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Healthy Food
Healthy food is food considered to be beneficial to health in ways that go beyond a
normal healthy diet required for human nutrition. Because there is no precise,
authoritative definition from regulatory agencies such as the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration, different dietary practices can be considered healthy depending on
context.
Foods considered "healthy" may be natural foods, organic foods, whole foods, and
sometimes dietary supplements. Such products are sold in health food stores or in the
health/organic sections of supermarkets.
What are the 7 main food groups?
The recommended food groups are grouped according to nutritive content. The "Basic
Seven" food groups were first listed in 1942, and then reduced to the "Basic Four"
food groups in 1956. Later the USDA included 6 of them in its "food pyramid," which
was modified in 2005 to stress 5 in greater value and 1 (fats) of lesser value.
The Basic Seven (1942)
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Green and Yellow Vegetables
Oranges, Tomatoes, and Grapefruit
Potatoes and Other Vegetables and Fruit
Milk and Milk Products
Protein (Meat, Fish, Poultry, Eggs, Dried Peas, Beans)
Bread, Flour, and Cereals
Butter and Fortified Margarine
The "5 plus 1" pyramid (2005)
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Grains
Vegetables
Fruits
(narrow band) Fats and Oils
Milk and Dairy
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Meat and Beans
Basic principles of a healthy diet
Symbols, such as a pyramid, illustrate how the pieces of a healthy diet fit together.
The base of the pyramid is typically made up of foods that should be the bulk of your
healthy diet. In contrast, foods you should eat in smaller amounts or less frequently
are shown in the smaller sections of the pyramid. The same principle applies to the
dinner plate — half of the plate consists of fruits and vegetables, which should be the
bulk of your diet. Of course, no single food provides all of the nutrients that your
body needs, so the idea is to eat a variety of foods from each group in the proper
proportions to get all the necessary nutrients and other substances that promote good
health.
In addition, most healthy-diet plans emphasize the
following:
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Eat more plant foods, including fruits, vegetables and whole grains.
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Choose lean protein from a variety of sources.
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Limit sweets and salt.
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Control portion sizes.
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Be physically active.
A healthy diet is one that helps maintain or improve general health. A healthy
diet provides the body with essential nutrition: fluid, adequate essential amino acids
from protein, essential fatty acids, vitamins, minerals, and adequate calories. The
requirements for a healthy diet can be met from a variety of plant-based and animalbased foods. A healthy diet supports energy needs and provides for human nutrition
without exposure to toxicity or excessive weight gain from consuming excessive
amounts. Where lack of calories is not an issue, a properly balanced diet (in addition
to exercise) is also thought to be important for lowering health risks, such as obesity,
heart disease, type 2 diabetes, hypertension and cancer.
Various nutrition guides are published by medical and governmental institutions to
educate the public on what they should be eating to promote health. Nutrition facts
labels are also mandatory in some countries to allow consumers to choose between
foods based on the components relevant to health.
There may be a relationship between lifestyle including food consumption and
potentially lowering the risk of cancer or other chronic diseases. A healthy diet may
consist mostly of whole plant foods, with limited consumption of energy-dense foods,
red meat, alcoholic drinks and salt while reducing consumption of sugary drinks, and
processed meat.[18] A healthy diet may contain non-starchy vegetables and fruits,
including those with red, green, yellow, white, purple or orange pigments. Tomato
cooked with oil, allium vegetables like garlic, and cruciferous vegetables like
cauliflower "probably" contain compounds which are under research for their possible
anti-cancer activity.
A healthy diet is low in energy density, lowering caloric content, thereby possibly
inhibiting weight gain and lowering risk against chronic diseases. Chronic Western
diseases are associated with pathologically increased IGF-1 levels. Findings in
molecular biology and epidemiologic data suggest that milk consumption is a
promoter of chronic diseases of Western nations, including atherosclerosis,
carcinogenesis and neurodegenerative diseases.
