Nutritional | Body Armor Wellness

Nutritional Wellness

Eating a balanced diet is vital for good health and well-being. Food provides our bodies with the energy, protein, essential fats, vitamins and minerals to live, grow and function properly. We need a wide variety of different foods to provide the right amounts of nutrients for good health. Most people know good nutrition and physical activity can help maintain a healthy weight. But good nutrition does so much more than that. It can help:

Reduce the risk of some diseases, including heart disease, diabetes, stroke, some cancers, and osteoporosis.
Reduce high blood pressure.
Lower high cholesterol
Improve your ability to fight off illness
Improve your ability to recover from an injury
Increase your energy level
Affect your positive mood
Increase your ability to focus
Delay the affects of aging

The United States ranks - far and away - as the number one obese "industrialized" nation on the planet. We rank 19th in the world and there are 196 countries. And too many of us in the law enforcement profession eat unhealthy foods and fail to exercise enough or even at all. We need to do better. If you fail to treat your body with respect, it will fail you when you need it the most - in the middle of a fight with a combative subject or recovering from a substantial injury.

What you eat, when you eat, and how you eat, of course, factor into your health, but they also influence your family members and loved ones. According to Fernando Gómez-Pinilla, a member of UCLA’s Brain Research Institute and Brain Injury Research Center, omega-3 fatty acids - found in salmon, walnuts and kiwi fruit - provide many benefits, including improving learning, memory, and helping to fight against such mental issues as depression and mood disorders, schizophrenia, and dementia. Children who had increased amounts of omega-3 fatty acids performed better in school, in reading, and in spelling and had fewer behavioral problems.

Let's eat better for us as well as for them. In this section, there are some resources that can help you and your family achieve that goal.

help and information

Mark’s Daily Apple. Mark’s Daily Apple is unique in that it’s not merely a hub of health and fitness information—although we do have all the education you could desire built into this dot-com—it’s also an amazing dynamic virtual community, and that’s all thanks to my awesome readers. Just browse the Mark’s Daily Apple Forum, the dozens (sometimes hundreds) of comments that follow each daily post, or the mind-blowing Success Stories, and you’ll see that the most gratifying aspect of our journey together is being part of the authentic, tight-knit community of real people that gather at MDA.

Territory Foods. Territory Foods is great tasting food, made from the really good stuff, by local chefs and artisans they admire, with lots of variety and choice, in a super simple experience and all supporting important outcomes beyond the plate. You can make an order for typically 3 to 5 meals a week or more. They provide a weekly menu and the portions are customizable.

ChooseMyPlate. This website provides a very interactive and informative way to make better, healthier choices. MyPlate illustrates the five food groups that are the building block of a healthy diet using a familiar image - a place setting for a meal. Before you eat, think about what goes on your plate, in your cup, or in your bowl.

Nutrition Policy and Promotion. The USDA Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion works to improve the health and well-being of Americans by developing and promoting dietary guidance that links scientific research to the nutrition needs of consumers.