According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, there are more than 300,000 food products on the market; 12,000 new products were introduced between 1990 and 2000, all of them containing an array of ingredients, some of which are healthy --- and some not so healthy. It's difficult to point to a product --- take breakfast cereal, which provides fiber most Americans wouldn't ordinarily get, along with a slew of vitamins but also a lot of salt and sugar --- and call it healthy. That's why nutritional advice comes in broad themes rather than specifics. Look for nutrient density, low calories and avoiding unnecessary nutrients, to determine whether a food is healthy.
Is Nutrient-Dense
When selecting a food, consider how many nutrients, like vitamins, minerals, proteins, unsaturated fats or fiber you getting in light of the number of calories the food contains. Healthy foods provide a range of important nutrients within relatively few calories. Several resources, including the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, the Food Pyramid and Dietary Reference Intakes --- and your health care provider --- can help you determine your nutrient needs.
Fresh and Whole
Healthy foods tend to be fresh, unprocessed whole foods. They have been properly handled and prepared, and they don't raise your risk of food-borne illnesses, like salmonella or E. coli. If eating grain-based foods, the foods have been prepared using whole rather than refined grains. In addition, they were not prepared using extra fats or added sugars. They haven't been deep-fried in unhealthy oils and aren't genetically modified.
Does Not Exceed Calorie Needs
A food is healthy if, within the context of your total eating for a day, it does not exceed the number of calories you should have in one sitting. For example, if you're a woman following a 2,000-calorie eating regimen for three to five meals per day, having a breakfast combo from a fast food restaurant could provide you up to 1,300 calories in one sitting. That's 65 percent of the calories you need for the entire day, and doesn't speak to the fat and sodium content, which exceed your needs for nearly two days. A healthy food or meal will contain the right number of calories you need to maintain your weight.
Lacks Unhealthy Components
Added sugars, added saturated and trans fats aren't healthy. Your body doesn't need them and the foods that contain them often provide few additional nutrients to make eating them worthwhile. This isn't a rule etched in stone, but it's a good guideline to follow. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2010, for example, lists each of these items as foods Americans need to reduce, if not eliminate, from their diets. These foods increase your risk of weight problems and health conditions like high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease and Type 2 diabetes.
Considerations
Because of the mix of ingredients in foods, it's difficult to draw the line and ultimately declare one food healthy and another unhealthy. Take, for example, diet soda, which is a low-calorie drink and contains no fat or sodium. If these are the only factors, diet soda would be better to drink than orange juice. A portion of lean meat provides you with adequate protein and B vitamins, but also contains cholesterol and saturated fat. Judging a food as healthy based on the presence or absence of one or two characteristics is faulty logic. That's why nutritionists and public health authorities make recommendations on total diet, or broad eating patterns, such as whole grains, fiber, and seafood, rather than telling you any particular food is healthy or unhealthy. Use common sense and you can safely call foods unhealthy when they are low in nutrients but high in a combination of calories, fats, added sugars and salts.
References
- Harvard School of Public Health: Healthy Eating Pyramid
- MyPyramid.gov; Choose "Nutrient Dense" Forms of Foods; February 2011
- MyPyramid.gov; What Should You Eat?; February 2011
- USDA Food and Nutrition Service; Implications of Restricting the Use of Food Stamp Benefits -- Summary; March 2007
- "New York Times"; Is It Healthy? Food Rating Systems Battle It Out; Andrew Martin; December 2007
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