Healthy food for adults and children

Someone wants to eat tasty, someone healthy, someone cheap. At first glance, these requirements are mutually exclusive, but the opposite is true! With a well thought out meal plan, all requirements can be met.

Food ingredients

Anyone interested in diet, whether for health, weight loss, or better athletic performance, should know what the main components of food are. Those who are mainly interested in price must also be interested in the ingredients to know what they are really paying for.
The main components of the diet are: sugars (carbohydrates), fats and proteins (proteins). The body cannot do without either one. If I were to label something as more important, it would be sugars, because the human body needs them all the time. Mainly because the brain cannot do without them, just as it cannot do without oxygen.
Sugars are mainly a quick source of energy. Protein is mainly used as a building block. Fats are mainly used as an endurance energy source. But all these three main components also perform other functions in the body and are partly interchangeable.
Furthermore, food contains other various trace components such as vitamins and minerals.

Please do not confuse sugars with sugar (sucrose) or refined beet sugar.

Diet

The fair sex usually deals with diet much more than men, and it is women who try to lose weight and feed their children healthily, but unfortunately usually without a deeper knowledge of diet. And they solve their diet based on the advice of various articles from tabloid magazines or or are influenced by false and misleading advertising. Men then pay the price for their ignorance of diet and intrusive advertising propaganda in sport. Thus, they usually focus on dietary supplements but do not catch up with the daily poor diet. Diet quality also affects children's growth and performance, not only on the field but also in school. Studies show that poorly nourished children are more naughty and have poorer academic performance.

A major problem is the consumption of fast sugars, also known as short or simple sugars. A typical example is sucrose or beet sugar. On the other hand, rice and potatoes are good sources of complex sugars, also known as long or complex sugars.

While it is good to watch calories, it is not good to eat by calories! It is better to count protein, carbohydrate and fat separately and assess the ratio of energy obtained from these essential components. We also need to be able to assess, at least tentatively, whether we are consuming a large majority of complex carbohydrates or the majority of sugars consumed are simple sugars such as sucrose (beet sugar), fructose and glucose. Typically, sugary sodas and juices are an unnecessary source of fast sugars and contain various chemicals in the form of colourings and sweeteners. These chemicals then cause, for example, hyperactivity in children and other seemingly unexplained problems. Better to learn to drink skimmed tap water.

It is also a good idea to take stock of whether we are consuming mostly "healthy" fats, such as olive oil and fish oil, or unhealthy fats, such as lard. It is better to avoid solid fats, which also contain varying amounts of trans fats. Such fat is sold as so-called baking fat and is mainly found in store-bought sweets and other sweet products such as cakes.

Meat also needs to be consumed as it is a source of protein. While it is possible to get protein from a plant-based diet, plant sources are poorer in protein and less varied. However, for a vegetarian who really understands the diet and watches the composition of his/her food, it should not be a problem to get enough different proteins without meat.
The fundamental problem with eating meat is fat. In the Czech Republic, for example, it is customary to consume dishes made of meat such as neck meat. This meat is not unhealthy, but in today's physically inactive occupations, it is better to have meals made from such fatty meat only rarely. After all, even in the past, when people worked exclusively physically, they could only indulge in a piece of meat at the weekend or even more rarely.

Inappropriate foods from commercials

Junk food can be found on every corner, and it's all over TV. No wonder then that many people have a problem with eating.

Typical representatives of bad food include:
Snickers, which is full of fat and fast sugars. It is advertised as something that is a wholesome meal, yet it is just a dessert, suitable for eating only rarely. The advertising and the very name of Good Mum yoghurt is supposed to give mothers the impression that they are good mothers, but the opposite is true. The yoghurts are of poor quality and expensive, and so the question arises as to whether bad mothers are buying them in order to reassure their consciences. Other yoghurts are also a problem, and many of them do not even qualify as yoghurts any more. White yogurts, such as Hollandia, are a sure thing :-).
Nowadays, the developed part of society is characterized by plenty of food, which is also energy-dense, so we need to watch our diet and especially the amount of fast sugars in it. Yet it is the junk food that is produced the most, and manufacturers prey on it at a young age, just like tobacco manufacturers. Children should not consume too much sugary food either. It is especially good to completely avoid sugary confectionery, which contains only sugar and chemicals. Sadly, such sweets are commonly distributed even in medical workplaces. It is more appropriate to tackle cravings by baking your own sweet food at home, for example, cheesecake.

