Health In Eating: Very Important

The concept of healthy eating applies to everyone, at any age or in any condition, and is defined by balance. You must balance your consumption of calories from food with the energy you burn off through exercise. You must balance your intake of essential nutrients, getting enough but not too much of any one element. This entails regulating when you eat as well. The National Institutes of Health relate that eating three meals a day offers a consistent influx of nutrition.

Calories

Controlling your caloric intake both manages your weight and helps to ensure that you don't get too many nutrients that can harm your health when consumed in excess. The FDA defines an average diet as 2,000 food calories per day. You can monitor your numbers by adding up the per-serving calories listed on food package labels. Make sure you eat the recommended serving size or alter the number of calories if you eat more or less than that.

Adequate Nutrients

To grow new tissue and fulfill metabolic processes, you need many essential nutrients. The USDA targets calcium, potassium, dietary fiber and vitamin D as those that may be lacking in many diets. Make special efforts to achieve your total daily values, or DVs, of these nutrients, along with iron, magnesium and vitamins A, B, C, E and K. A varied diet will help you achieve this balance daily, while providing plenty of protein and carbohydrates, which most Americans do get enough of. Emphasize whole grains, fruits, vegetables and low-fat meats, fish and dairy products, which meet the USDA definition of healthy foods.

Limited Nutrients

The nutrients that you may over-consume include fat, cholesterol and sodium. These are abundant in many fast foods, snacks and canned and frozen foods and may be attended by high calories. Solid trans and saturated fats and cholesterol can degrade blood vessels, and high sodium promotes high blood pressure. Staying within your DVs of these nutrients will keep you in the healthy eating range.

Balancing Nutrition

Even if you didn't pay attention to DV figures, moderate servings of a variety of foods would lend balance to your diet. To consciously choose variety, draw your meal ingredients from different members of each of the five food groups each day. Examples include apples, oranges and berries from the fruit group and cereal, brown rice and barley from the grain group. Vegetable selections are numerous, and among the dairy and protein food groups, low-fat choices represent the most healthy foods for your diet.