Despite being essential, a balanced diet is something we all struggle with. Here’s a basic explanation of what a balanced diet involves so you can get started.
If you’ve been trying to eat healthy, you must be wondering what a balanced diet consists of. A balanced diet will positively impact your health, so welcome to the self-care journey, and let’s get started.
What?
It is a diet that gives the nutrition and calories your body requires to function in your lifestyle. The nutrients should ideally come from the five food groups: fruits, vegetables, grains, dairy, and proteins. As nutritional science has advanced, there are guidelines on what a balanced meal looks like.
Why?
A balanced diet will aid in your developmental growth and keep it healthy and strong enough to fight off diseases. If you want to function well and get all your work done, you will need energy. You require this energy according to your lifestyle. Your age, sex, and daily activities determine how many calories you will need per day.
Calories in a balanced diet can’t be empty. These calories should provide you with nutritional value. Foods with empty calories include processed and junk foods, such as restaurant pizza, energy drinks, cakes, etc. That’s why it’s a called cheat day when you eat these empty calories. Homemade food is healthier as it uses fresh ingredients that aren’t processed and thus retain their nutritional value.
How?
A balanced diet will have servings of different food groups that fulfill your nutrient requirements of vitamins, calories, minerals, proteins, etc. Since you can’t eat all food groups in one meal, you can divide them throughout the day.
You can eat grains such as cereals in the mornings with any dairy of your choice. You can also consume grains in meals such as rice and pasta. However, keep away from refined grains such as white flour. Since you want nutritional value with vitamins, fiber, and minerals, switching to whole grain options is better.
Vegetables and fruits are essential. Different kinds have different vitamins and antioxidants. It’s better to eat the seasonal ones and vary them in your diet. Adding them to breakfast and dinner is a good idea. You can have protein in plant or animal form. Whether it is meat, pulses, or nuts, you have many sources of proteins. Serving size will differ because each has different amounts of protein in them.
While dairy can provide you protein, vitamin D, and calcium, it also contains fat. Try going for unsweetened and low-fat options. If you’re lactose intolerant or vegan, there are alternatives.
Cutting down on processed fats is essential for a healthy lifestyle. However, you do need healthy fats and oils in your diet. Olive oil, vegetable oil, fish oil, cheese, etc., should be added in servings to make your meals tastier.
Wrap Up
Now that you have an idea of what a balanced diet looks like, you can try incorporating your favorite foods from each group while balancing the serving sizes and other food groups. Keep observing your energy levels and realize how much better you feel with this lifestyle change.
