Healthy food choices pay huge dividends to your health and wellness.

What you eat has a direct relation to your body's chemistry and overall health.

Healthy eating is not about depriving yourself of the foods you love or staying exceedingly thin. Rather, it's about feeling good, having more energy and keeping yourself as healthy as possible.

Healthy Eating Habits: Its wise to learn about the critical functions of food and some nutrition basics. Understanding the impact of your food choices on your energy levels and fitness makes is a good start to a wholesome healthful food journey.

Your diet should be balanced, which means keeping everything in perspective rather than eliminating entirely whole food groups. You'll need a balance of carbohydrates, protein, fat, fibre, vitamins, minerals and different types of nutrients to sustain a healthy body.

Fruits and vegetables are the foundation of a healthy diet. Such selections are low in calories and are nutrient dense, which means they are packed with vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and fibre.

The antioxidants and other nutrients in fruits and vegetables help protect against certain types of cancer and other diseases. A diet rich in fruits and vegetables may reduce the risk of coronary heart disease.

So too, are diets low in saturated fats and unhealthy cholesterol food sources. Likewise, grain products containing fibre can help prevent a variety of chronic digestive disorders.

Unhealthy Eating: A poor diet is associated with the development of many chronic diseases including heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes.Your food choices can either reduce or enhance your risk of certain illnesses.

If you change poor eating habits you can create a lasting change in your wellbeing. Decide to use food in a way that works to support eating for your best health.

Smart Eating: Your food provides energy plus materials to promote growth and carry out repairs to your body. Healthy eating is about more than just the food on your plate it is also about how you think about food. As well whatever you eat affects how you feel.

Healthy eating habits are not a given that's genetically endowed rather it can be learnt. Learn to eat smart because eating a balanced diet has everything to do with your good health.

Now is a good time to expand your range of healthy food choices.