Healthy Diet

A healthy diet is one that helps maintain or improve health. It is important for lowering many chronic health risks, such as obesity, heart disease, diabetes, hypertension and cancer.[1] A healthy diet involves consuming appropriate amounts of all essential nutrients and an adequate amount of water. Nutrients can be obtained from many different foods, so there are numerous diets that may be considered healthy. A healthy diet needs to have a balance of macronutrients (fats, proteins, and carbohydrates), calories to support energy needs, and micronutrients to meet the needs for human nutrition without inducing toxicity or excessive weight gain from consuming excessive amounts. |
[edit] Dietary recommendations
There are a number of diets and recommendations by numerous medical and governmental institutions that are designed to promote certain aspects of health.
[edit] World Health Organization
The World Health Organization (WHO) makes the following 5 recommendations with respect to both populations and individuals:[2] * Achieve an energy balance and a healthy weight * Limit energy intake from total fats and shift fat consumption away from saturated fats to unsaturated fats and towards the elimination of trans-fatty acids * Increase consumption of fruits and vegetables, legumes, whole grains and nuts * Limit the intake of simple sugar. A 2003 report recommends less than 10% simple sugars. [3] * Limit salt / sodium consumption from all sources and ensure that salt is iodized
Other recommendations include: * Sufficient essential amino acids ("complete protein") to provide cellular replenishment and transport proteins. All essential amino acids are present in animals. Some plants (such as soy and hemp) give all the essential acids. A combination of other plants in a diet may also provide all essential amino acids. Fruits such as avocado and pumpkin seeds also have all the essential amino acids.[4][5] * Essential micronutrients such as