Say No To Junk Food. 5 Keys To A Healthy Diet.

Everyone knows that it is important to eat a healthy diet, but actually achieving that goal can be more difficult. There are endless fad diets and new “superfoods”, as well as weekly changes to the list of which foods might get you sick. Maintaining a consistently healthy diet can be daunting, but if you understand the framework of a good dietary regimen, it is easier to stick with your goals and improve your overall wellness.

What is a Healthy Diet?

A healthy diet can be defined in many ways, but the general understanding is that a healthy diet is a balanced diet. The percentages may be different, but the three main categories of food are protein, carbohydrates, and fats. Generally, 20-35% of your daily calories should come from protein, 20-35% should come from fat, and 45-65% should come from carbohydrates. Those categories determine where the majority of your energy comes from, in the form of calories, but there are further divisions within those calorie areas.

You also need to consider what other nutrients come along with those calories, as well as potentially unhealthy substances that you should limit or completely eliminate from your diet. That is where the Harvard Food Pyramid comes into play.

Healthy Diet Food Pyramid

The Harvard Healthy Eating Pyramid is a helpful tool to visualize what constitutes a healthy diet and the types of food that you consume each day. It also helps in knowing the general concentrations and relative importance of different food varieties. There are six layers to this pyramid, as follows.

1. At the bottom of the pyramid, forming the foundation of the pyramid is whole-grain foods and vegetable oils. Generally speaking, you should have these foods at every meal, as they provide a significant amount of carbohydrates in the form of fiber and complex sugars, in addition to healthy fats in the oils.

2. The next layer is fruits and vegetables. 2-3 servings of fruits are recommended each day, along with a similar amount of vegetables, if not more. This is another area for carbohydrate consumption, which generates most of our energy on a daily basis.

3. Above fruits and vegetables are nuts, seed, and legumes, of which you should have 1-3 servings per day. These sources of calories are in the form of fats, protein, and carbohydrates, which have a number of other health benefits.

4. This layer includes fish, poultry, and eggs, which you can have 0-2 servings of each day, representing a sizable amount of protein in the diet.

5. Dairy products are the second to last layer of the pyramid, meaning that only a small amount of these should be consumed each day. These high-fat and high-protein foods also provide quite a few minerals and other essential nutrients, but should still be consumed in moderation, due to the variety of fats they contain.

6. The very peak of the pyramid is divided into red meat, as well as white bread, white pasta, potatoes, sugars, sweets, soda, junk food and other low-quality carbohydrates. Red meat should be consumed only a few times per week, and the same is true for sweets and simple sugar carbohydrates.

If you maintain a balanced, healthy diet based on the Healthy Eating Pyramid, you will definitely be able to see and feel the results.

Keys to a Healthy Diet

Some of the most important aspects of a healthy diet include eating smaller meals more often, avoiding fast food, not skipping meals and drinking more water.

Read more:

[link to www.organicfacts.net (secure)]