A healthy diet is a balance of protein, dairy, vegetables, grains, and fruits. Your body needs many different nutrients that come from what you eat. No one food has them all. This is why a balanced diet is so important. The amount of food you should eat depends on how much you exercise and your age. A healthy eating pattern promotes a healthy body weight. It can also help lower your risk of chronic diseases including heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and some kinds of cancer.

You should also limit unhealthy foods that have a lot of saturated or trans fats, added sugars and sodium. Some examples are butter, hot dogs, candy, pizza, and other processed meats and food.

The United States government provides healthy eating guidelines. They are based on the latest medical research. The table below outlines the US Healthy Eating Pattern recommendations.

 US Healthy Eating Patterns

There are other diets that meet the healthy eating pattern. There is the Mediterranean Diet. It includes more fruits and seafood and less dairy than the US diet. If you prefer a vegetarian diet, you don’t eat meat, poultry, or seafood. To balance your diet, you can replace them with beans and peas, soy products, nuts and seeds, and whole grains.

A healthy diet is the key, for a healthy life that you can lead!