What Do You Need For A Balanced Diet?

Balancing your diet means getting all of the essential nutrients in their required amounts from the foods you eat and any supplements you take. Your body needs more of some elements and fewer of others. This helps you to achieve metabolic equilibrium and to avoid health issues and weight gain. To fulfill your dietary needs, the USDA suggests eating a varied diet from the vegetable, grain, fruit, dairy and protein food groups in moderation.

Variety

The diversity within and among the food groups offers enough of all of the dozens of nutrients your body needs to sustain life and perform activities. The American Heart Association notes that color variety in fruits and vegetables indicates vitamin and mineral variety. Different choices among oats, rye, barley, wheat, corn and rice products in the grain group provides different ratios of fiber. Milk, yogurt and cheese offer various combinations of calcium with other nutrients, and alternating selections of meats, poultry, fish and beans will help you strike a balance in types of protein.

Emphasis on Vitamins, Minerals and Fiber

For better long-term health, eat the foods in each group with greater amounts of vitamins, minerals and dietary fiber most often. This will ensure the proper balance with protein and other nutrients. For instance, cooked spinach and carrots have greater concentrations of vitamin A and fiber than celery and onions. Fortified milk has more vitamin D than unfortified yogurt. The percent daily values on food labels reveal a food serving's content of fiber, vitamins A, B, C, D, E and K and iron, calcium and other minerals.

Limits on Fat, Sodium, Sugar and Cholesterol

An additional guideline for food choices is to limit total fat, cholesterol, sodium and sugar in the foods you eat most often. Choosing fat-free dairy products over those with full contents, for example, will reduce your saturated fat and cholesterol intake for better heart health. Eating foods with less added salt and sugar will also help balance your intake of foods that naturally contain sodium and sugar.

Calorie Control

Even if your meals are nutritionally balanced, your calorie intake may not be unless you consciously control your serving portions. Food labels state the suggested serving size that relates to both nutrient and calorie content. Eating more or less than that will change the dietary value of the food. Consuming more calories than you can expend in a day from too-large portions will make you gain weight and increase your risk for health problems such as diabetes and heart disease.