A healthy diet comprises of varieties of food that gives nutrients to our body to keep it healthy, feel good and propel the body’s energy. Healthy diet includes enough nutrients that contain proteins, carbohydrates, fats, water, vitamins and minerals.

Now, what is nutrition? This is a process where the body gets enough nourishment that contain proper amount of nutrients that the body requires. Therefore for a body to be healthy, proper proportion of nutrients are needed. To keep the body strong, healthy eating helps you to balance the food in proper proportion energizing the body with right nutrients.

Many women are carefree about what goes into their body, neglecting proper and healthy diet as they are ignorant about women’s special nutritional requirements. It is very important for these women to understand what comprises healthy diet for women is quite different from what a healthy diet is for men.

Also proper nutrition is quite different when age is involved. In fact everybody needs a different diet plan, either a man, woman or a child.

As children the dietary needs are quite the same either for a boy or a girl. But the moment puberty sets in, the nutritional requirements of girls begin to change. This is mainly because puberty makes a girl’s body go through many physical and hormonal changes, requiring different nutrition needs.

While the women folks need fewer calories compared to men, women’s requirement for vitamins are quite higher than men.

When a girl develops to maturity (woman) menstruation, child bearing, and menopause means their hormonal changes makes them susceptible to a higher risk of weakened bones and osteoporosis, anemia etc., thereby requiring them to take a higher dose of nutritional vitamins, such as iron, calcium, magnesium, vitamin D, and vitamin B9 (also called folic acid or folate).

Healthy Diet and Nutrition Tips for women

• Taking calcium for strong bones all through lifetime reduce the risk of women developing osteoporosis, so it is advisable to take calcium and magnesium with Vitamin-D to get healthy bones.

So women should consume more foods that are good sources of calcium like plain yoghurt, cottage cheese, milk, sardines, tofu, green turnip, salmon, kale, raw broccoli etc.

• Iron is a necessary requirement for women as it aids in increasing the hemoglobin that carries the oxygen in the body, provide healthy skin, hair and nails.

Because of the blood lost during menstruation and child bearing, women needs more iron intake to men, like twice as much a man would take. This is one of the reasons more women than men are diagnosed with anemia due to deficiency of iron.

And when women are anemic it leads to mood swings which ultimately leads to depression such as having difficulty in concentration. Foods recommended for women in this case includes foods rich in iron like cereals, tomatoes, spinach, kidney beans, broccoli, green peas, lentils, potato, cashew nuts, eggs, raisins, sardines, roasted chicken etc.

• Folate or Vitamin B9 is also another nutrient that women don’t really take enough of. Folate or Vitamin B9 if taken can reduce the chance of the woman to getting neurological birth defects. It reduces the chances of contracting heart disease and certain type of cancers.

During menopause, folate is a good nutritional vitamin to help in the production of estrogen hormone.

Here are some foods rich in folate or Vitamin B9 – Orange juice, papaya, banana, spaghetti, kidney beans, green peas, mustard greens, tomato juice, broccoli, spinach, roasted chicken, egg, fish and milk.

Additional Advise to women

• Eat healthy snacks in between 3 meals; don’t skip meals in daily routine.

• Products like cold drinks, cakes, candies, cookies etc. should be avoided. Or any sugary drinks or sugary products.

• Solid fats like butter, cream, hydrogenated oil or partially hydrogenated oils contain saturated and trans fats and are strongly advised to be avoided.

• For those women who are obese or overweight, regular exercises like walking, yoga and pranayama are great to maintain healthy body.

* To keep the body healthy and fit, it is advisable for every woman to engage in regular exercises.

• Another good diet tips is to use dried herbs and spices like basil, oregano, parsley, lemon pepper, garlic powder to flavor your food.

The best way for every woman to stay healthy is to engage in proper nutritional diet, not to compromise on regular exercises and prove supplements to enhance results and over-all fitness.