Diet - A key to healthy living

Food

Yes! Food and eating habits are definitely the key to healthy life.
You should always try to have a balanced diet with lots of fruits, vegetables and grains. Without going to extremes (not everyone wants to become vegetarian) try to avoid fatty foods, sauces, and fat meats. Learn what are the foods that are good for your body. The below USDA food pyramid is a very good reference for balanced diet. The Food Guide Pyramid is one way for people to understand how to eat healthy. A rainbow of colored, vertical stripes represents the five food groups plus fats and oils.

Here's what the colors stand for: orange - grains, green - vegetables, red - fruits;
yellow - fats and oils, blue - milk and dairy products, purple - meat, beans, fish, and nuts.

What the Pyramid says
Let's look at some of the other messages this new symbol is trying to send:

Eat a variety of foods. A balanced diet is one that includes all the food groups. In other words, have foods from every color, every day. Eat less of some foods, and more of others. You can see that the bands for meat and protein (purple) and oils (yellow) are thinner than the others. That's because you need less of those kinds of foods than you do of fruits, vegetables, grains, and dairy foods. You also can see the bands start out wider and get thinner as they approach the top. That's designed to show you that not all foods are created equal, even within a healthy food group like fruit.

Additional tips

Drink lots of water
Nothing quells the appetite like water, lots of water. Yes, you will have to make more frequent bathroom trips, but it is worth it. Drink water before dinner, if possible, so you're not up half the night going to the bathroom. Water is good for weight loss; it not only fills you up and lessens your appetite, it prevents those "hungry horrors" you encounter when your blood sugar drops and you reach for cookies, candy, or other high-calorie treats. Water also flushes out the system, rids the body of bloat and toxins and rejuvenates your skin.

If you are overweight:
Try to replace candy bars and snacks with sugar free chewing gum.
Replace your dinner by a simple soup or fruits. Eating before bedtime is the easiest way to get fat; since the body uses very little calories during sleep, all the calories you absorb turn into fat, so the less you eat in the evening the better. This has proven a simple but very efficient system to shed a lot of fat (in one case, a male friend lost 28kg in a few months just sticking to that rule).
If you drink alcohol, be choosey. Prefer wine and Japanese sake to beers, and avoid liquors, as they contain lots of sugar. Spirits are better white (like vodka) than tinted (like whisky).