Healthy Eating Guidelines
Essential Nutrition Tips for Healthier Eating

The keys to good nutrition are balance, variety and moderation.



Following some basic healthy eating guidelines can help you achieve this balance. To stay healthy, your body needs the right balance of carbohydrates, fats, and protein – the three main components of nutrition. You also need vitamins, minerals, water and other substances from many different foods.

While some foods are better than others, no single food or food group has it all – so eating a variety of different foods is essential. Moderation means eating neither too much nor too little of any food or nutrient. Too much food can result in excess weight and even too much of certain nutrients, while eating too little, can lead to numerous nutrient deficiencies and low body mass. Use these healthy eating guidelines as a resource for improving your daily nutrition sources.

Carbohydrates
Carbohydrates are the body's primary source of fuel (glucose) for energy. This family includes simple carbohydrates (sugars) and complex carbohydrates (starches). Though both types end up as glucose, foods that are high in complex carbohydrates, such as grains and vegetables, usually supply a good-health bonus of vitamins, minerals and fiber. Meanwhile, simple carbohydrates from candy, cake, table sugar, syrups, sweetened cereals and other sources of concentrated sugar contribute "empty calories" that provide energy, but no nutrients.

According to the Dietary Reference Intakes published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), 45-65% of your calories should come from carbohydrates. In planning your diet, healthy eating guidelines indicate that 50-55% of your daily calories should come from carbohydrate sources, with the bulk of these calories supplied by complex carbohydrates. This means your daily diet should contain:

• whole grain foods with each meal
• plenty of vegetables
• fruit, two to three times per day

Learning and adopting some simple and healthy eating guidelines helps take the guess work out of your food choices and improves the nutritional content of what you eat.

Fats
Most people have a love/hate relationship with fat. Fat adds rich flavor and smooth texture to food and feels good in your mouth, so we love it. But, we hate the fact that it's the most concentrated (or fattening) source of energy — containing 9 calories per gram versus 4 calories per gram for carbohydrates and protein. With all the negative press fat has received, it's easy to forget that the body needs some fat to build healthy cells, cushion internal organs, keep skin and hair healthy and provide a layer of insulation beneath the skin.

The body can make most of the fat it needs, but dietary fat also supplies us with the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K, as well as essential fatty acids, linoleic, linolenic and arachidonic acids, which cannot be synthesized by the body. The problem with fat is that most of us consume the wrong kind of fats. Following these healthy eating guidelines, you can easily improve your choices of fat sources and amounts you consume.

There are different types of dietary fats and not all are alike. Saturated fats and trans fats are the most dangerous type and are linked to a higher risk of heart disease. Saturated fats are found primarily in animal foods and dairy products, but also in processed foods, snacks and other foods that use coconut, palm and other cooking oils. Most saturated fats raise blood cholesterol by increasing the levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol — the so-called "bad" cholesterol. In fact, they can raise blood cholesterol levels more than high-cholesterol foods.

Trans fats are vegetable oils that are made more solid by a chemical process called partial hydrogenation. Trans fats are found in many products, especially vegetable shortening, margarine, french fries, and many processed foods. Trans fats lead to clogged arteries even more than saturated fats.

However, polyunsaturated fats, found in vegetable and fish oils, and monounsaturated fats found in olive, canola and peanut oils lower blood LDL cholesterol when substituted for saturated fats in the diet. Still, all fats should be consumed in moderation, although the emphasis should be on lowering saturated fat consumption and eliminating trans fats and replacing it with more polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats.

The American Heart Association's Nutrition Committee strongly advises that healthy people over age 2 limit their intake of saturated fat to 7–10% of total calories. You should adjust total fat intake to meet your caloric needs, remaining within this 7-10% range. People who are overweight or obese should limit their total fat intake to no more than 30 percent of total calories.

Based on current data, the American Heart Association recommends that you follow these healthy eating guidelines specifically regarding fat consumption:

• Use naturally occurring, unhydrogenated oil such as canola or olive oil when possible.
• Look for processed foods made with unhydrogenated oil rather than hydrogenated or saturated fat.
• Use margarine as a substitute for butter, and choose soft margarines (liquid or tub varieties) over harder stick forms. Look for margarine with no more than 2 grams of saturated fat per tablespoon and with liquid vegetable oil as the first ingredient. Look for those labeled "trans-fat free."
• French fries, doughnuts, cookies and crackers are examples of foods that are high in trans-fatty acids (TFA). Consume them infrequently.
• Limit the saturated fat in your diet. If you do not eat a lot of saturated fat, you will not be consuming a lot of TFA.
• Minimize your consumption of commercially fried foods and commercial baked goods. Not only are these foods very high in fat, but that fat is also likely to be very hydrogenated, meaning a lot of TFA.
• Commercial shortening and deep-frying fats will continue to be made by hydrogenation and will contain TFA. That is just one more reason to eat fried fast food infrequently.

Protein
Proteins form the body's main structural elements and are found in every cell and tissue. Your body uses proteins for growth (especially for children, teens, and pregnant women) and to build and repair bone, muscles, connective tissue, skin, internal organs and blood. Hormones, antibodies and the enzymes that regulate the body's chemical reactions are all made of protein. Without the right proteins, blood will not clot properly and cuts will not heal. And if carbohydrates and fat can't meet your energy needs, your body can break down proteins and use them as a source of emergency energy.

The average person needs 50-65 grams of protein each day. In addition to meat, poultry and fish, significant amounts of protein are found in beans, milk, eggs, dairy foods, seeds, nuts, grains and soy products. Most Americans get more than enough protein in their diet. As you can see from the list below, it's not hard to fill your daily protein quota. In fact, a single serving of meat supplies half your daily protein requirement!

• Four ounces of lean meat, poultry or fish contain 25 to 35 grams of protein
• One cup of cooked beans or lentils contains about 18 grams
• One cup of low-fat cottage cheese contains 28 grams
• Two ounces of solid cheese contains about 16 grams
• One cup of low-fat milk contains 8 grams
• Two tablespoons of peanut butter contain 8 grams
• One serving of grain foods (barley, pasta, cereals, whole wheat bread, for example) generally contains 3 to 6 grams of protein.
• One serving of vegetables ranges from 1 to 3 grams

So, as you can see, incorporating some of the ideas from these healthy eating guidelines is pretty natural.

Portion Control
Portion sizes of packaged foods and restaurant meals are 2-5 times larger than they were as recently as the 1970s! Similarly, our dinner plates at home have increased in size. All of this makes portion control more difficult. An easy way to help control how much we eat at home is to use a smaller dinner plate. Your plate will look full, but with less food on it. This will help your mind be satisfied that you are eating a full-sized meal while reducing the calories you consume.

Consider the effect of consuming an extra 100 calories per day. This would result in gaining 10lbs over a one year period. So, even seemingly insignificant amounts of extra calories per day can make a real difference in our weight management over time. Maintaining a healthy weight is simply a balancing act of “calories in = calories out.” Of course, losing weight requires a “calories in < calories out” eating program. Use these healthy eating guidelines to control your portion sizes and calorie intake in a healthy way.


Additional Resources for Healthy Eating Guidelines
For additional nutrition tips and healthy eating guidelines, see these resources:

Simple Healthy Eating Tips for Your Success
List of healthy eating tips you can easily incorporate into your diet to get started with your weight loss success!

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