Nutrition for Women: Being a woman in a patriarchal world is a challenge in itself. You are a working female with the responsibility of being perfect at both the office and home. It is indeed a huge commitment. You work hard all day to provide the best motherhood to your children and also being a perfect wife to your husband. That’s not enough, you spend 7-10 hours working outside to provide your families with their needs and luxuries too. But how much time do you dedicate to thinking about your own needs and wants?
Women’s health is already complicated, we cannot do anything about it apart from taking proper care of it. Proper care comes from good nutrition and a balanced lifestyle. It is not new that the women of the house sit to eat at the last or gives away every best portion of food to her children and husband despite cooking the five-course meal all by herself after a long day at work. Don’t do it. Take care of yourself like you do of your family. You are as important as your loved ones.
Women and Nutrition
Any woman can find it quite challenging to stick to a healthy diet while also juggling the obligations of work, education, and family, not to mention the pressure from society to look good and eat a specific way. However, eating the appropriate foods may support you through all of the phases of a woman’s life in addition to improving her mood, increasing her physical energy, and helping maintain a disease-free body.
Dietary research too frequently ignores the unique and necessary demands of women. Because male individuals in nutritional research typically have more consistent and predictable hormone levels than female subjects. The results can occasionally be deceptive or irrelevant to the needs of women. All of these could result in significant nutritional deficiencies on a daily basis.
How the Nutrition for Women Differs from Men’s
Male and females have relatively similar nutritional needs when they are in their younger age. But once they enter puberty, women’s dietary needs start to change. Additionally, as we age, we experience more physical and hormonal changes in our bodies, and our nutritional needs also vary. For this reason, we must address these changing needs and eat accordingly.
Women typically require less calories than men, but we also have comparatively higher needs for some particular vitamins and minerals. Women are more prone to anemia, weak bones, and osteoporosis due to hormonal changes brought in by menstruation, childbearing, and menopause. As a result, we need to consume more iron, calcium, magnesium, vitamin D, and vitamin B9 (folate) for our bodies to function properly.
Dietary Suggestions for Women
Even during difficult times, maintaining our health and boosting our immunity requires good nutritional habits. Making healthy dietary adjustments and staying constant to certain basic rules can greatly improve our health. Here are a few quick nutritional suggestions for women:
Never ignore breakfast:
Make sure that your morning meal is always on time and the best of the day. It boosts the body’s rapid metabolism. For good health, a hearty breakfast rich in carbohydrates, proteins, and fruits is strongly advised by each and every one.
Never miss a meal:
Our busy schedules often lead us to skip meals, don’t do it. This is a bad habit because missing meals causes our metabolism to slow down, which can result in unhealthy weight gain and lack of energy to do anything. Thus, it is very crucial that we always keep in mind to eat at our regular times.
Eat in small portions but more often:
Eating meals every 2.5 to 3 hours promotes good digestion of food and keeps us from overeating or desiring for unhealthy options.
Keep yourself hydrated:
Water is life. Water makes up over two-thirds capacity of an adult human. So, drink up. Not only for hydration, four to five liters of water also contribute to our body’s detoxification process.
Don’t cut fat out of your diet:
Fats are necessary for our body’s ideal functioning. Healthy fats can be found in nuts, flax seeds, olive oil, sesame oil, and other foods. Fats are indeed essential nutrition for women.
Add a good amount of fruits and vegetables into your diet:
Consuming fresh veggies daily gives our bodies antioxidants, which also helps in reducing stress. Citrus fruits, such as amla and guava; nuts, such as almonds and walnuts. Oily fish are high in omega-3 fatty acids. Fresh vegetables, like lettuce, carrot, cucumber, and tomato, are natural stress relievers.
Slowly Cut off Sugar:
Reduce the amount of sugar you consume because eating foods high in sugar is bad for anyone’s health. Dieticians and nutritionists strongly advise limiting the consumption of foods and beverages high in sugar, such as cookies, pastries, cakes, colas, and health drinks.
Eat protein-rich meals:
Proteins are known as the “building blocks” of life because they support the health of our tissues and bones. As a result, your everyday diet should include foods high in protein, such as lean meat, fish, milk, and dairy products, as well as vegan options like pulses like dal, chana, beans, etc.
The Last Words
Consuming a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, lean meat, and dairy products will help you guarantee that you get the right amount of each important and essential nutrients. Consult your healthcare provider about your eating habits to make sure you get all the nutrients you need. If you have dietary limitations or a condition that makes it more difficult for your body to absorb nutrients, take expert’s sugession in case of supplements. In the end, do not ignore your health between every other responsibility you have. Take acre of yourself, your body is your asset.