Also presented as food for children are foods like Nesquik, cornflakes and the like. Even these foods are not suitable for a healthy diet, nor are they suitable for breakfast. They are already industrially produced food, which is often sweetened. Such food cannot provide children with enough energy even for the morning and, if consumed over a long period of time, causes obesity.
A nice-sounding advertisement is for Bebe Good Morning, which claims that this biscuit will provide energy for the whole day, but the desire to make as much money as possible has produced more nonsense here. To claim that you can just consume a packet of biscuits in the morning and go on a fast for the rest of the day, while pretending that it is healthy and that it will make you happy, must have been an empty mind... Better to call such a product an energy bar. But fortunately, buyers have seen through such products. After all, all energy bars, including, for example, those specifically for bodybuilders, which are labeled as protein, always contain mainly a lot of fat and simple sugars.

The problem is also in the food preparation. Very often pre-prepared food is used, which is then fried in oil. The best approach, on the other hand, is to cook with fresh ingredients and prepare everything simply and quickly.

There is simply no substitute for the classic meal of several meals a day of regular main courses!

The price of a healthy diet

Healthy food is quality and such will not be the cheapest. But you need to consider that even bad products are expensive. Thus, the price is only indicative at first glance. Also, when shopping, you need to keep in mind that expensive foods can be replaced by other alternatives that are also of good quality but cheaper. For example, it is not necessary to buy only salmon from fish, trout is also a very good quality fish and is cheaper. Moreover, this fish is farmed in the Czech Republic, so it is good to buy it locally, preferably freshly killed! As a result, it is a much better solution than frozen salmon, because when you buy fish directly from the farmer you get a guaranteed fresh and cheap food.
Bodybuilders like to buy chicken breast and complain about the price of beef. But if they were to look at the price of chicken breasts and the price of beef front, they would find that there is almost no price difference! In fact, people generally judge the price of a raw food ingredient by the average or typical cut of meat. But the already cut chicken breast is the most expensive chicken, and it's not just the beef tenderloin on the cow, but also the cheaper parts, and it's the beef front that's the cheapest. Anyone who buys only the breast of a chicken can't cook, is lazy, and can't manage money. The best way is to buy a whole chicken and roast it whole. Or bone it and make it into a roll and the bones into chicken broth/soup. Or cut up the chicken and process the parts separately. This way you get a much more varied menu, which becomes more tasty, at 1/3 the cost of a chicken breast. For the original money, you buy 3 times as much meat!
The best quality side dish is rice, and its preparation is simple. You can't complain about the price of rice. Rice can be prepared in many ways and rice as a side dish goes with almost all dishes.

Boneless chicken thigh:

Savings can be made especially where there is a lot of unnecessary spending.
For example, it is more convenient to buy dried peas instead of frozen or canned. There is no point in buying basmati rice, which is more expensive. The same function in a healthy diet is performed by regular rice in a package of about 22 CZK/kg (price from 2015). For this price, you can make about 7 portions from one packet of rice.

Public catering

Once one has sorted out eating at home, one finds that the fundamental problem is eating out in public. There are fast food joints everywhere and the quality of restaurants is abysmal, not to mention healthy food. And so one often has no choice but to sort out the diet in advance at home. The sad thing is that even in school canteens the food is bad, often even worse and more disgusting than in pubs. No wonder then that children prefer to consume various prefabricated sweet products at school. Most of the time, however, the responsibility of adults is not even visible in the snacks, which lack any quality and creativity. Honour the exceptions.

I wish you good taste and good health.