What Is Healthy Eating? What Is a Healthy Diet?

What is healthy eating? What is a healthy diet? There have been many books written on this subject – and a lot of disagreement!

The conclusion I have come to – even though I’m not an official “expert!” -is that, as a rule, the healthiest foods are the ones that are processed the least and are the nearest to the way they are found in nature.

But What Is Healthy Eating?

In a general sense, healthy eating is a way of eating that promotes overall health and well-being. The foods eaten need to have all the nutrients that our bodies need in sufficient abundance for the maintenance of good health.

Generally, it has been considered by dietitians that we need foods from all the food groups – fruits, vegetables, grains, protein, and dairy. However, these do not all need to be eaten at every meal! This is important to note when it concerns the “very simple” part of what we are highlighting in this blog.

Eat From All Five Groups – Every Day?

Most of the “experts” think you need to eat from all 5 groups every day. Yet – there have been many times and situations in history, and even today, where people have not had that variety every day – and yet survive and thrive!

Having a large variety of food available is a luxury that we in the Western world have. Do your own research!

“Lots of variety” is expensive – and not very simple! We’ll look more into this in future blogs.

How Can We Possibly Know What a Healthy Diet Really Is?

A healthy diet is one that is well-balanced and contains all the essential nutrients in appropriate amounts.

That being said…there are numerous different ways of achieving this goal. Diet plans by the dozen come at it from all different angles.

There are vegetarian and vegan diets. There’s the Paleo Diet. The Mediterranean Diet. The low-carb/high-protein diet. The Rice Diet. The Atkins Diet. And probably hundreds more!

Whatever Else You Eat, Eat Your Veggies!

Here’s a summary of what “experts” (those in the United States Department of Agriculture) say constitutes a healthy diet:

1. Vegetables and fruits
   1. Top of the list! Some of the very healthiest foods you can eat.
   2. Superb source of vitamins, minerals, fiber, and antioxidants.
   3. Cruciferous vegetables like Brussels sprouts, broccoli, and cauliflower are “tops among the tops!”
   4. Honorable mention: dark leafy greens, berries, and citrus fruit.
2. Grains
   1. But not in just any form! The more whole grain and whole grain products dominate, the healthier… Makes sense – less refined, nearer to the way they are in nature!
   2. Source of fiber (huge in importance), vitamins (the B vitamins especially), and minerals.
   3. Source of protein as well – particularly useful when combined with seeds and legumes, as the combination makes a more complete protein.
   4. So…whole wheat, brown rice, oats, quinoa, barley – and there are many more.
   5. Yes, this is a source of carbs – which are often panned. Yet in the whole-grain form, grains can definitely be part of a healthy diet!
3. Protein
   1. Absolutely necessary to build and repair tissues in the body.
   2. Vegetarians and vegans – protein doesn’t have to take the form of meat! Beans, nuts, and seeds are excellent sources – particularly when whole grains are also eaten.
   3. However, if you are not one of those “v” words above, lean meats, fish, and eggs are great protein sources.
4. Dairy
   1. Oops – vegans, skip this section!
   2. Or don’t…
   3. Dairy products – cheese, yogurt, milk – are excellent sources of calcium, Vitamin D and other essential nutrients.
   4. If you are vegan, you may wish to find other sources of calcium and Vitamin D – or take supplements.
5. Oils
   1. Oils provide essential fatty acids that the body needs to function well.
   2. So pile the margarine high on your whole-grain bread, right?! Wrong!
   3. Skip the hydrogenated oils; skip the trans fats; skip the fatty cuts of meat, skip the chicken skin…
   4. Don’t skip the olive oil! One of the very best! Also, canola oil and avocado oil are excellent!

All This Good Stuff – Plus Twinkies?

Ummm…no! Avoid:

• • Sugary foods, including sugary drinks
  • Fatty meat
  • Refined flour products
  • Processed foods
  • Foods with long lists of chemical names you can’t pronounce
  • Highly salted foods

If You’re Picking a Sea, Pick the Mediterranean…

We’re looking for simple AND healthy. So if you want to narrow down the type of foods to include in YOUR healthy diet, you couldn’t do much better than what is known as the “Mediterranean diet.”
The greatest consensus among health-minded experts seems to be that this diet is the best for overall health.

Here are the types of foods you will find in the Mediterranean Diet:

• Olive oil (mainstay)
• Fruits
• Vegetables
• Whole grains
• Fish
• Some yogurt and cheese
• Nuts
• Legumes

This is a very heart-healthy diet! And since heart disease is one of the leading causes of death in the Western world, and one of the main causes is a bad diet – it might be worth taking to heart (literally!).

So There You Have It in a Nutshell!

You can find your own very simple, healthful, and inexpensive diet. There are a lot of healthy options. And what’s really great is that many of these healthy options are comparatively inexpensive! If you are watching the bottom line, you can pick lower-cost vegetables, for example.

Yet grocery stores are filled with lots of unhealthy options as well, that do nothing for your nutritional health – almost certainly the opposite. They are worse than a waste of money, actually…

If you have any thoughts or questions about this article, please feel free to comment!