A healthy diet helps you manage your weight, ensures you get the right mix of nutrients and provides your body with the resources it needs to fight infection, repair cells and perform other essential tasks. There are several different guidelines to walk you through the process of creating a healthy diet. Eating a healthy, balanced diet may take thinking and planning at first, but once you've been doing it for a while, making these choices will become second nature.
Step 1
Eat 2 1/2 cups of vegetables, or about five servings, every day. Make sure your weekly meal plan includes a mix of dark green vegetables (like greens, lettuce and broccoli), orange vegetables (such as carrots and squash), dry beans and peas (including black beans, black-eyed peas and kidney beans), starchy vegetables (like corn, potatoes and green peas) and other vegetables, like artichokes, mushrooms or zucchini.
Step 2
Include four servings--about 2 cups--of fruit in your diet every day. Apples, bananas, strawberries, grapefruit, grapes, oranges and raisins are just some of the fruit options. You can count fruit juice toward your daily total as long as it's 100 percent juice.
Step 3
Get 3 cups of dairy products every day, including a mix of milk, cheese, yogurt and milk-based desserts such as ice cream or pudding.
Step 4
Eat at least 3 oz. of whole grains every day. Choose bread, rolls, cereal and pasta made with whole grains rather than the varieties made with refined white flour.
Step 5
Plan to eat 5 to 6 ½ oz. of protein every day. Lean meats, including beef, pork and chicken, are good options, and fish is a good source of protein, too. Beans, eggs, nuts and seeds are also good sources of protein that can stand in for meat at some meals.
Step 6
Limit the amount of oil in your diet to less than 7 tsp. per day. Try to choose plant-based oils, like olive oil, canola or vegetable oil, over animal-based oils like butter and lard to control your cholesterol levels.
Step 7
Read nutrition labels so you can choose foods with less than 3 g of saturated fat and no trans fat.
Step 8
Eat at least three meals every day, including breakfast, and include at least one food from each of the major food groups at each meal.
Step 9
Limit your consumption of sodium, saturated fat, sugar and cholesterol.
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