A Balanced Diet
Dr Trisha MacNair
A combination of food types
The term 'balanced diet' is one of those
health mantras that is constantly heard but rarely
explained. What it means is a diet that includes a
combination of several different food types, including
grains and pulses, fresh fruit and vegetables, meat,
dairy products, fats and oils.
Food
fact
Eating
at least three servings of wholegrain foods each day
could reduce your risk of heart disease and certain
cancers by up to 30 percent.
Crucial to the idea
of a balanced diet is including foods in the right
proportions; the aim is to get all the nutrients your
body needs while maintaining a healthy weight. The US
government provides a basic idea of what nutrients we
need at
www.nal.usda.gov.
(These are guidelines for Americans, but we Brits aren't
much different!)
It isn't a case of having roughly equal
measures of everything. There should be a lot of some
foods and just a little of others. Some fats and oils,
for example, are important in the diet for various
reasons, including absorption of fat-soluble vitamins.
But you only need a small amount compared with foods
such as vegetables.
Balancing act
In the UK, the Food Standards Agency has
developed a program called The Balance of Good Health to
show people what proportions and types of foods make up
a healthy balanced diet.
This divides foods into five different
groups:
-
bread, other cereals and potatoes
-
fruit and vegetables
-
milk and dairy foods
-
meat, fish and alternatives
-
foods containing fat and foods containing sugar
The
largest groups are bread and vegetables, followed by
milk and meat. The smallest by far is the salt and sugar
group. For more information on what's included in each
one, see
Nutrition basics.
Fresh fruit and
vegetables are low in fat, calories and salt, and an
excellent source of vitamins, minerals and fiber. Most
of us don't eat enough to meet the current
recommendation of three to five servings of vegetables
and two to four servings of fruit a day. If a minimum of
five daily servings seems a tall order, check out
Dole 5 a Day
for some great ideas.
Protein-rich foods and dairy foods are
needed in more moderate amounts. Your diet should
include two to three servings of milk or dairy produce a
day, for example. Take care that protein-rich foods
don't bring a lot of fat with them; trim the fat off
meat and take the skin off chicken. Think about how you
cook foods too; meat fried or in breadcrumbs adds extra
fat.
How much is a serving?
The size of a serving
of some foods, especially fruit, is easy to work out;
common sense is also a good guide. More specifically,
the USDA
Food Guide Pyramid
outlines standard serving sizes for many foods, based on
the American imperial system of cups. For example, one
cup of milk counts as one serving, as does half a cup of
pasta or a slice of bread.
How many servings we need of each food
group every day depends on our age, gender and level of
activity.
Combining foods
It's not too difficult to keep track of
how many servings of certain individual foods we eat
each day, such as an apple of a piece of cheese. But
what happens when you throw a number of foods together
in a meal?
All you need to do is break a meal down
into its individual ingredients. For example, shepherd's
pie with a cheesy crust combines foods from two or more
groups, depending on how you make it, including:
-
minced lamb or beef (meat)
-
potato, carrot and onion (fruit and vegetables)
-
cheese (milk and dairy)
To discover the
nutritional content of different meals, click
here.
Health tip
Want to eat more whole grains but aren't sure what they
are? Whole meal bread, oats, wholegrain breakfast
cereals, brown rice, pot barley, sweet corn, pure rye
crackers and oat or brown rice cakes all count.
Starting early
The earlier the message about eating a
healthy, balanced diet is drummed in, the better.
Children form habits very quickly and, once set in, bad
ones are difficult to shift!
There are lots of internet sites that
provide educational games for children to help them
learn about good nutrition. Try one of the following:
The goal
Don't forget what you're trying to
achieve:
-
a variety of foods
-
plenty of grains, vegetables and fruits
-
low fat intake,
especially saturated fats
-
moderate sugar intake
-
moderate salt intake
-
keep a lid on alcohol
intake
And, of course, don't forget to balance
food intake with physical activity.
www.bbc.co.uk
This article was last medically reviewed
by Dr Rob Hicks in October 2005.
First published in May 2001.
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