Have a Healthy Nutritional Balanced Diet

Having a nutritionally balanced diet is essential to a healthy lifestyle. Eating well provides your body with all the essential nutrients your body needs to function at an optimal level. In addition, a well-balanced diet can boost your immunity, support healthy development, help support a healthy weight and help prevent chronic diseases like obesity or diabetes. Eating a balanced diet is easy with a little planning and preparation and will provide you with the basis for a healthy and happy life.

Steps

Understanding a Well-Balanced Diet

1. Eat foods from all five food groups. One of the most essential components of a well-balanced diet is eating foods from all five food groups most days. Each food group offers your body a variety of vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients essential to your health.
   • Be sure to include foods from these groups: protein, dairy, grains, fruits and vegetables.
   • Also include sources of healthy fat during the day. Although fat is not considered a food group, studies have shown that eating a moderate amount of healthy fats (like omega 3 fats) can help support your cardiac health.
   • Avoiding one or more food groups puts you at risk for nutrient deficiencies. Not all nutrients are available in all food groups, making it essential to eat foods from all five food groups daily.
2. Eat a variety of foods from within each food group. In addition to eating foods from all five food groups, it's also important to eat a variety of different foods within each food group.
   • Every food offers your body different vitamins, minerals and nutrients. If you don't have a diverse or varied diet, you limit your nutrient intake.
   • This is especially true for fruits and vegetables. These foods are chock full of vitamins and minerals and also contain a variety of health boosting antioxidants. Each different colored fruit or vegetable contains a different type of antioxidant that can help support your health in a variety of ways.
   • Aim to consume locally grown fruits and vegetables, as they are in season and therefore offer improved vitamin and mineral benefits.
3. Eat the right amount of calories. In addition to eating a wide variety of foods and ensuring you consume all the recommended nutrients, you should also balance how many calories you eat each day.
   • Eating the correct amount of calories for your age, activity level, and gender will help support a healthy weight. When you eat too many or too few calories it can result in unwanted weight gain or weight loss.
   • In general, most women need around 1,500 calories daily and men need around 2,000 calories daily. This will vary depending on your age, gender, activity level and overall health.
   • If weight gain or weight loss is desired, it's still important to eat an appropriate amount of calories. Very high and very low calorie levels can also cause health problems.
4. Avoid restrictive diets. Do not follow a diet program that promotes the avoidance of certain foods or excessive intake of others. These kinds of diets may cause you to eat too much of one nutrient and not enough of another, which may make your diet unbalanced.
   • Low-carb diets stress the avoidance or limited intake of carbohydrate based foods like: fruits, starchy vegetables, legumes, grains and dairy products. This restriction of so many food groups puts you at risk for nutrient deficiencies.
   • Low-fat diets suggest avoiding high fat foods like: high fat meats, eggs, fatty fish, full fat dairy, and butter or oils. Although limiting fat intake has shown some benefits, dietary fat is essential to the absorption of some fat-soluble vitamins (like Vitamin A or D).
   • High-protein diets emphasize the consumption of protein-based foods like: poultry, eggs, pork, beef, seafood, or legumes. Moderate amounts of protein are appropriate, but very high levels of protein can cause kidney damage over time.
5. Indulge in moderation. A well-balanced diet can include some higher calorie or indulgent treats. Although these foods shouldn't be eaten on a regular basis, they are acceptable as part of a healthy, well-balanced diet.
   • Include the occasional treat or special indulgence in your diet. It might be a dessert or a glass of wine.
   • Be careful not to overindulge or choose these foods on a regular basis. This will make your diet more unbalanced and could cause weight gain or contribute to chronic diseases like high blood pressure or diabetes.
   • This includes alcoholic beverages as well. Even when indulging, women should not consume more than one glass daily and men should not consume more than two glasses of alcohol daily.
6. Write a meal plan. To help you plan out your well-balanced diet, it might be helpful to write a meal plan for yourself. This will allow you to see if you're meeting the basics of a nutritionally sound diet — like eating a serving of foods from each food group and varying your food choices over the week.
   • When you're writing your meal plan make sure to include meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Also include any snacks you're planning on having.
   • After you've written up your meals for a few days or a week, go back through to make sure that you've included a variety of foods from within each food group. If you notice some days are lacking, go back and make edits wherever necessary.
   • You can download a meal-tracking app onto your smartphone to make this even easier.

