Overview
Eating a healthy diet throughout your life helps prevent malnutrition and many diseases. But today, with more processed foods, urban living, and changing habits, our diets are shifting. People are eating more high-calorie foods loaded with fats, sugars, and salt, while not getting enough fruits, vegetables, and fiber like whole grains.
A balanced, healthy diet looks different for everyone, depending on factors like age, gender, lifestyle, and culture. Yet, the core idea of what makes a diet healthy stays the same for everyone.
Healthy Diet Guidelines for Adults
A balanced diet for adults should include:
- Fruits, vegetables, legumes, such as lentils and beans, nuts, and whole grains like unprocessed maize, millet, oats, wheat, and brown rice.
- At least 400 grams (5 portions) of fruits and vegetables daily, excluding starchy vegetables like potatoes, sweet potatoes, cassava, and similar roots.
- Less than 10% of daily calories from free sugars, which equals about 50 grams (12 teaspoons) for someone eating 2,000 calories a day. Ideally, keep it below 5% for extra health benefits. Free sugars include those added to foods and drinks or found naturally in honey, syrups, and fruit juices.
- Less than 30% of daily calories from fats, prioritizing unsaturated fats (in fish, avocado, nuts, and vegetable oils) over saturated fats (in fatty meat, butter, cheese, and coconut oil). Trans fats, particularly industrially produced ones found in processed foods, should be avoided entirely. Saturated fat intake should be under 10% of daily calories, and trans fats less than 1%.
- Less than 5 grams of salt (1 teaspoon) daily, and make sure it’s iodized.
Healthy Diet Guidelines for Infants and Young Children
In the first two years of life, proper nutrition supports healthy growth, cognitive development, and reduces the risk of obesity and diseases later in life. While similar to adult guidelines, here are additional key points for infants and young children:
- Exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months is crucial for optimal growth.
- Continue breastfeeding until at least 2 years of age or longer for added health benefits.
- At 6 months, introduce a variety of safe, nutrient-rich foods to complement breast milk. Avoid adding salt or sugar to these foods.
Practical Tips for Maintaining a Healthy Diet
Fruits and Vegetables
Consuming at least 400 grams (five portions) of fruits and vegetables daily lowers the risk of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and provides essential dietary fiber. Here are some simple ways to boost your intake:
- Always include vegetables in your meals.
- Snack on fresh fruits and raw vegetables.
- Choose seasonal fruits and vegetables for freshness and better taste.
- Eat a variety of different fruits and vegetables for a balanced nutrient intake.
Practical Tips for Managing Fat Intake
Reducing total fat consumption to less than 30% of daily energy helps prevent weight gain and lowers the risk of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). To reduce unhealthy fat intake:
- Limit saturated fats to less than 10% of daily energy.
- Reduce trans-fats to less than 1%.
- Replace saturated and trans-fats with unsaturated fats, especially polyunsaturated fats.
Here are some ways to cut back on fats:
- Steam or boil foods instead of frying.
- Swap butter, lard, or ghee for oils rich in polyunsaturated fats, like soybean, canola, or sunflower oils.
- Choose reduced-fat dairy and lean meats, trimming visible fat from meat.
- Limit baked and fried foods, as well as pre-packaged snacks that contain trans-fats, such as doughnuts, cakes, and cookies.
Practical Tips for Managing Salt, Sodium, and Potassium Intake
Most people consume too much sodium (9–12 g of salt per day) and not enough potassium (less than 3.5 g). This imbalance can lead to high blood pressure, increasing the risk of heart disease and stroke. Reducing salt intake to less than 5 g per day could prevent up to 1.7 million deaths annually.
Here’s how to reduce salt intake:
- Limit salt and high-sodium condiments (e.g., soy sauce, fish sauce, bouillon) when cooking.
- Avoid keeping salt or high-sodium sauces on the table.
- Cut back on salty snacks like chips and processed meats.
- Choose low-sodium products and check nutrition labels for sodium content.
To increase potassium, include more fresh fruits and vegetables in your diet, which can help offset the negative effects of sodium on blood pressure.
Practical Tips for Reducing Sugar Intake
Both adults and children should aim to keep free sugars to less than 10% of daily energy intake, with further health benefits if reduced to less than 5%. High consumption of free sugars leads to dental problems, weight gain, and increases the risk of cardiovascular diseases.
Here’s how to reduce sugar intake:
- Limit sugary foods and drinks, such as candies, sugary snacks, and sugar-sweetened beverages (soft drinks, juices, flavored waters, sports drinks, and flavored milks).
- Choose fresh fruit and raw vegetables as healthier snack alternatives to sugary treats.
By cutting down on free sugars, you can help lower the risk of tooth decay and prevent weight gain and other related health issues.
How to Promote Healthy Diets
Dietary habits are influenced by many social and economic factors, such as income, food prices, personal preferences, cultural traditions, and environmental aspects like climate change. Promoting a healthy food environment requires collaboration between governments, private sectors, and communities. Governments play a key role in making healthy diets accessible and sustainable.
Here are some ways governments and policymakers can promote a healthy food environment:
- Align national policies to support healthy diets by:
- Encouraging farmers and retailers to grow and sell fresh fruits and vegetables.
- Reducing incentives for producing processed foods high in fats, sugars, and salt.
- Promoting reformulation of food products to lower unhealthy ingredients and eliminate industrial trans-fats.
- Enforcing WHO recommendations on food marketing, especially to children.
- Setting standards to ensure nutritious, safe, and affordable foods in schools, workplaces, and public institutions.
- Using regulations, marketing rules, and taxes or subsidies to promote healthy eating.
- Increase consumer demand for healthy foods by:
- Raising awareness about healthy eating habits.
- Introducing school programs that teach children about nutrition.
- Educating all age groups about healthy dietary practices.
- Promoting culinary skills, especially among children, through school programs.
- Providing clear nutrition labels on food products to help consumers make informed choices.
- Offering dietary counseling at primary health-care facilities.
- Support infant and young child feeding practices by:
- Implementing policies to protect breastfeeding and working mothers.
- Promoting breastfeeding through community health services and programs like the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative.
Deep Mala is a passionate blog writer who crafts engaging content on various topics, blending creativity and insight to inform, inspire, and entertain her readers.