Eat a variety of foods
Balance the food you eat with physical activity-maintain or improve your weight.
Choose a diet with plenty of grain products, vegetables, and fruit.
Choose a diet low in fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol.
Choose a diet moderate in sugars.
Choose a diet moderate in salt and sodium.
If you drink alcoholic beverages do so in moderation.
For this list as well as an explanation each guideline go to http://www.nalusda.gov/fnic/dga/dga95/co...
Another idea of how to eat a healthy diet comes from the Food Guide Pyramid. The Food Guide Pyramid breaks foods down into the following five categories:
Fats Milks Meats Vegetables Fruits Breads
The reasoning behind this approach is that if you eat a variety of foods you will obtain a healthy diet. The pyramid gives you an idea of how to put the Dietary Guidelines into practice. To see the pyramid and get an explanation of it the categories see http://www.nal.usda.gov:8001/py/pmap.htm
If you prefer a more exact approach you can go to http://www.cyberdiet.com. This web site offers a nutritional profile. You enter some general information like weight, height, gender and activity level and it gives you the total amount of calories needed. It then allows you to customize the percentage of fat you want in your diet. The program then gives you a break down of the protein; carbohydrate, fat, vitamins, and minerals required each day. This site also offers a daily food planner. You plug in the calories required and you can plan your daily meals from their database. The food planner provides recipes and nutritional totals. This is the easiest food planner I have found on the web so far.
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