Healthy Eating and the Food Pyramid
For most people, maintaining a desirable weight and body
fat percentage can only be achieved through an integrated program of nutrition
and exercise-or balancing energy intake with energy expenditure. To reduce
weight and body fat requires cutting back on calories and increasing the amount
of exercise. Dieting alone won't work. Even when a person's weight-control
system has genetic flaws that may respond to newly available pharmaceuticals,
proper nutrition and plenty of exercise is still part of the prescription for
health.
Food Pyramid
Most
Americans have more than enough to eat, but many people don't eat a healthy
range of foods. Consuming too many calories from any kind of food source can produce fat. One of the best models for healthy eating is represented in
the Food Pyramid. To get the proper daily nutritional value:
- Eat a
variety of foods
- Eat a
high-fiber diet (choose more grains, fruits and vegetables instead of protein,
fats and sugar)
- Maintain a low-fat, low-cholesteral diet (eat no more than 30% of calories from fat, including only 10% from saturated fat)
- Use
moderate amounts of salt and sodium and choose sugar substitutes
- Limit
alcoholic intake
Breaking Old Habits
Often the
first step to a good diet lies in changing food and eating behavior:
- Don't
skip meals
- Eat a
series of small meals throughout the day and avoid a big meal late in the
evening
- Eat and
chew slowly
- Use a
smaller-sized plate to achieve a "full plate"
- Don't
go back for seconds
- Bake or
broil food instead of frying
- Order
from light menus and purchase low-calorie or low-fat foods
(remember that
low-fat does not necessarily mean
low-calorie)
- Learn
about food values and make healthy combinations in meals
- Weigh
yourself regularly and focus on measuring body fat percentage
- Reward
yourself with non-food pleasures
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