Eating Right Can Affect Your Health

March is National Nutrition Month^® and a good time to review your current eating habits to see where there's room to improve. A healthy, nutritious diet provides you with energy, while strengthening your heart, keeping the brain active and promoting muscle functioning.

There is a direct connection between what you eat and your health status. In fact, foods you eat - and what you avoid - could either present or inhibit health risks. Eating too much fat, especially the wrong kind of fat, can increase your health risks. The American Heart Association warns that saturated fat, trans fat and dietary cholesterol could pose a threat to your heart.

Preventing and managing disease

But there are also foods that can protect you from illness. For example, fruits, vegetables and grains contain phytochemicals – a natural product of plant foods. Phytochemicals contribute to a the foods’’ color, flavor and aroma – while providing a number of other health benefits. According to the American Cancer Society (ACS), more than 200 studies confirm that such phytochemicals as beta-carotene, lycopene, and isoflavones can reduce the risks for cancer of the lung, mouth, esophagus, stomach and colon. ACS also attributes one-third of all cancer-related deaths to poor diet and lack of activity. That's 186,000 lives per year.

Additionally, an estimated 20.8 million Americans suffer from diabetes, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Healthy eating, along with physical activity and diabetes medicines, as needed, helps keep your blood glucose on target and below 100 mg.  Eating a diet that’s low in fat and rich in fruits and vegetables is a good start.  In addition, spread out your intake of carbohydrates to avoid the rapid rise and fall in blood sugar, which results in high releases of insulin.

Improve your eating - improve your health

If you have questions about your eating habits or need help in developing a nutritious food plan, call a health coach. Health coaches are specially trained health care professionals, such as nurses, dietitians and respiratory therapists, available by phone, anytime, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, at no charge to you. To talk to a health coach, call 1-877-LIFE-123 (1-877-543-3123). You can also get information online at LifeSteps Online from MyStandard at work or www.asdlifesteps.com from wherever you have Internet access.

Personal health information provided to a LifeSteps health coach is protected by federal and state privacy laws and will not be disclosed to American Standard Companies except as authorized by law for administration of the company’s group health plans.