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5 Signs that Tell You’re Not On A Balanced Diet

Balanced diet simply means give your body what it needs. What happens if we do not? Disbalance occurs and it has signs. Let’s discuss 5 signs that tell you’re not on a balanced diet.

Hair fall

We all hate it when it occurs. Remember the huge bundle of hair that keeps falling anywhere and everywhere. The tremendous loss we see after every hair wash.

So many shampoos, serums, oils offer cure for hair fall. Honestly how many of us are actually benefited. Temporary gains might be there but I do not see much results.

The hair follicles grow from inside of scalp. The nutrition to be provided has to go inside our mouth not on the scalp. Oiling and massaging scalp help in blood circulation and dryness. Few nutrients may penetrate through skin too, not denying. Question is can we challenge benefits of Balanced diet by mere application.

We need the following ingredients for avoiding hair-fall:

1. Protein- Sources are dairy, non-veg, nuts, pulses and legumes
2. Water – Source plain water only
3. Vit A- Sources –yellow red orange fruits and vegetables
4. Vit B complex- Since this is a group of vitamins each have some common and some different sources, ranging from poultry to greens to cereal grains etc…
5. Vit D- Sunlight exposure and non-veg
6. Vit E- non- refined plant oils, nuts and seeds
7. Iron- greens, legumes, nuts and dried fruits, non-veg
8. Zinc- seafood, legumes, nuts etc.

Skin Problems:

Acne, sunburn, rashes, scars, early aging etc. are big time troubles for us. We never relate it to benefits of balanced diet, do we? We keep applying treatments sometimes take steroids.

I had a client who said for the first time in 11 years of her marriage, her husband appreciated her skin. The credit goes to healthy Balanced diet and exercise which she has been following for last month after connecting with us.

Nutrients important for skin

1. Water
2. Fats
3. Vit A
4. Vit C
5. Vit E
6. Proteins
7. Selenium- Sources- Cereals, poultry, eggs, nuts
8. Zinc
9. Omega 3 fatty acids – nuts and seeds, vegetable oils

Body Aches

Nutritional deficiency is so common that even children now have frequent body aches. People feel lethargic all the time, no energy to exercise even if we want to. We do not keep procrastinating because we are lazy; we do so because we are nutritionally deficient. It is because we have defied the benefits of balanced diet.

Important nutrients required for treating body aches:

1. Carbohydrates: they provide ready energy. All low carbs diets are creating a menace. Anyways they do not really keep us away from carbs, after a point we have such cravings we end up eating simple starch or sugar rich foods.
2. Proteins: Proteins are the building blocks of our system. All functional cells like hormones, immunity cells, enzymes etc. are made of proteins. Low protein means damage to all these systems.
   • There are 2 ways of having protein deficiency.
     1. Eating less protein as compared to what is require.
     2. Eating less carbohydrate- Carbohydrates have a protein sparing action in our body. If we do not eat carbs we will automatically have less proteins.
3. Antioxidants- Sources fruits vegetables, nuts
4. Vit C – helps in recovery
5. Vit D
6. Minerals like Calcium, Phosphorus, Magnesium

Importance of water cannot be denied. Remember after eating anything made of besan, chana, fish we feel thirstier. That’s because our body requires more water to digest proteins. 

Insomnia

How can our body rest with deficiencies? We must have heard “bhooke pet neend nahi ati”. Even if we fill our tummy with junk/ imbalanced diet, our body doesn’t get enough nutrition right.

Important nutrients for proper sleep:

1. Cereal and carbohydrates: Oh yes our body cannot rest without these. These trigger serotonin which helps us to relax and sleep.
2. Tryptophan: Amino acid found in milk which help induce sleep. Remember how grandma wanted us to take milk before sleep.

Mental health

There is another saying I would like to recall, “pet bhara to jag bhala”. We naturally feel less stressed when we eat well. A healthy meal contributes to good mood.

I am not only talking about day to day stress here, mental illness has been contributed by misbalanced diet to many. Day to day things like crankiness, anger, fear, loss of interest, basic stress are also results of denying our human system from benefits of balanced diet.

I am talking about serious illness like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression etc. Nutritional neuroscience is an emerging discipline which shows us that nutritional factors are important for human cognition, behavior, and emotions.

Important nutrients for mental health:

1. Carbohydrates
2. Proteins
3. Essential Fatty acids
4. Vitamins- B-complex, B12, Folate
5. Minerals- Calcium, chromium, iodine, Iron, Lithium, Selenium, Zinc

There are major 5 food groups:

1. Cereals
2. Seafood, Non-veg, Eggs Pulses and legumes, Dairy
3. Oils and fats, Nuts and seeds
4. Vegetables and fruits
5. Water

If you arrange all the sources of foods given for each health benefit you will realize, none of them can be missed.

I can vouch for the fact that the utilization of these nutrients is accelerated by proper sleep and exercise.

Following a healthy balanced diet is difficult, having these problems are difficult. CHOOSE YOUR DIFFICULT.