What is a healthy diet?

• Eat foods mainly made of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and legumes and limit highly processed foods
• Eating a wide variety of foods helps you get all the disease-fighting nutrients you need.
• You should keep your portions reasonable and check serving sizes.
• For a 2,000 calorie diet, you should eat 2 ½ cups of vegetables and 2 cups of fruit. Eat green, orange, red, blue/purple, and yellow produce.
• ½ of your grains should be whole wheat.
• Avoid trans fats- Trans fats reduce good cholesterol, raise bad cholesterol, and risk heart disease.
• Grains: 4-5 serving per day
• Vegetables: 4-5 servings per day
• Fruits: 4-5 servings per day
• Dairy: 2-3 servings per day
• Meats: Less than 6oz per day

Why is a healthy diet important?

Having a healthy diet can help you reach and maintain a healthy weight, reduce illness, and help your health. Having a healthy diet keeps your body functioning to its highest capability and keeps you going.

Pros:

1. Weight control: Staying within your calorie range is helpful for maintaining and achieving a healthy weight.
2. Blood sugar: Complex carbohydrates (whole grain, oatmeal, etc.) release sugar slowly into the bloodstreams which helps regulate blood sugar.
3. Decreased risk of heart disease: Healthful fats like olive oil, fish, and nuts help protect your heart.
4. Decreased risk of cancer: Antioxidants neutralize the free floating radicals in the body by giving them one of their electrons to make them stable molecules.

Cons:

1. Sugary foods can cause a spike in blood sugar. The body can handle occasional influxes of sugar but over time, the influxes can lead to insulin resistance. This is Type 2 Diabetes.
2. Consuming high-fat foods regularly can increase your cholesterol and triglyceride (type of fat) levels. This can lead to plaque build up in the arteries, which can lead to heart attacks, stroke, or heart disease.
3. Free floating radicals (damaging cells) are unstable and they look for and steal electrons from healthy cells. This causes damage to the cells which can lead to cancer.

Diseases: Unhealthy diet contributes to about 678,000 deaths in the U.S. a year from:

1. Heart disease
2. Diabetes
3. Obesity
4. High blood pressure
5. Stroke
6. Osteoporosis (fragile bones)
7. Cancer (cervical, colon, gallbladder, kidney, liver, ovarian, uterine, breast cancers, leukemia, and esophageal)

MyPlate:

Recommendations for ages 14-18

Calorie needs vary by your age, gender, and physical activity level

Fruits:

Female- 1 ½ cups

Male- 2 cups

Vegetables:

Female- 2 ½ cups

Male- 3 cups

Grains:

Female- 6 oz with 3 oz being whole wheat

Male- 8 oz with 4 oz being whole wheat

Protein:

Female- 5 oz

Male- 6 ½ oz

Dairy:

Female- 3 cups

Male- 3 cups

Oils:

Female- 5 teaspoons

Male- 6 teaspoons

• For a 2,000 calorie diet, you should eat 2 ½ cups of vegetables and 2 cups of fruit. Eat green, orange, red, blue/purple, and yellow produce.
• ½ of your grains should be whole wheat.
• Avoid trans fats- Trans fats reduce good cholesterol, raise bad cholesterol, and risk heart disease.
• Grains: 4-5 serving per day
• Vegetables: 4-5 servings per day
• Fruits: 4-5 servings per day
• Dairy: 2-3 servings per day
• Meats: Less than 6oz per day

How Can Eating a Healthy Diet Affect my Ability to Live a Healthy and Balanced Life?

Eating a healthy diet affects all forms of health, not just physical. By eating a healthy diet, I can improve my physical, mental, and social health. Eating a healthy diet and exercising helps to keep my body healthy and happy. If I'm eating the correct portion of food, I will not feel like I've over-eaten and will not have to worry about excess energy being stored as fat. If I eat healthy foods such as fruits and vegetables, they'll give me the nutrition I need for my body to function and the energy to keep me going. It improves my mental health because the nutrients travels to the brain to keep it functioning which improves your mind and mental state. Lastly, it improves my social health because if I have energy, and my mind is functioning properly, I’ll feel happy and good about myself which will help me want to talk to others and be social. Being able to take care of myself and be social with others is a good way to keep my life balanced and healthy. I like helping people, being energetic, and being knowing the correct answers so eating a healthy diet is very important to me. I want to be able to function at my highest potential and be the best I can. If you are functioning at your highest potential and improving all your stages of health, your life will feel healthy and balanced.

Resources

http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/HealthyLiving/HealthyEating/Nutrition/Suggested-Servings-from-Each-Food-Group_UCM_318186_Article.jsp#mainContent

http://www.berkeleywellness.com/healthy-eating/food/slideshow/14-keys-healthy-diet

http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/advantages-eating-healthy-food-3731.html

https://cspinet.org/eating-healthy/why-good-nutrition-important

http://www.lancastergeneralhealth.org/LGH/ECommerceSite/media/LGH-Media-Library/Documents/Services/Service%20Lines/Healthy%20Weight%20Management/Fact%20Sheets/Nutrition-13-18-Years.pdf

https://www.choosemyplate.gov/

https://choosemyplate-prod.azureedge.net/sites/default/files/printablematerials/myplate_magenta.jpg

https://www.fitness.gov/eat-healthy/why-is-it-important/

http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/eating-healthy-affect-physical-mental-social-health-6972.html