WHAT SHOULD HEALTHY EATING LOOK LIKE?

Characteristics of a Healthy Diet: Challenges of Choosing the Right Foods

Every person is unique and so is the way they eat. Everyone’s diet looks different based on things like age, weight, flavor, availability, and convenience.  But there are five things that should remain the same in every diet.  These five characteristics of a healthy diet are adequacy, balance, calorie control, moderation and variety. 

Adequacy  A characteristic that provides a person the ideal amount of essential vitamins and minerals every day.  A dietary example of adequacy would be ensuring you eat up to 9 servings of a variety of fruit and vegetables each day.  For more information on fruits and vegetables you can visit www.fruitsandveggiesmorematters.org

Balance  When planning what to eat each day and how much to eat, it is important to chose the proper amount from each food group.  Too much or too little of any one nutrient can either provide an overabundance of nutrients or cause a deficiency.  An example of what a balanced diet looks like might be finding out what the proper amount of carbohydrates, fats, and proteins one should eat based on their caloric intake.  For any one meal a balanced diet might consist of a ½ cup of whole grain rice, 1 cup of steamed broccoli, and 4 ounces of grilled boneless chicken.  Additionally, a cup of fat-free milk will provide the dairy requirements.

Calorie control:  The human body needs energy to function.  Energy for the body is provided in the form of calories.  Each person is unique in the amount of calories they should consume based on age, height, weight, and activity level.  A person should strive to not go over their daily caloric requirement.  Doing so can cause weight gain because excess calories not used will store as fat in the body. 

Moderation: When practicing moderation in our diet we strive to not overindulge in foods that are unhealthy.  Also moderation can mean to spread out meals throughout the day versus consuming all your calorie need in one to two meals.  We should use moderation in consuming foods such as saturated fat, cholesterol, and sodium.  That is not to say that we need to always avoid these types of food.  It is important, however, to use control in how much we eat.  As an example, let us say we chose to eat at McDonald’s.  Maybe getting a junior hamburger and a small fry and a diet coke could be an example of eating in moderation.  Yes these choices aren’t healthy, but in moderation it shouldn’t have a negative impact on your whole day as long as your remaining calories come from sensible choices.

Variety:  People should always strive to choose a variety of foods from each food group throughout the day.  Even if you are always choosing healthy foods, if you’re not changing up the type of food then you might be depriving yourself of essential nutrients.  Let us use protein as an example.  Grilled chicken is a very healthy option, but should not be your only protein source.  Variety would include eating a lean beef, fish, or legumes to help provide additional nutrients not available in chicken.  Fruit is another great example.  Fruits and vegetables come in all types of different vibrant colors.  Eating only broccoli every day or only apples every day would not provide us with all essential vitamins and minerals we need.  Most of us have heard of the food guide pyramid.  A few short years ago, the pyramid was replaced with a new concept called "choose my plate".  These guidelines are much simpler and easier to follow and understand.  You can visit the site CHOOSE MY PLATE.  Once at the site you can enter your specific information and the site will build your specific plate guidelines.  Below is an example of what we're talking about.

Food plays a part in so many different aspects of our daily lives.  Every day, numerous times throughout the day, we make choices about the foods we are going to eat.  There are many factors that help influence our choices.  I believe hunger to be a driving factor, as our food choices tend to be different when we’re hungry.  Availability of food has to be one of the biggest factors.  Cost of food definitely plays a key role in types of food we choose to eat.  There are numerous factors that can be linked together.  For example, you are at work and realize you didn’t pack a lunch.  By the way, your lunch is healthy and cost efficient.  Availability of food becomes a factor and now you’re hungry, which usually means you’ll probably not make a healthy choice. Plus you’ll have to spend money on food, and it’s always cheaper to eat unhealthy options.

Individually, we have factors that influence our food choices.  Such factors include our emotional state.  Many people tend to look for food in times of stress, emotional eaters.  Our normal lifestyle habits are key to our choices.  We eat what is familiar to us and what we are used to eating.  Many times we eat how we were taught to eat from our parents. 

REFERENCES:

Sizer, F. & Whitney, E. (2013).  Nutrition: Concepts and Controversies (13th ed.).  Mason,                 OH: Cengage Learning.

Chu-Ping, L., & Tashiro, S. (2011). Balancing nutrition, luxury, and time constraints in food               preparation choices.  China Agriculture Economic Review, 3(2), 245-365.  Retrieved             from ProQuest Central.