical bills to try and put things right.
Healthy Needn't Mean Expensive
Of course, you can enjoy good health by eating a good diet that does not have to be expensive.
In fact, many fresh ingredients that your mother or grandmother used to buy to make home cooked meals are still far cheaper to buy than the proliferation of ready-to-eat, processed ready meals and ready prepared foods that you can buy in stores and supermarkets these days.
So why do so many people buy these foods when they cost more and are far less healthy?
The reason is that they are convenient. Busy moms don't have (or don't want to have) the time to spend preparing and cooking meals in their kitchens like moms used to in past generations.
In fact, a whole diet meal delivery industry has grown up around the obesity crisis currently gripping the western world to deal with junk food addicted overweight people that want to get slim again! Convenience is a very attractive concept, without doubt.
There are far more interesting things to do and in any case, why should they chain themselves to the kitchen stove like their grandmothers used to when there are all these great, easy to have ready meals that you can just buy in the frozen section of the supermarket?
Why indeed.
It seems like humanity has taken a mass dumbing down pill.
What is Added to Your Food?
Awareness of additives in food is growing slowly. But it only takes a quick glance down the list of ingredients in these ready meals and ready prepared items to see that they are generally laden with all kinds of artificial crap that cannot be good for anyone.
At the same time they are also low in nutrients and high in empty calories. That's thanks to the addition of sweetening agents like high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) or refined sugar, trans fats (hydrogenated vegetable oil) and all manner of unhealthy "E" numbers.
Sure, the food industry says that these additives are safe. Well of course they would!
But so far, while all the "E" number additives have been tested in isolation, they have NOT been tested when used together as they are in many popular foods. And some are dangerous even though the FDA in the US and the FSA in the UK have passed them as safe.
Flavor enhancers like monosodium glutamate (MSG) and artificial sweeteners like aspartame are not only widespread in all processed foods, they are widely accepted as being safe. They are not! Just google "dangers of aspartame" or "dangers of MSG" and see for yourself!
Processed Food is Bad for You
But the upshot of all this is that eating a diet predominantly made up of processed meals is unhealthy and your physiology will reflect that in the years to come. Oh yes, you probably won't notice any effects when you are young and relatively fit.
But as you get into your 30s and 40s, all that unhealthy eating will catch up with you. Not even one of those convenient home delivered diet programs like Nutrisystem or Jenny Craig for example, will save you from obesity and its related illnesses if you don't eat right to begin with.
You can avert many health conditions like arthritis, osteoporosis, heart disease, diabetes, asthma and a whole host of others simply by eating healthily from a young age. Moms should take note that they ought to give their children the best start in life.
They can do that by taking some time to prepare "real" food for them in home cooked meals made from fresh, wholesome ingredients that do not come in a packet, can or jar. Do that, even when the kids complain loudly and avoid taking the easy option of sticking a pizza in the microwave and serving it up with fries because that's the only thing they will eat.
Lead the Way
You can also lead by example and eat real home cooked meals made from fresh ingredients. Like real vegetables that you have to peel and cut up yourself (not the frozen ones), pick out lean meats, fish and all the foods that will chain you to that kitchen stove for maybe an hour a day.
Is your health and the health of your children worth that little hour?
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