What Is a Balanced Diet?
Grains
Grains should take up ¼ of your plate and add up to about 6 ounces per day. Your grains should come from whole grains wherever possible including:
- Buckwheat
- Oats
- Dark rye
- Quinoa
- Whole-grain cornmeal
- Wild or brown rice
- Whole wheat
- Bulgur
- Amaranth
Fats/Oils
Although some fat is essential for a healthy diet, the type and quality available vary. Choose healthy unsaturated oils such as extra virgin olive oil, sunflower oil, and safflower oil, and limit your intake to about 27 grams a day. Foods rich in healthy fats include chia seeds, ground flax, avocado, nuts, seeds, and fish.
Dairy
Dairy has essential nutrients such as calcium for strong teeth and bones. Aim for 3 cups a day from low-fat or fat-free products such as milk, yogurt, cheese, kefir, and buttermilk.
A healthy diet gives you energy and all the nutrition your body needs. Talk to your doctor if you’re having trouble maintaining a healthy diet or with eating certain foods.
Rating Your Hunger
When you sit down to eat a meal, you want to be hungry, but not ravenous. (Letting your blood sugar get so low that you feel ravenous often leads to binge eating.) And your goal is to stop when you’re comfortably full.
To get into the habit of evaluating your hunger, rate your hunger and satisfaction level before and after every meal. Here’s a numerical scale you could use:
0: Ravenously hungry, salivating
1: Hungry, belly growling
2: Mildly hungry; you may need a light snack to hold you over, but you could hold out a little longer
3: Satisfied; don’t need to eat anymore
4: More than satisfied; overate
5: Stuffed like a Thanksgiving turkey
And whenever you’re about to run to the kitchen or break room or detour to the nearest drive-thru, ask yourself these questions first:
- When was the last time I ate? If it was less than 2-3 hours ago, you’re probably not feeling real hunger.
- Could a small, nutritious, fiber-rich snack tide you over until the next meal?
- Can you drink a glass of water and wait 20 minutes?
If you find that you don’t easily recognize the signs of hunger, schedule your meals and snacks. Divide your eating plan into several small meals, spaced every 3-4 hours. Rate your hunger each time you sit down to eat, and try to become more aware of what real hunger feels like.
More Mindful Eating
Most of us wolf down our food without really tasting it from time to time. Do you suffer from “eating amnesia” when the hand-to-mouth activity becomes automatic—usually in front of the television or while reading a book? Bad habits are hard to break, but if you want to control what you eat, you must become more mindful of everything you put into your mouth.
It helps to slow down and enjoy your meals. Sit down, turn off the television, and create a peaceful environment free of distractions to enjoy your meals.
Remember that the first few bites are always the best (your taste buds soon become less sensitized to the chemicals in food that makes it taste so good). Focus on the quality of the food, not the quantity. Be mindful of each mouthful, and appreciate the food’s flavors, aromas, and textures.
Enjoying leisurely meals gives your stomach time to signal to your brain that you are comfortably full. Put your fork down between bites, sip water, and enjoy conversation while you dine.
