The types of food you eat will have a huge impact on your overall health. A diet filled with sugar and saturated fat can increase your risk for cardiovascular disease, strokes and diabetes while a diet filled with healthier options can prevent many of these conditions.

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1. Lose Weight. Eating healthy can help you lose weight. Simply switching from unhealthy junk to healthy alternatives will help you reduce your calorie intake. Junk foods are typically energy dense and empty calorie foods. They contain a lot of calories but little in the way of nutrients such as vitamins, minerals, fiber and antioxidants. Replacing doughnuts, soda, candy, fruit juice, and fast foods with fruits, vegetables, nuts, beans, lean meats and whole wheat bread/pasta, will reduce your calorie intake and help you lose weight without too much calorie counting.

2. Energy. Getting your energy from healthy foods will help you perform better throughout the day. Junk food typically creates a big spike in energy levels which is quickly followed by a crash when your body overcompensates in an attempt to regulate blood sugar. Sugar rushes are caused by food that is high in sugar and digested very quickly. The quick digestion floods the body with too much energy in a short period of time. Eating healthier foods will help slow down the digestion process which will help you avoid crashes. Eat small and frequent meals high in unsaturated fats, lean proteins and complex carbs.

3. Gain Muscle. Gaining muscle requires combining more calories with more exercise. Too often, gaining weight is seen as a blank check to eat anything. Gaining weight by eating junk will lead to excessive fat buildup. Keeping a clean diet will lead to more muscle gains than fat. Avoid adding calories by making meals bigger. Instead, try to add small snack between meals. Eating smaller more frequent meals will allow your body to avoid a huge influx of calories at one time which can lead to fat buildup. Stay away from junk food and focus on filling your diet with healthy options: unsaturated fats, lean proteins and complex carbs. Good examples include: fruits, vegetables, oils (particularly canola and olive), chicken, turkey, seafood, nuts, legumes, beans, granola, 100% whole wheat products, brown rice and oatmeal.

4. Look Good. Eating too much junk causes unnecessary and excessive fat buildup. Junk food is typically: 1) higher in calories than healthy food and, 2) higher in bad calories such as sugar than healthier options. Because of these two main differences, junk food tends to encourage the body to store fat. Large meals give the body an unmanageable amount of calories in a very short period of time. The body burns what it needs and stores the rest as fat for later use. Sugar leads to fat storage because it is digested very quickly. A quick influx of calories has the same effect as a large influx of energy. The body can't burn up all the energy quickly enough which leads to fat storage. Avoiding meals high in calories and sugar will help you look defined.

5. Health. The most important reason to eat healthy is to keep your body in peak condition. The type of food you eat has a very big impact on your overall health. Foods high in saturated and trans fats can lead to cardiovascular disease while unsaturated fats can help prevent them. Fiber helps lower your cholesterol and blood pressure while protecting your from certain types of cancers. Fruits and vegetables are high in antioxidants which protect against a wide variety of cancers.

The End

Eating healthy foods will help you improve your overall health, look great, lose/gain good weight and feel energetic. Don't confuse a healthy diet with driving yourself crazy over food rules. A healthy diet can occasionally include foods you love that aren't the best options. Eating healthy most of the time will allow you to sneak in your favorite cheat meals some of the time.