The Ultimate Guide to Maintaining a Balanced Diet

From the time that you were a child, there were people in your life encouraging you to eat healthy foods.

While you wanted candy bars and ice cream, some adults in your life insisted that you eat your vegetables. Why?

Because for centuries, humans have known that there were health benefits associated with eating a balanced diet.

Depending on your age, you may have learned about the food pyramid when you were in school.

For years, this pyramid was considered the guidebook for healthy eating.

While there’s certainly some good information contained in the food pyramid, most doctors and dieticians no longer believe that it’s the ultimate authority when it comes to serving as a guide to maintaining a balanced diet.

Maybe you’ve spent most of your life not eating the way that you should, and now you want to get on the right track.

Perhaps you’ve had a health scare that has changed your outlook on food, exercise, and your overall wellness.

Or maybe, like many people, you’re starting to get a bit older and you know that you need to make some changes to your health.

Whether you’re battling genetics or just trying to get in better shape, you can find out more about how to maintain a balanced diet and why you need to do so here.

What Is a Balanced Diet?

Before we get into the benefits of a balanced diet and your comprehensive guide to maintaining a balanced diet, it’s important to understand what a balanced diet is.

The most simplistic definition of a balanced diet is a diet that contains all the elements that the human body needs to function at its best.

Your body requires several elements to thrive. Carbohydrates, proteins, lipids, minerals, vitamins, fiber, and water are all building blocks that the human body requires to operate optimally.

While a balanced diet involves getting food out of each of the food groups, the most important aspect of a diet that’s balanced is that the body gets these elements every day without going over the number of recommended calories for your gender, age, height, and weight.

Benefits of a Balanced Diet

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the leading cause of death among American adults is heart disease.

Meanwhile, the American Heart Association (AHA) says that nearly 50% of Americans have been diagnosed with some sort of cardiovascular issue. It’s impossible to know how many more are dealing with heart problems without a diagnosis.

While regular exercise is an important part of fighting back against heart disease, a balanced diet is one of the most powerful tools that you have at your disposal.

According to multiple studies, a combination of healthy eating and regular exercise can prevent up to 80% of premature heart disease, including hypertension, heart failure, strokes, and heart attacks.

There is also a connection between a balanced diet and a reduced risk of cancer. Many of the foods that are a staple of a balanced diet are rich in antioxidants.

These antioxidants help the body’s cells protect themselves from damage, which aids in the fight against cancer. Free radicals in the body are proven to increase the risk of cancer, but antioxidants help to remove them, lowering your cancer risk.

Your diet also has a direct impact on your mood. While you may think that a huge slice of cake or a big, greasy pizza makes you feel good, that positive boost in your mood only lasts until the last bite.

A 2016 study found that diets with a high glycemic load often lead to symptoms of fatigue and depression.

Remember, when you feel better physically, you’ll feel better mentally. Healthy, balanced diets help you to feel better physically. This doesn’t mean that you never enjoy a sweet treat, but it does mean that junk food is not a staple of your diet.

A full list of the benefits of a balanced diet would be far too large to completely dive into here, but the fact remains that every part of your body works at its best when you fuel yourself with the right types of food.

Now that you know more about why a balanced diet is important, let’s take a look at some tips for eating healthy.

Focus on Nutrient Density

Many people automatically assume that eating healthy means cutting back on calories. While cutting down on the “empty” calories (a topic we’ll delve into more in a moment) is important, it’s more important that you focus on nutrient density.

The term nutrient density refers to the amount of nutrients in a meal, which includes proteins, fats, carbs, vitamins, and minerals, in comparison to the number of calories.

Every food that you eat contains calories, but not every food is dense in nutrients. For instance, candy bars are high in calories but offer little to no nutritional value.

Conversely, a piece of grilled, skinless chicken breast is high in nutrients and low in calories. That’s why chicken breast is considered a healthier food choice than a candy bar.

Fruits and Vegetables

Most experts agree that humans need five servings of fruits and vegetables every day. On the surface, this may sound like a tall task, but it’s much easier than it sounds.

First of all, you can get these vegetables and fruits through a variety of means. They can be fresh, frozen, canned, juiced, or dried. You can load up your morning smoothie with two servings of fruits, which will leave you 2/5 of the way to your daily goal before lunch.

If you like cereal in the mornings, consider chopping up a banana or adding some strawberries to the bowl. That will help you get a serving in. Additionally, you can swap your usual mid-morning snack with an apple or a banana.

Change Your Drinking Habits

When we were discussing nutrient density in foods earlier, we focused on chicken and candy bars, two items that are at opposite ends of the nutritional spectrum. The same can be said for the things that we drink with our foods.

Sodas provide virtually no nutritional value. While diet sodas have a lower caloric load than their full-flavored counterparts, they're still not a truly healthy option.

With this in mind, giving up soda and choosing water or herbal teas is a great way to provide some balance in your diet.

If you still crave some sort of flavoring, you can find plenty of flavor options for your water that won’t negate the nutrient value that good old H2O provides.

Cut Back on Processed Foods

Processed foods are everywhere, and in our ultra-busy society, we often think that we have no choice but to grab something that can be thrown into the microwave quickly.

Unfortunately, these ultra-processed foods typically do more harm than good when it comes to your diet.

Foods like pre-packaged lunch meats, hot dogs, and most fast-food options are ultra-processed. While they provide convenience, they don’t pack enough nutritional value to be considered healthy.

Experts agree that you don’t have to completely remove all processed food from your diet, but you should try to limit them as much as possible.

Choose the Right Meats

While you don’t need to completely cut red meat out of your diet, experts agree that you should limit your consumption of these protein sources. Red meat, which includes steak, beef, veal, lamb, and even pork, is typically high in saturated fats. However, meat is a great source of protein.

What should you do?

White meats, like chicken and fish provide plenty of protein but are much lower in saturated fats.

While you can still enjoy a good steak from time to time, most of your meat consumption should be white meat.

It’s also a good idea to remove the skin from any chicken that you eat and avoid frying it. The batter that coats fried chicken essentially negates any of its nutritional value.

Opt for Filling Foods

It’s important that you choose foods that will leave you feeling full for longer. This not only cuts down on overeating, but when you eat something and immediately feel hungry again, it’s your body’s way of telling you that it didn’t get enough nutrients.

Simple carbohydrates, such as those found in pasta, bread, and certain types of rice, don’t provide much nutritional value. The body breaks these carbs down quickly and stores them as fat.

Conversely, foods that are high in protein or contain complex carbohydrates can leave you feeling full longer.

This lets you know that your body got the nutrients it needed, and you won’t go back for more food so soon after eating.

Balanced Diet Takes Time

Depending on how unbalanced your diet is today, this process may take some time. It’s important that you show yourself grace along the way. You’re probably not going to completely change your diet in a day or even in a week.

If you’ve been eating unhealthy foods for a while, you may need more time to find the right balance.

The important thing is that you’re taking the steps to achieve a balanced diet. Be patient with yourself, and don’t be afraid to slowly introduce new foods. Remember, your health is a marathon, not a sprint.