A Healthy Diet For All

There is no one exact diet that suits everyone.

Here we are aiming to give some general guidelines on how a healthy diet is constructed but this leaves a lot of variety in terms how you actually choose your foods.

What's in a healthy diet? There are a huge variety of diets around so it's hard to know exactly what is healthy and what isn't. so let's start with some basics regardless of the type of diet you eat, most nutrition professionals agree it is based on three basic concepts:

Balance.

Most health professionals recommend a diet consisting of a balance as follows: Carbohydrate: 55-65%, Protein: 10-15% Fats up to 30% max.

Moderation.

Many dieting programs are very successful simply because they are very good at helping clients learn to plan food portion sizes appropriately.

Because the feeling of fullness in the stomach can take as long as twenty minutes to register to the brain, it is important to regulate how much food is ingested before waiting for a full-feeling.

Moderation, therefore, also involves learning the difference between hunger satisfaction and fullness. Generally the accepted norm is that meals should be at least 3 - 5 times a day and this will have the affect of decreasing hunger pangs and the need to over eat.

Variation.

All healthy diets involve the inclusion of several food-types.

The primary reason for this is by including a wide-variety of foods increases your chances of obtaining the required amounts of essential nutrients. It is well a well known fact that vitamin and mineral composition is food-specific.

While some fruits are high in vitamin C, they are low in Calcium. Also, variation helps to avoid food-boredom: trying new foods can and should be a pleasure.

The Balance of a Good Healthy Diet

Fruit & Vegetables

Eating healthily means at least 5 times a day This includes frozen, canned, dried and pure juices as well as fresh. Also included in this group are beans, including baked beans, pulses and lentils. The key for good health is to choose a wide variety - aiming for five different portions per day

Bread, Other Cereals & Potatoes

A healthy eating plan should include 5 portions daily. This group includes breakfast cereals, pasta, rice, noodles, oats and other cereals as well as bread and potatoes. You should aim to include at least one food from this group at each meal.

Milk & Dairy Foods

2-3 servings daily is the recommended healthy eating level. Milk, cheese, yoghurt and fromage frais are included in this group, but not butter, eggs and cream. Serving sizes in this group vary, depending on how concentrated the food is, e.g. 1 serving of milk is 200ml, a serving of yoghurt is 150g and a serving of cheese is 30g.

Meat Fish & Alternatives

2-3 servings daily, choose low fat if your healthy eating plan is for weight loss. This group includes eggs, poultry, and meat and fish products such as beef burgers and fishcakes. Some of these products can be high in fat - so it's best to choose lower fat versions of products, and trim visible fat from meat and poultry. Alternatives are non-meat sources of protein such as nuts, tofu, mycoprotein, textured vegetable protein (TVP) and kidney beans.

Foods Containing Fat & Foods Containing Sugar

Eat in small quantities only, 0-3 servings daily. These are foods high in fat and/or sugar. Butter, margarine, oil, mayonnaise, cream, crisps and fried foods are high in fat. Soft carbonated drinks, sweets and jam are high in sugar. Cakes, chocolate, biscuits, pastries and ice-cream are high in both.

It is essential to include a small amount of fat in your diet, but most people need to eat less. The emphasis should be on unsaturated fat e.g. olive, sunflower and corn oil, in preference to saturated fat which tends to come from animal products, cakes, biscuits etc

Finally

These are the basics. It is then up to you to tailor the diet to your specific needs. If you need help or advice on this all you need to do is check out the diet articles in this site for further ideas.

You will also find some popular diet myths dispelled and an overview of various ways to keep yourself healthier and your body at its optimum weight.

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