Healthy Food Choices for Energy

Getting energy from your foods is an important part of choosing a diet that fits your activity level. Try these tips for buying energy foods in this healthy shopping video.

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Measure energy in calories
Learn where calories originate
Get 20% of calories from meat, protein group
Get less than 30% of calories from fat

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Michelle Cooper has been a registered dietician for more than 10 years. She currently works for the state of North Carolina for the New Hanover County School District in the Child Nutrition Department as the supervising registered dietician on staff. She specializes in child nutrition, child fitness and overall child health. She enjoys her job because it allows her to be a pivotal piece of child development.

MICHELLE COOPER: Next, we're going to talk about energy. Energy is measured in calories. Energy is what we need everyday to perform our job, to exercise, so everything that we do is fueled by the calories that we eat. If you look at the food guide pyramid for adults, you'll see that most of your calories or your energy should come from complex carbohydrates, which are things like fruits and vegetables, whole grains, cereals and breads, wheat pasta, whole wheat, brown rice and that sort of thing, so about 50% of your caloric intake should be from this group right here. Twenty percent of your caloric intake or your energy needs should be supplied by foods that are found in the meat, meat alternate or protein group, which would also be nuts and beans as well. And lastly, no more than 30% of your energy needs or your caloric intake should be from fat. And of that fat, we want to make sure that mostly it is polyunsaturated or monounsaturated with only 10% of saturated fat supplying those needs. So remember, when we're talking about energy, we're talking about calories. And number one, you want most of your calories to be from complex carbohydrates such as fruits and vegetables and whole grains. Twenty percent of those calories are going to be from protein, and no more than 30% of those calories are going to be from fat.

Healthy Food Choices for Energy Video

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