Plus, nutrition articles that you read online can be downright confusing with their contradictory — and often unfounded — suggestions and rules.

This article cuts through the noise to explain what healthy eating means and how to make it work for you. First, food is what fuels you and delivers the calories and nutrients your body needs to function.

If your diet is deficient in calories or one or more nutrients, your health may suffer. Likewise, if you eat too many calories, you may experience weight gain. People with obesity have a significantly increased risk of illnesses like type 2 diabetes, obstructive sleep apnea, and heart, liver, and kidney disease 1 , 2.

Additionally, the quality of your diet affects your disease risk, longevity , and mental health. While diets rich in ultra-processed foods are linked to increased mortality and a greater risk of conditions like cancer and heart disease, diets comprising mostly whole, nutrient-dense foods are associated with increased longevity and disease protection 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8.

Diets rich in highly processed foods may also increase the risk of depressive symptoms, particularly among people who get less exercise 4 , 9. Healthy eating is important for many reasons, including fueling your body, acquiring necessary nutrients, lowering your disease risk, increasing your longevity, and promoting optimal mental and physical well-being.

For instance, some people feel healthiest when following a low carb diet , while others thrive on high carb diets. In general, though, eating healthy has nothing to do with adhering to diets or certain dietary rules.

The specifics may be different for each person depending on their location, financial situation, culture and society, and taste preferences. Rather, it means prioritizing your health by fueling your body with nutrient-rich foods.

When you conceptualize healthy eating, your first thought might be about calories. Even though calories are important, your primary concern should be nutrients. For example, a candy bar or a box of mac and cheese may be incredibly high in calories but lack vitamins, minerals, protein, and fiber.

For example, egg whites are much lower in calories and fat than whole eggs. Plus, although some nutrient-dense foods, such as numerous fruits and veggies, are low in calories, many — like nuts, full fat yogurt, egg yolks, avocado, and fatty fish — are high in calories. As a general rule, try to mostly eat foods that are high in nutrients like protein, fiber, healthy fats, vitamins, and minerals.

These foods include veggies, fruits, nuts, seeds, beans, fatty fish , and eggs. Macronutrients — the main nutrients you get from food — are carbs, fat, and protein. Fiber is considered a type of carb.

Generally, your meals and snacks should be balanced between the three. In particular, adding protein and fat to fiber-rich carb sources makes dishes more filling and tasty Plus, counting macros and obsessing about staying within a certain macro range may lead to an unhealthy fixation with food and calories or cause disordered eating tendencies For example, if you feel your best on a low carb diet, simply choosing low carb foods like nonstarchy veggies, proteins, and fats more often than high carb foods will usually suffice.

One of the best ways to improve your diet is to cut back on ultra-processed foods. In fact, many healthy foods like shelled nuts, canned beans, and frozen fruits and veggies have been processed in one way or another. In contrast, highly processed products like soda, mass-produced baked goods, candy, sugary cereals, and certain boxed snack food contain little if any whole food ingredients.

These items tend to pack ingredients like high fructose corn syrup , hydrogenated oils, and artificial sweeteners 9 , 22 , Research links diets high in ultra-processed foods to a greater risk of depression, heart disease, obesity, and many other complications 9 , 24 , On the other hand, diets low in these foods and high in whole, nutrient-dense foods have the opposite effect, protecting against disease, lengthening lifespan, and promoting overall physical and mental well-being 5 , 6 , 7 , 8.

Include a variety of nutrient-dense, whole foods in your diet, taking care to limit highly processed items. Zeratsky cautions to also be careful with fad diets. Lichtenstein agrees, and says such diets can make it hard to achieve lasting results.

She adds that there are medical conditions and situations that might involve such lists, "but even they should still allow for a variety from all food groups. On that front, she advises that a balanced diet, "should also not require supplements.

Additional vitamin and mineral supplementation might also be desired for other benefits, but usually shouldn't replace the natural source of the nutrient. Once one understands what a balanced diet is - and what it is not - such knowledge can be implemented into one's everyday routine.

This can be helped by remembering a few tips. She adds that it's also important to choose healthy foods that one enjoys and will consistently want to eat so healthy eating "becomes a lifestyle rather than a 'diet.

Zeratsky offers similar advice and says it's OK not to eat every food group in every meal. Morning or night? In fact, the Healthy Eating Pyramid and the Healthy Eating Plate complement each other.

See how you can use the Healthy Eating Pyramid as a guide for your grocery shopping list. According to research done at Harvard Chan School of Public Health and elsewhere [], following the guidelines presented through the Healthy Eating Pyramid and Healthy Eating Plate can lead to a lower risk of heart disease and premature death:.

Two studies offer further evidence of the disease prevention benefits that accrue from following a diet similar to one based on the Healthy Eating Pyramid:.

The Healthy Eating Plate image is owned by Harvard University. The downloadable version may be used, without permission, for educational and other non-commercial uses with proper attribution, including the following copyright notification and credit line:. Copyright © , Harvard University.

For more information about The Healthy Eating Plate, please see The Nutrition Source, Department of Nutrition, Harvard T. Chan School of Public Health, www. org , and Harvard Health Publications, www. The contents of this website are for educational purposes and are not intended to offer personal medical advice.

