How to build and eat a balanced diet
A healthy diet combines all the nutrients and food groups, and you have to balance them. The number of calories you need depends on your gender, age and activity level. What you do and what you eat follows from the fact that you want to stick to a very healthy and balanced diet.
Dietary plans can help you cope with your weight by containing a variety of holistic healthy foods. The best sources for meal planning for most Americans are the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the US Department of Health and Human Nutrition pyramid. USDA’s MyPlate Planner icon can help you see how much you should eat from different food groups while sticking to your recommended calorie intake.
Use the Healthy Dinner Plate Guide to create healthy, balanced meals that can be served at the table or packed in a lunchbox. You can also download my Diet Diary (pdf symbol, pdf 106 KB) to track your meals.
Add a variety of high-quality carbohydrates to your healthy diet such as fresh, canned and dried fruits, rice, bread, quinoa, pasta, whole grains, fiber-rich varieties and legumes. Look out for colourful varieties and remember that potatoes do not count as vegetables on healthy plates due to their negative effects on blood sugar.
Carbohydrate-containing foods are assessed on a scale known as the Glycemic Index (GI). This depends on how well the carbohydrate content of a given carbohydrate is digested and absorbed in the bloodstream and what effects it has on blood glucose levels. It is fine to include both high and low GI foods in your diet, but it tends to be at the lower end of the GI scale when your foods choices have been shown to improve holistic health.
Sugary foods and drinks are high in calories and can lead to weight gain. Small amounts of sugary foods, especially sweets, can be bad for teeth. Studies suggest that eating when you are active and give your digestive system a long break during the day can help regulate weight.
Fruits and vegetables are low in calories and nutrients which means that they are rich in vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and fiber. Focus on the recommended daily serving of five servings of fruit and vegetables as this will fill you up and help you reduce unhealthy foods.
A balanced diet comprises foods in five groups that meet a person’s nutritional needs. A balanced diet provides all the nutrients a person needs without exceeding the daily recommended calorie intake. A balanced diet gives people all the nutrients and calories they need and avoids junk food and foods with no nutritional value.
A balanced diet helps people maintain their health and reduces their risk of disease. A healthy diet can help prevent certain serious diseases like heart disease, stroke and Type 2 diabetes.
As a rule, vegetables, fruit and starchy foods should make up the majority of meals. The remaining part of your diet should consist of milk, dairy products and protein foods. Low fat milk, cheese, yoghurt and other dairy products should be low fat.
Trans fats are found in small quantities in a wide range of food such as milk, beef and lamb. However, most trans fatty acids in this food are produced during the processing of vegetable oils. Trans fats are also found in hard margarine, bakery products (e.g. Biscuits, pastries, cakes, fried foods) and other processed foods.
According to USDA recommendations, about half of a plate should consist of fruit and vegetables. They also recommend accompanying each meal with a portion of low-fat dairy products, which are a nutrient source in dairy products.
The Healthy Eater encourages consumers to use holistic health oils, but does not set a maximum percentage of calories a person should consume from healthy fat sources per day. In this way, she recommends the opposite of the low-fat message that has been propagated by the USDA for decades. It also advises consumers to avoid sugary drinks, which are an important source of calories but have little nutritional value in the American diet.
The amount of food you need will vary throughout your life depending on how active you are or not, whether you are pregnant or breastfeeding and much more. Simple guidelines from qualified experts make it easy to eat a balanced diet of nutritious, healthy foods.
Vegetables and legumes contain hundreds of natural nutrients such as vitamins, minerals and fiber. Cereal foods include oatmeal, brown rice, wholemeal and wholemeal bread, cracked wheat, barley and buckwheat breakfast cereals and cereals. These foods are known as discretionary or supplementary foods because they are consumed when they are not a regular part of a healthy diet.
A healthy diet throughout life can help prevent malnutrition in all its forms, from non-communicable diseases to non-communicable diseases. Consuming a variety of foods and food groups can help deliver the nutrients a person needs, regardless of their age.
The increase in the production of processed foods, rapid urbanization and lifestyle changes have led to a change in dietary patterns. People consume more foods that are high in energy, fat, sugar, salt and sodium and many people do not consume enough fruit, vegetables and other fibers such as whole grains.
Eating foods with fiber (fruits, vegetables, nuts and beans) can help you stay healthy and lower the risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes. Including holistic healthy fats in your diet can help improve your mood, improve your wellbeing and tighten your waist. But most of it comes from complex, unrefined carbohydrates from vegetables, whole grains, fruits, and sugars instead of refined carbohydrates.
Control portion sizes and calories To lose weight, most people reduce the number of calories they consume from food and beverages for energy and increase their physical activity for energy.
The following chart shows a reference intake (RI) of the daily quantities recommended for an average active adult to maintain a healthy, balanced diet and to gain weight. The RIs for fat, saturated sugar, salt, maximum amount of carbohydrates and protein are calculated and you should aim to meet each day.
Fill your plate with a colorful variety of vegetables and salads, drizzle a dressing made of cold-pressed flaxseeds, olives and rapeseed oil, and add meat, fish, beans, brown rice, quinoa and whole wheat noodles.
