What is Healthy Food – Safety Toolbox Talk

What is healthy food?

Embracing production-based eating habits and incorporating healthy regional foods into daily diet is key to maintaining a healthy lifestyle. These habits should be considered alongside the emotional and behavioral impact of food consumption.

Practicing a healthy diet includes incorporating specific key features.

People should be given value and respect when they have specific cultural eating traditions.

Food has many cultural meanings that need to be explored.

Food sovereignty needs to be reinforced through this action.

The affordable cost and easy accessibility make the guarantee of great flavor.

Eating healthy doesn’t require a high price tag thanks to access to local produce.

Encouraging the production and marketing of healthy produce such as vegetables and fruits through family farmers’ cooperatives is an important alternative to improving the quality of food. It also creates additional income for the surrounding community.

In many countries, including Brazil, people traditionally ate healthy foods. This is due to the fact that unrefined and easy-to-find cassava is full of vitamins and minerals. However, many marketing practices imply that people should eat unhealthy foods instead. These unhealthy foods are processed and refined cassava products.

Varied:

Avoid eating only one type of food so that the body receives all the necessary nutrients. Instead, encourage the consumption of various types of food to ensure the body receives all the nutrients it needs.

Colorful:

Promoting the use of vegetables, fruits and starchy foods helps provide a healthy diet with a wide variety of vitamins and minerals. This is why highlighting the benefits of healthy foods is important.

Harmonious:

Determining appropriate nutrition levels requires considering age, emotional state, social and cultural habits.

Safe:

The health risks and environmental contamination from physical and biological matter point of view.

Additional information on healthy eating is available.

Paraphrasing from a Key Features of Healthy Eating list.

It’s essential to incorporate three complete meals a day. Also, don’t skip any of the recommended snack or meal options.

One should include six servings of cereal foods like bread, pasta, rice and wheat each day. Also include potatoes and other tubers and roots— cassava, cassava or cassava. People should choose whole grain foods instead of processed ones.

Include at least 3 servings of vegetables with each meal. Also include 3 servings of fruit in desserts and snack foods.

Brazilian cuisine is a healthy mix of protein and fiber. It’s comprised entirely of rice and beans, which should be eaten every day or at least five times per week.

Adding trimming to poultry and meats before cooking makes them healthier. It also helps if you include 3 servings of milk and milk products in your daily diet.

Choose food labels carefully to avoid consuming more than one serving of vegetable oils, olive oil or margarine each day. Instead, choose foods labeled as containing low amounts of trans fats.

Avoid cakes, cookies stuffed with sweet fillings, juice and soft drinks that come from industrial settings as a rule.

People shouldn’t use a salt shaker on their table. Also, they should reduce the amount of salt in their food. This is because many foods contain sodium— like hamburgers, cured meats, chorizo sausage and chicken — prepared seasonings and canned vegetables.

It’s important to drink at least 2 liters of water — about 6 or 8 glasses — each day. Drink water between meals for optimal results.

Regular physical activity helps you live a healthier life. Avoid tobacco and alcohol to improve your life. If you’re overweight, maintain healthy weight.

Check your BMI to see if you’re healthy here.

The BMI (Body Mass Index) table below is for ages 20 to 60. You can use this table to find out your BMI if you are that age range. This is because BMI is the measurement of body fat. To calculate your BMI, divide your weight in kilograms by your height in meters squared.

Weight in pounds divided by Height in inches squared equals BMI.

Your BMI, or body mass index, is used to determine your nutritional status. If you are less than 18.5 kg/m², you are considered underweight. If your BMI falls between 18.5 and 24.99, you are considered “adequate weight.” A BMI of 25 to 29.99 would classify you as “alert,” meaning there’s no need to worry about obesity. For those with a BMI over 30, they are considered “overweight” and at risk of obesity — meaning they should consider losing weight.

Healthy Tips provides information only for educational purposes. This means only proper care providers can determine a person’s health status, recommend treatment or prescribe medication.

Working safely offers five benefits.

NOTE – What is Healthy Food

The DDS are important HSE management tools, with the function of instructing employees before starting their work activities.

IMPORTANT: The content is merely suggestive and is designed for the reality of a theoretical service front.

Therefore, all the DDS are generic and must be adapted to the reality of the work fronts by the HSE (Safety, Environment and Health) professional and/or leaders of the company or sectors.

The responsibility of DDS rests solely with the person who will be conducting the dialogue.

Source:
Ministry of Health. Food guide for the Brazilian population, 2008