One of the most essential components of a well-balanced diet is eating foods from all five food groups most days.Each food group offers your body a variety of vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients essential to your health.
In addition to eating foods from all five food groups, it's also important to eat a variety of different foods within each food group.
In addition to eating a wide variety of foods and ensuring you consume all the recommended nutrients, you should also balance how many calories you eat each day.
Do not follow a diet program that promotes the avoidance of certain foods or excessive intake of others. These kinds of diets may cause you to eat too much of one nutrient and not enough of another, which may make your diet unbalanced.
A well-balanced diet can include some higher calorie or indulgent treats. Although these foods shouldn't be eaten on a regular basis, they are acceptable as part of a healthy, well-balanced diet.
To help you plan out your well-balanced diet, it might be helpful to write a meal plan for yourself. This will allow you to see if you're meeting the basics of a nutritionally sound diet — like eating a serving of foods from each food group and varying your food choices over the week.
Protein is an essential nutrient that you need in relatively large amounts. Including a source of protein at every meal and snack can help you meet your daily goals.
These foods contain a large variety of vitamins, minerals and fiber. They're also a great source of health-boosting antioxidants that you cannot get from other foods.
The grain food group contains both whole and refined grains. If you can, make half or all of your grain choices 100% whole grain.
Fat is not considered a food group; however, it is considered an essential nutrient for a well-balanced diet. That being said, you need to be careful not to eat too much fat or too much of the wrong types of fat.
Sometimes it might not be possible to consume all the food groups or a wide variety of foods. This may be due to food allergies, food sensitivities, or chronic diseases. In this case, it's still essential to consume adequate amounts of all essential nutrients through other sources like vitamin and mineral supplements. Try to get as many nutrients from your diet as possible and only use supplements if needed.
Maintaining a balanced diet can be a little difficult or confusing. However meeting with a registered dietitian can help provide you with more information, guidance and support for your dietary changes.