​The Worthwhile Benefits of Eating Healthy

It’s no secret that healthy eating is a worthwhile addition to any lifestyle with amazing benefits for your mind and body alike. Although it’s not the easiest feat at times for a number of reasons—hectic lifestyles, getting kids out the door, no time for grocery shopping—it’s immensely important and includes numerous results your body will thank you for in the long run!

When you increase the amount of nutritious foods in your diet, you’re fueling your body with the nutrients it needs to perform its best, which fortunately can be in the form of noticeable beauty changes, like glowing skin and strong nails. 

When coupled with moderate exercise, weight loss is one of the more noticeable benefits that one might experience with healthy eating. Reaching for the carrot sticks instead of the Cheetos might take some time to train your willpower, but in the long run your body will thank you. Eliminating unhealthy amounts of sugars, fats and carbohydrates from your diet—especially in those pesky processed foods—will make it easier for your body to digest and build healthily with cleaner foods. Although making the switch can initially be a struggle, over time you should become aware of the changes on the scale as well as when you look in the mirror.

Many folks who improve their diets rave about clearer skin. A number of factors lead to what some would deem "bad" skin (like breakouts, discoloration and wrinkles) and although improved eating habits do help target some of these areas, it’s important to know that factors like age and hormone levels do as well. An easy step to better skin lies in what you’re putting into your body, and if that happens to be greasy fast food every night, you can be sure your skin will reflect that diet. You can control your hormones—or at least get a handle on them—as well as aging in your skin with the levels of nutrients found in your clean eating intake. But don’t let the word "clean" scare you; it’s quite easy to improve your skin by subtly increasing common foods, and they’re surprisingly not all vegetables! 

Foods like tomatoes can help by increasing your skin’s resistance to harmful sun rays. Add raw tomatoes to your next salad is not only an easy step, but also one that will preserve your skin and fight premature aging. To improve the quality and hydration of your skin, which leads to a healthy glow and youthful plumpness, foods like dark chocolate and walnuts are perfect. You heard right, limited amounts of dark chocolate or walnuts can fight your dry skin patches and leave your face feeling scale-free! That’s the trick to eating healthy—it doesn’t always have to be restricted to just kale and raw vegetables, it’s a balance of super foods and even occasional treats!

Another great benefit to eating better lies within your hair, and no, it’s not a dirty little secret, it’s the key to healthy, luxurious looking hair! With all the damage your hair endures from styling, pollution and other factors, it’s essential to protect it and make it durable enough to endure even the worst city smog. Your hair’s beauty and manageability stems from one simple idea: feeding your hair. Although this notion may sound a little absurd, it makes sense that putting nutrients into your body will only increase the nutrients in you hair, ultimately creating healthier hair.

If growing out your hair is what you’re after, look for foods with high amounts of iron. For example, spinach and red meats are both excellent sources of the element and can increase hair growth quickly. Repairing the damage that has been done to your hair can be difficult, but eating foods high in protein like eggs or chicken stimulates hair to repair itself and even grow. The best part of eating these key foods is that you’re not always concentrated on benefits like hair quality, but ultimately each time you do consume them you’re helping out your hair, skin and your whole body to look its best.

It’s a rewarding process to see your body transforming with an improved diet, but perhaps one of the most gratifying benefits is what you feel internally. Your body performs similar to a machine: it works best with the highest quality of fuel and proper care as it ages. Eating certain foods can improve your energy, productivity and memory. Healthier foods can also alter your mental state, creating better moods and more balanced levels of hormones, which can help improve your relationships and your interpersonal skills. Not to mention the way your body reacts to factors like age and exercise! Taking care of your body increases your longevity and the aging process tremendously, ensuring that certain illnesses and diseases aren’t an issue for you. By eating healthy and creating a stronger body, you potentially save money by decreasing your chances of paying costly medical bills involving preventable illnesses. Because living life should be something to enjoy, not something you need to worry about, healthy eating helps to decrease these concerns about growing older by making sure your body performs at its best. 

If you don’t begin to include eating healthier into your lifestyle, unhealthy eating habits can catch up with you quicker than you might realize. Practically every part of your body, from your fingernails to your brain, depends on nutrients found in healthy foods. Conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes and even cancer can result from a poor diet. Making all of your important decisions throughout the day, it’s important that your brain is in pristine working order. At UCLA, Professor Fernando Gómez-Pinilla, a professor of neurosurgery and physiological science, has been studying the effects of diet in relation to brain function. He proposes the possibility that "changes in diet are a viable strategy for enhancing cognitive abilities, protecting the brain from damage and counteracting the effects of aging." When you’re taking care of your body you aren’t just ensuring physical changes, you’re also sharpening your mind and gaining longevity, two things very much worth the transition to a healthier diet.

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