Maintaining a Well-Balanced Diet

1. Consume lean protein. Protein is an essential nutrient that you need in relatively large amounts. Including a source of protein at every meal and snack can help you meet your daily goals.
   • Protein is found in a wide variety of foods including: poultry, beef, pork, legumes, eggs, dairy, and tofu or soy products.
   • One serving of protein is about 3-4 ounces. This is about the size of a deck of cards or a check book. Most women need about 46 g daily and men need about 56 g of protein daily.
   • If you're watching your weight, choose lean or low-fat protein sources. These contain lower amounts of calories and can help support weight loss. Lean proteins include: boneless, skinless chicken breast; turkey cutlets; ground beef that is 90% lean or higher; or unsalted nuts.
2. Eat a variety of fruits and vegetables. These foods contain a large variety of vitamins, minerals and fiber. They're also a great source of health-boosting antioxidants that you cannot get from other foods.
   • One serving of fruit is one small piece or 1/2 cup chopped fruit. In general, aim to consume 2-3 servings of fruit daily.
   • One serving of vegetables is 1 cup or 2 cups of leafy greens. Aim for 4-5 servings of vegetables daily.
   • To get a variety of antioxidants, choose a different colored fruit or vegetable each day. This will help increase your variety, as different colored fruits have different vitamins.
3. Choose 100% whole grains. The grain food group contains both whole and refined grains. If you can, make half or all of your grain choices 100% whole grain.
   • Whole grain foods are minimally processed and contain all the parts of the grain — the germ, endosperm and bran. Together these provide you with fiber, protein, and other nutrients that are beneficial to your health. Examples include: 100% whole grain pasta, corn, quinoa, oats, brown rice, and 100% whole wheat bread.
   • Refined grains are more processed and do not contain the bran or germ of the grain (which decreases the amount of nutrients they contain). Examples include: white bread, plain pasta, white rice, and any other foods made with primarily white flour.
   • One serving of whole grains is 1 ounce or 1/2 cup. Aim for two to three servings of grains daily. Try to make half of all your grain choices 100% whole grains.
4. Include sources of healthy fat. Fat is not considered a food group; however, it is considered an essential nutrient for a well-balanced diet. That being said, you need to be careful not to eat too much fat or too much of the wrong types of fat.
   • Focus on consuming heart-healthy fats like omega 3 fats and other monounsaturated fats. Studies have shown these can help promote cardiac health. Examples include: olives or olive oil, fatty fish, avocado, nuts, or nut oil.
   • One serving of a fat or oil is 1 tsp. Aim for one to two servings daily, but not more than two servings.
   • Avoid or minimize unhealthy fats like trans fat and saturated fat. These have been shown to increase your risk for cardiovascular disease. These types of fats are food in foods like: fried or fast food, processed foods, or high-fat animal protein.
5. Take supplements. Sometimes it might not be possible to consume all the food groups or a wide variety of foods. This may be due to food allergies, food sensitivities, or chronic diseases. In this case, it's still essential to consume adequate amounts of all essential nutrients through other sources like vitamin and mineral supplements. Try to get as many nutrients from your diet as possible and only use supplements if needed.
   • Taking supplements may help you reach your daily nutrient goals. You may want to consider taking a multivitamin, calcium (especially if you have a milk allergy or are lactose intolerant), fish oil (if you have a seafood allergy or do not eat fish), or Vitamin D (which is difficult to get from foods, but can be obtained from the sun).
   • Vegetarians and vegans may also need to supplement with Vitamin B12 or iron as their diets may restrict the amount of these nutrients they can consume from foods.
   • Always check with a doctor prior to taking any vitamin, mineral, or herbal supplements. Although generally harmless, some supplements have serious interactions with prescription medications and chronic diseases. Your doctor will be able to tell you what's safe and appropriate for you.
   • Again, do not rely solely on supplements to provide your body with essential nutrients. It's always preferable to get most if not all of your nutrient requirements from foods.
6. Meet with a registered dietitian. Maintaining a balanced diet can be a little difficult or confusing. However meeting with a registered dietitian can help provide you with more information, guidance and support for your dietary changes.
   • Registered dietitians are licensed nutrition professionals that are well-versed in nutrition, healthy eating, and weight loss.
   • Search for a dietitian in your area or contact your doctor to see if they have a registered dietitian they work with and can refer you to.

Tips

• A reduced-calorie eating plan that includes the right amounts of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats will also help you to lose weight. By following a balanced eating plan, you will not have to stop eating whole classes of good nutritional foods and miss the key nutrients they contain. A good start would be to choose an eating plan that includes a greater variety of foods.
• Help yourself to small portions of mixed nuts. Just don’t overdo it.
• Eat slowly to avoid over eating. Eating at a slow pace allows your mind to send signals to your body to signal when you are full. If you eat too fast, your brain will not send out these signals until you have already overeaten.

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