If you frequently eat fast food, frozen dinners and other convenience foods, your diet is probably not balanced. When you have a nutritional imbalance, you may feel tired and sluggish, and you may gain weight. You can also develop health problems caused by getting too much or not enough of certain nutrients. Following dietary guidelines will help you get the fuel your body needs to grow and thrive now, and to escape chronic illness as you age.
Healthy Food vs. Junk Food
What distinguishes healthy food from junk food is an absence of added salt, fat and sugar. These healthy foods are often called "whole" or natural foods. While these salt, fat and sugar may occur naturally in healthy food, they are usually present in limited amounts. Processed foods such as chips, ice cream and candy typically have high amounts of salt, fat and sugar.
Balance Nutrition With Food Group Variety
Choosing healthy foods is easy when you follow the U.S. Department of Agriculture Dietary Guidelines for Americans' advice to eat a variety of foods from all the food groups. A meal that combines a single food from each group delivers a range of vitamins, minerals and other essential nutrients. A week's worth of meals derived from several foods in those groups provides the widest nutritional range. For instance, most foods don't include all eight B vitamins, but eating a combination of meats, fish, grains, beans and other vegetables will help you fulfill your body's daily vitamin B requirements.
Limit Fat in Healthy Food Choices
Some natural foods do have high proportions of fat, an essential nutrient that can harm your health if you get too much, rather than just enough, of it. Fat carries high calories and can also make you gain weight. The American Heart Association suggests choosing 1-percent or fat-free milk or yogurt and eating fish, which has less saturated fat than meats, a couple times a week. You can further reduce your total fat intake by trimming visible fat from meats and choosing lean loin or round cuts and removing the skin from poultry.
Control Portions and Your Weight
Protein and sugar also contribute generous amounts of calories in foods. You can make the biggest impact in weight control and nutritional balance by limiting your portions of foods such as meats, seafood, beans and sweetened items in your diet. The American Diabetes Association recommends eating 3-oz. servings of meat or fish, 1 cup of dairy products and ½ cup of cooked rice, pasta, potatoes or corn.
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