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regularly engage in healthy activities that boost your health, including exercising and spending time with friends and family. A healthy diet also fuels your brain, so you’ll feel happy and positive about yourself and life in general. Even more importantly, a consistent healthy diet gives your body extra nutrients to have on hand in case of an emergency. If, for instance, you break an ankle while playing sports, your body will have the fuel it needs to start the healing process right away.

Q: How does food affect my mood? A: Your brain, like all the other parts of your body, runs on glucose. If it doesn’t get enough glucose, you’ll likely feel grumpy and tired. Of course, it’s important to bear in mind that there can be many reasons for a bad mood, and automatically grabbing a bite to eat whenever you’re upset isn’t necessarily a good idea, especially if you’re craving unhealthy snacks.

Conversely, failure to eat a consistently healthy diet can cause damage that is difficult to undo. If you gain more weight than you should, it could take months to get rid of the unnecessary pounds to get back down to a healthy weight. In the meantime, the extra weight can cause problems for your heart and circulatory system. If you don’t get the nutrients you need to protect your body from sickness, what would have been a small sickness could turn into a serious one that requires medication and bed rest.

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Foods for Peak Fitness