What Constitutes A Healthy Diet?

Every day, Americans are bombarded with health and nutrition advice, much of it conflicting. It is no wonder Americans have trouble figuring out how to plan and eat a healthy diet.

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans, published jointly every 5 years since 1980 by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Department of Agriculture (USDA), provides a blueprint for healthy eating, based on scientifically proven concepts.

The Dietary Guidelines are intended to help Americans over age of 2 years plan a diet that promotes health and reduces the risk of chronic diseases (such as heart disease, diabetes, osteoporosis) that have a clear connection to diet. These Guidelines also serve as the basis for federal food and nutrition programs such as Food Stamps, WIC, and public school breakfast and lunch menus.

Main Elements of a Healthy Diet

The main elements of a healthy diet are:

Balance- eat appropriate amounts of foods from each food group on the Food Guide Pyramid.

Variety- eat many different foods within each food group to ensure you get all the nutrients you need while minimizing exposure to natural toxins.

Moderation- fat, sugar, processed foods, snacks, and even alcohol, if you choose to drink it, can fit into a healthy diet, if they are consumed in limited amounts. The concept of moderation applies to serving sizes as well as to calorie control.

Minimally Processed Whole Food- enhance your intake of vitamins, minerals, fiber, and phytochemicals and minimize your intake of fats, salt, sweeteners, preservatives, food coloring, and other additives.

Calorie Control- for weight control. Filling up on fruits and vegetables will help you cut calories and get valuable nutrients.

Physical Activity- activity is not a nutrient, but it does impact weight control as well as how body processes nutrients like calcium to build strong bones.

These elements are explained in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and converted into specific nutritional advice in the Food Guide Pyramid. The latest version of the US Dietary Guidelines was published in 2005 and expands on these concepts. It focuses on 10 key areas summarized below. The full text of the Guidelines, which provide significant detail regarding each recommendation, can be viewed online at www.health.gov/dietaryguidelines. 

The experts who authored the 2005 Guidelines say that the overall message is: to control calories, be more physically active and choose healthy foods. A major step toward picking a better diet would be to eat more fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and fat-free or low-fat milk and milk products.

The latest version of the Food Guide Pyramid called mypyramid was also updated in 2005 to reflect the new dietary guidelines. An interactive food guide pyramid tool is available online at http://www.mypyramid.gov/. After you supply some personal data such as age, gender, height, and weight, it will calculate exactly how many servings of foods you should eat from each food group.

Turning all this advice into action may seem like a daunting task at first, but memory aids like the three rules described below can help you figure out how to choose healthy foods without needing to memorize pages of dietary details.

Looking for an Easy Way to Create Healthy Meals? Remember these 3 Rules

The Rule of Thirds

Mentally divide your plate into thirds.  Fill one-third with fruits and/or vegetables, one-third with a whole grain, and one-third with protein. Use a similar food group ratio when choosing snacks.

Create a Colorful Plate

Make sure your plate contains a variety of colorful produce. Plant pigments contain disease-fighting substances called phytochemicals. The different colors of pigments seem to provide different benefits. Apply the same concept to snacks, and you are well on your way to a healthy diet.

The 90:10 Rule

The 90:10 rule means that 90% of the calories in your diet should come from nutritious foods, and the other 10% can come from just for fun foods like sweets and snack items. According to this formula, a sedentary, middle-aged woman who needs only 1600 calories each day to maintain her weight can have 160 calories of fun food (a half-cup serving of low-fat, slow-churned ice cream supplies 125-140 calories). A man burning 2000 calories a day could have up to 200 calories worth of fun food.

Key Health Messages from the 2005 Dietary Guidelines

Consume a varied diet composed of nutrient-dense foods and beverages to ensure you get all the nutrients you need while minimizing exposure to any toxins (natural or man-made) that may be present in food.

Maintain body weight within a healthy range by balancing your calorie intake with exercise. Prevent gradual weight gain by slightly decreasing calories and increasing exercise as you age.

Chose a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. Eat a variety of colorful produce each day to make sure your get a mix of phytochemicals and other nutrients.

Drink 2-3 glasses of skim or low-fat milk or an equivalent, such as soymilk or calcium-enriched orange juice each day to meet your calcium needs.

Limit your fat intake. Fat should constitute no more than 20-35% of your total calorie intake. No more than 10% of your calories should come from saturated fat. Keep cholesterol intake at 300 mg per day or less and avoid trans fat whenever possible.

Limit your intake of sweets by choosing low-sugar versions of processed foods and monitoring the amount of sugar and other calorie-containing sweeteners like honey and syrup that you add to your foods.

Many dietitians advise the 90:10 rule; 90% of the foods you eat should be minimally processed items that promote health and good nutrition, and 10% of the food you eat should be “fun foods” like sweets and snacks.

Limit sodium to 2300 milligrams (mg) per day. This corresponds to consuming less than a teaspoon of salt per day either in processed or self-prepared foods. At the same time, consume more potassium (found in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains) to offset the adverse effects of sodium on blood pressure.

Eat plenty of fiber rich foods like whole grains, fruits, and vegetables. Fiber can help with weight control because it fills people up. It also seems to improve cholesterol metabolism and overall gut function. Eating a minimum of 3 servings of whole grain foods in addition to 2 and a half cups of colorful produce each day will help you meet your fiber needs.

If you choose to drink alcoholic beverages, do so in moderation. Moderation is defined as one drink per day for women and up to two drinks per day for men.

Increase physical activity and decrease the time spent in sedentary pursuits to improve weight control, cardiovascular health, muscle tone, and balance. In 2005, a specific recommendation regarding activity was included in the Guidelines for the first time. The experts who develop the Guidelines felt the escalating obesity crisis in the US required changes in the way we think about activity in relation to diet. The goal of the Guideline authors was to help Americans recognize the need to balance food intake with energy expenditure. To drive this point home, the latest version of the Food Guide Pyramid incorporates the silhouette of a person walking up the side of the pyramid.