Healthy eating plate and pyramid

Healthy eating plate
| credits: www.health.harvard.edu

•Stay active. A healthy diet is built on a base of regular physical activity, which keeps calories in balance and weight in check.

•Go with plants. Eating a plant-based diet is healthiest. Make half your plate vegetables and fruits. Cook with healthy plant oils, like olive and canola oil. Get most or all of your protein from beans, nuts and seeds, or tofu.

•Pick healthy protein sources like fish and beans, not burgers and hot dogs. Eating fish, chicken, beans, or nuts in place of red meat and processed meat can lower the risk of heart disease and diabetes. So limit red meat—beef, pork, or lamb—to twice a week or less. Avoid processed meat—bacon, cold cuts, hot dogs, and the like—since it strongly raises the risk of heart disease, diabetes, and colon cancer.

•Make your grains whole grains. Grains are not essential for good health. What’s essential is to make any grains you eat whole grains, since these have a gentler effect on blood sugar and insulin.

Over time, eating whole grains (brown rice, whole wheat bread, whole grain pasta) in place of refined grains (white rice, white bread, white pasta) makes it easier to control weight and lowers the risk of heart disease and diabetes. Read more about whole grains.

•Drink water, coffee, or tea—not sugary beverages—and drink alcohol in moderation, if at all. What you drink is as important to your health as what you eat. Water is the best choice, and coffee and tea also have health benefits. Sugary drinks are the worst choice, because they add empty calories, leading to weight gain, in addition to raising the risk of diabetes and heart disease. Limit milk and dairy to one to two servings per day, since high dairy intake can increase the risk of some diseases, and go easy on juice, since it is high in sugar.

Source: Harvard School of Public Health