Understanding a Well Balanced Diet

A well balanced diet contains a variety of foods. Knowing about the different food types makes it easier to make choices about your diet. It gives you the strength to get through the day and help you be healthier and live longer. It is recommend that a ‘balanced diet’ includes foods from each of the five major food groups:

• fruits
• vegetables
• grains 
• meats
• dairy 

The ‘secret’ to maintaining good health is to combine a healthy eating plan with daily physical activity. While it may seem easy to follow the latest fad diet or trend going around, many of these plans excessively restrict your intake of foods or entire food groups which can mean you are missing out on key nutrients. Diets can also be hard to stick to for longer than a few weeks, and many people simply revert back to their old habits in the end.

Your diet might be unbalanced if it contains too many so-called ‘junk foods’. These are foods and drinks that contain a high calories but are low on nutrients such as fried potatoes, fries, burgers, cakes, biscuits, hotdog, soft drinks and alcohol. Having too many junk foods in your diet can lead to weight gain and increase your chance of developing heart disease, diabetes, vitamin deficiencies and other health problems. By replacing some or all of these foods with more nutritious alternatives like fruit, vegetables and milk, cheese and yogurt, you can achieve a more balanced diet.