You should seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this website.

The Nutrition Source does not recommend or endorse any products. Skip to content The Nutrition Source. The Nutrition Source Menu. Search for:. Home Nutrition News What Should I Eat? HEALTHY OILS Water Drink water , tea , or coffee with little or no sugar.

WATER Vegetables The more veggies — and the greater the variety — the better. HEALTHY PROTEIN Whole Grains Eat a variety of whole grains like whole-wheat bread, whole-grain pasta, and brown rice. WHOLE GRAINS Stay Active Incorporate physical activity into your daily routine.

Learn More. Your Plate and the Planet Just as different foods can have differing impacts on human health, they also have differing impacts on the environment. Are the relative sizes of the Healthy Eating Plate sections based on calories or volume?

Portioning a meal into separate components is also common when packing a lunchbox—especially for kids. What about alcohol?

Who created the Healthy Eating Plate? What about the Healthy Eating Pyramid?

While you may be eating these things on a daily basis, are you actually eating enough of each group? The Dietary Guidelines recommend 2 ½ cups of vegetables, 1 ½ - 2 cups of fruit, ounces of grains, 3 cups of dairy, and ounces of protein a day for year-olds.

Build your own My Plate plan. This means about half your plate should be made up of fruits and veggies and the other half should be grains and proteins including 3 cups of dairy also. The greatest area of struggle for teens is vegetables.

An easy and delicious way to add more vegetables to the diet is with smoothies. Here is a yummy recipe to try!

We tend to eat a lot of things we can easily grab like granola bars, fruit snacks, chips, cookies, and sugar-sweetened beverages. While these things are definitely easy — and even fun — to eat, they are high in added sugars and sodium which you want to cut down in you diet.

Foods high in added sugar and sodium can also lead to health problems such as weight gain, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease. You should try and eat more whole foods that are nutrient dense. Examples of nutrient dense foods include whole grains, low fat or fat-free milk products, lean fresh meats such as pork , eggs, beans, and nuts.

Protein is important for muscle building and repair , which is very important to athletes. This means you need to make sure you are meeting your protein needs every day. Learn more about the risks and benefits of alcohol. The Healthy Eating Plate, created by nutrition experts at the Harvard T.

Chan School of Public Health and editors at Harvard Health Publications, was designed to address deficiencies in the U. The Healthy Eating Plate provides detailed guidance, in a simple format, to help people make the best eating choices.

The Healthy Eating Plate is based exclusively on the best available science and was not subjected to political or commercial pressures from food industry lobbyists. In fact, the Healthy Eating Pyramid and the Healthy Eating Plate complement each other. See how you can use the Healthy Eating Pyramid as a guide for your grocery shopping list.

According to research done at Harvard Chan School of Public Health and elsewhere [], following the guidelines presented through the Healthy Eating Pyramid and Healthy Eating Plate can lead to a lower risk of heart disease and premature death:.

Two studies offer further evidence of the disease prevention benefits that accrue from following a diet similar to one based on the Healthy Eating Pyramid:.

The Healthy Eating Plate image is owned by Harvard University. The downloadable version may be used, without permission, for educational and other non-commercial uses with proper attribution, including the following copyright notification and credit line:.

Copyright © , Harvard University. For more information about The Healthy Eating Plate, please see The Nutrition Source, Department of Nutrition, Harvard T. Chan School of Public Health, www. org , and Harvard Health Publications, www.

The contents of this website are for educational purposes and are not intended to offer personal medical advice. You should seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.

Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this website. The Nutrition Source does not recommend or endorse any products. Skip to content The Nutrition Source. The Nutrition Source Menu. Search for:. Home Nutrition News What Should I Eat?

HEALTHY OILS Water Drink water , tea , or coffee with little or no sugar. WATER Vegetables The more veggies — and the greater the variety — the better. HEALTHY PROTEIN Whole Grains Eat a variety of whole grains like whole-wheat bread, whole-grain pasta, and brown rice.

WHOLE GRAINS Stay Active Incorporate physical activity into your daily routine. Learn More. Your Plate and the Planet Just as different foods can have differing impacts on human health, they also have differing impacts on the environment.

Are the relative sizes of the Healthy Eating Plate sections based on calories or volume? Portioning a meal into separate components is also common when packing a lunchbox—especially for kids. What about alcohol?

Who created the Healthy Eating Plate? What about the Healthy Eating Pyramid? Will it be going away? Will following the Healthy Eating Pyramid and Healthy Eating Plate guidelines really make me healthier? They then compared the two indexes, using information about daily diets collected from more than , female nurses and male health professionals taking part in two long-term studies.

In a study looking at trends in diet quality among adults in the U. Any other use, including commercial reuse or mounting on other systems, requires permission from the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard T.

Chan School of Public Health. Please contact us to submit your request. References Akbaraly TN, Ferrie JE, Berr C, Brunner EJ, Head J, Marmot MG, Singh-Manoux A, Ritchie K, Shipley MJ, Kivimaki M. Alternative Healthy Eating Index and mortality over 18 y of follow-up: results from the Whitehall II cohort.