Meals For A Balanced Diet – The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) provides dietary guidance to Americans to help them eat healthily. For a long time, the USDA displayed its recommendations using a food pyramid. In 2011, it switched to a new graphic of a plate filled with the correct amounts of food. Known as MyPlate, it focuses on variety, quantity and nutrition for each meal. Healthy food is important for managing or preventing chronic disease and enjoying a better quality of life. Use MyPlate to create a healthy eating routine and lifestyle.
Healthy eating can promote health and reduce the risk of chronic disease, such as diabetes, some cancers, heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke and many others. Using MyPlate can help you reach your health goals and perhaps extend your life.
Meals For A Balanced Diet
Oils are not considered a food group on MyPlate. However, they do contain nutrients. Make sure to consume them in limited portions. The USDA recommends an average of 5 teaspoons of oil each day. There are a number of oils made from different plants and nuts as well as fish. Solid fats, such as butter or chicken fat, are often made from animal foods. Before choosing oils, look at the ingredients on the Nutrition Facts label. Oils and fats can contain both good and bad fats.
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MyPlate encourages us all to limit foods and drinks high in sugar, saturated fat and sodium, and to limit alcoholic beverages.
Use USDA’s MyPlate to balance your diet. There are several ways to customize MyPlate for personal use, including:
Choose a variety of foods that are rich in nutrients. Remember that the amount of food you should consume from the 5 food groups each day varies. Gender, age and activity level all determine your portions. Talk to your doctor about your diet. They can make suggestions based on your health and any conditions you may have. Certain programs and apps can help you track your food intake. Some will balance the food intake with the exercise effect.
Almost everyone should get some physical activity every day. Check with your doctor if you have a health problem that can prevent or limit this. On average, children should be active for at least 60 minutes each day. Adults should be active for at least 150 minutes each week. Exercise for both children and adults should include a mix of moderate and vigorous intensity. Aim to do a variety of activities to maximize your health benefits.
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This information provides a general overview and may not apply to everyone. Talk to your GP to find out if this information applies to you and to get more information on this topic.by Libby Bloom · This post may contain affiliate links · 1 comment · 1637 words. · About 9 minutes to read this article.
A balanced meal: a meal that provides the nutrients and energy you need to keep you full and nourished.
When building a balanced meal, the top priorities are flexibility, enjoyment and gentle nutrition. Making a balanced meal doesn’t have to be complicated or time-consuming.
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But there is one thing I can tell you right away – drop the food rules. Trying to navigate strict food rules (eat this, not that…) will certainly make it harder (and less enjoyable) to make balanced meals.
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Let’s take a moment to talk about intuitive eating. Intuitive eating is about listening to your body without judgment, honoring your hunger and fullness, and giving yourself permission to eat whatever you want without food rules or guilt. It is the exact opposite of the diet mentality.
Is the most important part here. By ditching the diet mentality, listening to our body’s hunger and satiety signals and noticing how each food choice makes our body feel, we can stop obsessing over the foods we eat and just enjoy them already. Intuitive eating means thinking about what food sounds good to us
Many people may think that meal planning and intuitive eating are mutually exclusive, but in my opinion they go hand in hand.
With intuitive eating, it’s important to listen to your body and decide what foods you like and what foods make you feel good.
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But if you’re anything like me, you probably don’t have time to think about what you want to eat and then go grocery shopping every day. This is where planning ahead comes into play.
Planning ahead makes the process more efficient. Being prepared with the ingredients and meals you enjoy will help you honor your hunger, because the food is already available.
Building a balanced meal isn’t about making sure you have the right amount of this and not too much of that.
Protein, fat and carbohydrates are the three macronutrients, each of which is broken down into components that provide calories and energy. In contrast, vitamins and minerals are what we call micronutrients.
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Food often provides more than one macronutrient. For example, quinoa is mostly carbohydrates, but it also contains protein, fiber and a small amount of fat.
Carbohydrates are made of sugars (not table sugar) called monosaccharides and disaccharides. Carbohydrates are the body’s most important source of energy. The brain. Muscles. Everything needs carbohydrates to function.
Sources of carbohydrates include fruits, beans, vegetables (starchy and non-starchy) and grains (whole and refined such as rice, pasta, corn, wheat, oats, quinoa).
Fats (also known as fatty acids) are energy-rich and help us absorb fat-soluble vitamins such as vitamins A, D, E and K. Fats are important for the brain, hormone production, and important for healthy skin, hair and nails.
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Sources of fat include oil (olive, coconut, canola, etc.), butter, nuts, seeds, avocados, meat, poultry, eggs, dairy products, olives. Take a look at our low price on fats for more information on different types of fats.
Protein is built with different amino acids that help build enzymes and muscle tissue. Protein plays an important role in the growth and function of almost everything in our body.
Fiber isn’t technically its own macronutrient (it’s actually a carbohydrate), but it’s super important to your health. And most people would benefit from adding more, so I’m including it here as its own component.
Fiber is known as roughage – the part of plants that our bodies cannot digest. Unlike the other macronutrients, our bodies do not break down fiber. Instead, it remains intact as it passes through the digestive system and out of the body. Fiber can help lower cholesterol, keep you full longer, help regulate bowel movements and keep blood sugar more stable.
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What do you do now if you find that your meal is not balanced? Well, it’s usually a pretty easy fix.
Having different options available can help ensure you have balanced meals AND keep things flexible so you can still eat according to what sounds good.
I always have a few different carb options (rice, farro, potatoes, tortillas, bread, pasta) and they don’t all have to be whole wheat.
Sometimes a bowl of white rice with tofu and vegetables sounds good. And other days I prefer brown rice. By having both available, you have the option depending on what sounds good.
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Simple protein additions include canned fish, canned/dried beans, nuts or nut butters, tofu, eggs, and frozen chicken or beef. Keeping a variety of long-lasting options on hand can help save the unbalanced meal.
Olive oil, nuts and seeds, and cheese are all easy sources of fat to keep on hand. After all, an extra drizzle of olive oil never hurt anyone.
And when we have extra at the end of the week (spinach, kale, cauliflower, etc.), they become the perfect addition to big weekend breakfasts or a leftovers night. Planning ahead can also help reduce food waste!
I also keep lots of different fruits on hand for quality snacks, like apples, bananas, oranges and other fruits in season.
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From a nutritional point of view, we know that different foods provide different nutrients that the body needs. So by eating a variety of foods, we help ensure that the body gets everything it needs to function as well as possible.
Remember, there is no right or wrong way to do this. Some people have no problem eating the same thing several times a week (my parents make a different balanced soup every Sunday and eat it all week). Sounds boring to me… But it works for them!
On the other hand, I like my variety and am perfectly fine with cooking every night so I get more variety in my meals. I use a combination of pantry items and perishables, and easily switch things up if I feel like making something different than I originally planned.
How is your satiety after that meal? Do you feel satisfied? How long do you stay full? One hour? Two? Five?
How To Build A Balanced Meal
The biggest thing to consider with intuitive eating and building a balanced meal is to keep things flexible. When we start making rules and rigidity around our meals – that’s where the diet mentality starts to creep in.
Eat a salad because you like it and it makes you feel good. Don’t eat a salad because you think you should and want to be “good”.
Don’t focus on the calories or points when you decide to eat something. And leave morals out. Food is food. Not good or bad.
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