A healthy diet provides the body with essential nutrition: fluid,
adequate essential amino acidsfrom protein, essential fatty
acids, vitamins, minerals, and adequate calories. The requirements
for a healthy diet can be met from a variety of plant-based and animal-based
foods. A healthy diet supports energy needs and provides for human
nutrition without exposure to toxicity or excessive weight gain from
consuming excessive amounts. Where lack of calories is not an issue, a properly
balanced diet (in addition to exercise) is also thought to be important
for lowering health risks, such asobesity, heart disease, type 2
diabetes, hypertension and cancer.
Various nutrition guides are published by medical and
governmental institutions to educate the public on what they should be eating
to promote health.
The idea of dietary therapy (using dietary choices to maintain
health and improve poor health) is quite old and thus has both modern
scientific forms (medical nutrition therapy) and prescientific forms (such
as dietary therapy in traditional Chinese medicine).
The World Health Organization(WHO) makes the following 5
recommendations with respect to both populations and individuals:
- Eat roughly the same amount of calories that your body is using. A healthy weight is a balance between energy consumed and energy that is 'burnt off'.
- Limit intake of fats, and prefer unsaturated fats to saturated fatsand trans fats.
- Increase consumption of plant foods, particularly fruits,vegetables, legumes, whole grains and nuts.
- Limit the intake of sugar. A 2003 report recommends less than 10% of calorie intake from simple sugars.
- Limit salt / sodium consumption from all sources and ensure that salt is iodized.