Introduction

Good nutrition will help you feel better, think more clearly, and be healthier. By making a conscious effort to regularly choose healthier foods, you can help your body fight off disease. This chapter explores what a healthy diet looks like, how to use current federal dietary guidance to make healthier choices, and how your lifestyle and behaviors affect your health. Be sure to complete the activities in each blue text box

What Should I Eat to be Healthy?

Everyone knows how to eat, but knowing what to eat takes a bit more thought. A healthy diet focuses on fresh, whole foods that have been sustaining people for generations. The term whole foods refers to food prepared as close to its natural state as possible. For example, an apple is a whole food, while apple juice is not. Whole foods supply more of the nutrients the body needs — such as vitamins, minerals, protein, carbohydrates, fats, and fiber — all essential to good health. Commercially prepared and fast foods lack nutrients and often contain a great deal of sugar, salt, and saturated and trans fats, all of which are associated with conditions such as atherosclerosis, heart disease, stroke, cancer, obesity, diabetes, and other illnesses.

Achieving a healthy diet is a matter of balancing the quality and quantity of food that is eaten. There are five key factors to a healthy diet:

1. Adequate: providing enough nutrients, fiber, and calories.
2. Balanced nutrients: consuming the appropriate ratios of nutrients.
3. Balanced calories: eating about as many calories as you burn each day.
4. Moderation: no extreme eating; not too much or too little.
5. Variety: regularly eating different foods from each of the food groups.

Adequate

An adequate diet favors nutrient-dense foods and provides at least the minimum levels of essential nutrients. Nutrient-dense foods are foods that contain many essential nutrients per calorie, such as fruits and vegetables, lean meats, poultry, fish, low-fat dairy products, and whole grains. Nutrient-dense foods are the opposite of nutrient-poor foods — such as sugary carbonated beverages — which provide calories without meaningful nutrients.

Balanced Nutrients and Calories

Achieving balance in your diet means not consuming one nutrient at the expense of another. For example, calcium is essential for healthy teeth and bones, but too much calcium can interfere with iron absorption. Because most foods that are good sources of iron are poor sources of calcium, a proper balance between food choices is needed to get adequate amounts of both. It is also important to balance the calories you consume with the calories you burn every day.

Moderation

Eating in moderation is crucial for optimal health. Eating nutrient-poor foods every day will eventually lead to poor health. Does that mean you should never eat a cookie? Absolutely not! Cookies are delicious, but they should be eaten in moderation alongside nutrient-rich foods.

Variety

Variety involves eating different foods from all the food groups. A varied diet helps ensure that you consume and absorb adequate amounts of all the essential nutrients required for health. One of the major drawbacks of a monotonous diet is the risk of consuming too much of some nutrients and not enough of others. Trying new foods can also be a source of pleasure — you never know what you might like until you try it.

Federal Dietary Guidance: From MyPlate to the New Food Pyramid

How do we know what is good for us? Through quality research. The U.S. government publishes Dietary Guidelines based on that research and updates them every five years. The most current edition — the 2025–2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans — was released on January 7, 2026, and is available at Real Food. The guidelines’ central message is simple: eat real, whole, nutrient-dense food and limit highly processed foods, added sugars, and refined carbohydrates.

Dietary guidelines can be difficult to translate into everyday choices. Protein, Each category provides important nutrients your body needs to be healthy. The number of servings from each group depends on your age and how many calories you need every day.

Fruits

Fruits provide essential nutrients such as vitamin C and folate, the mineral potassium, dietary fiber, and phytonutrients. 2 daily servings:  (amounts vary by age and calorie needs) One serving of fruit equals: 1 cup raw or cooked fruit ½ cup dried fruit 1 cup 100% fruit juice

Vegetables

Vegetables provide essential nutrients including vitamins A and C, folate, potassium, dietary fiber, and phytonutrients. 3 daily servings:  (amounts vary by age and calorie needs) One serving of vegetables equals: 1 cup raw or cooked vegetables 2 cups leafy salad greens 1 cup 100% vegetable juice

Grains

Grains provide B vitamins and minerals such as iron, magnesium, and selenium. Whole grains also contain dietary fiber. 2-4  daily servings: approximately 6 ounce-equivalents per day (amounts vary by age and calorie needs) One serving of grains equals: 1 slice of bread 1 ounce ready-to-eat cereal ½ cup cooked rice, pasta, or cereal grain

Protein

Chef Joshua Moore, Executive Chef & Managing Partner of Volare Restaurant in Louisville, Kentucky, receives fresh fish each week. Chef Moore is holding a Moonfish from Hilo, Hawaii.

Protein provides essential amino acids, the building blocks of the body. Consume high-quality, nutrient-dense protein foods at every meal. Aim for 20–35 grams of protein at each meal and 10–20 grams at snacks, for a total of 1.2–1.6 grams per kilogram of body weight daily. Recommended daily protein intake: approximately 1.2–1.6 grams per kilogram of body weight per day. For most adults, this is roughly 12–18 traditional protein servings daily, depending on body weight and activity level. Lean meats, poultry, or seafood Eggs Peanut butter Cooked beans or peas Nuts or seeds

Category:  Dairy

Some people may avoid one of these important food groups due to a food allergy or personal choice. If so, it is important to develop an alternative plan to ensure your body does not miss out on those vital nutrients. For example, a dairy allergy is one of the most common food allergies. If you are following a 2,000-calorie plan, you would need to identify other foods to include each day to obtain the nutrients provided by the dairy group — especially calcium.

The Nutrition Partnership:  Food, Activity, & Mental Health

Eating well will only take you so far on your path to good health. Genetics, your activity level, and mental health all contribute to overall wellness. You cannot change your genes, but you can improve your fitness and mental health.

Physical Activity- 20 Minutes a Day Makes a Difference!

Physical activity helps protect your health by decreasing your risk of chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. Being active also improves your mental state by elevating your mood, decreasing stress levels, and improving sleep quality. With all these benefits, why doesn’t everyone get active? Unfortunately, regular physical activity is not high on most Americans’ priority list. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that adults engage in 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity each week — that is only about 20 minutes per day, but it can make a meaningful difference in your health.

Some activities that count toward your weekly goal

Recreational swimming and water aerobics

Brisk walking (at least 2.5 miles per hour)

Bicycling slower than 10 mph on level ground

Tennis (doubles)

Power yoga

Line dancing

General housework, gardening, and home repair

Mental Health- De-stress!

Are you stressed out? You are not alone. Americans frequently report elevated stress levels compared to people in many other countries. What you eat also affects your mental health: certain nutrients such as omega-3 fatty acids (found in salmon and flaxseed) help the brain manage stress. Additionally, practicing meditation, deep breathing, journaling, and regular exercise supports mental health. In today’s technology-driven world, you are exposed to constant streams of information, which can be stressful. Everyone needs a way to unplug, relax, and de-stress each day.​