Unhealthy diets
An unhealthy diet is a major risk factor for a number of chronic diseases including:
high blood pressure, diabetes, abnormal blood lipids, overweight/obesity,
cardiovascular diseases, and cancer.
The WHO estimates that 2.7 million deaths are attributable to a diet low in fruit and
vegetable every year. Globally it is estimated to cause about 19% of gastrointestinal
cancer, 31% of ischaemic heart disease, and 11% of strokes, thus making it one of the
leading preventable causes of death worldwide.
Public health
Fears of high cholesterol were frequently voiced up until the mid-1990s. However,
more recent research has shown that the distinction between high- and low-density
lipoprotein ('good' and 'bad' cholesterol, respectively) must be addressed when
speaking of the potential ill effects of cholesterol. Different types of dietary fat have
different effects on blood levels of cholesterol. For example, polyunsaturated fats tend
to decrease both types of cholesterol; monounsaturated fats tend to lower LDL and
raise HDL; saturated fats tend to either raise HDL, or raise both HDL and LDL; and
trans fat tend to raise LDL and lower HDL. Dietary cholesterol itself is only found in
animal products such as meat, eggs, and dairy, but studies have shown that even large
amounts of dietary cholesterol only have negligible effects on blood cholesterol.
Vending machines in particular have come under fire as being avenues of entry into
schools for junk food promoters. However, there is little in the way of regulation and
it is difficult for most people to properly analyze the real merits of a company
referring to itself as "healthy." Recently, the United Kingdom removed the rights for
McDonald's to advertise its products, as the majority of the foods that were seen have
low nutrient values and high fat counts were aimed at children under the guise of the
"Happy Meal" The British Heart Foundation released its own government-funded
advertisements, labeled "Food4Thought", which were targeted at children and adults
displaying the gory nature of how fast food is generally constituted.
Cultural and psychological factors
From a psychological and cultural perspective, a healthier diet may be difficult to
achieve for people with poor eating habits. This may be due to tastes acquired in
childhood and preferences for sugary, salty and/or fatty foods.
Summary
Healthy eating means eating a wide variety of nutritious foods. Healthy foods contain
all the energy, minerals, vitamins or fibre you need to grow. You should try and eat
lots of healthy foods like fruits, vegetables and bread. Small amounts of foods like
cakes and lollies are fine to eat too, as long as you don't eat them all the time.
Some foods contain too much sugar or fat and not many vitamins or minerals. These
are foods we should only eat sometimes.
The foods you eat have been divided into three groups according to how nutritious
they are. These make up what is often called the ‘food pyramid’. You can use these
groups to help you decide which foods to eat more of and which to eat less often.
Eat these foods most of the time
You should try to eat lots of:
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Fruits and vegetables
Breads
Grains such as rice and pasta
Beans and lentils.
You can see that these are all foods that come from plants. These foods all contain
vitamins, minerals and fibre. Try to eat a wide variety of these foods. Try not to
choose just one of these foods (such as fruit) to eat all the time. Eating plenty of all
foods from this group will help you stay healthy.
Plant foods contain thousands of nutrients (small parts), which can help to prevent
serious diseases. This is why it is important to eat a variety of different types of plant
foods.
Eat these foods moderately
These foods are important for health, so you should eat them in medium amounts:
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Dairy products such as milk, cheeses and yoghurts (sometimes low fat ones
should be chosen)
Lean meat
Chicken (without skin)
Fish
Nuts.
These foods are all good sources of protein. Protein helps build strong muscles and
can repair our body when we hurt or injure ourselves. Some of these foods also
contain some important minerals, such as the calcium found in dairy foods (for strong
bones) and the iron found in lean meats (to give us energy).
Eat these foods sometimes
These foods don’t give us very many nutrients and are really just ‘extras’. They may
contain lots of sugar or fat (or both) but often don’t have many vitamins, minerals or
fibre. It’s OK to have these ‘sometimes foods’ if you are healthy, active and not
overweight. Most of the time they are better left for occasions like birthday parties.
An example of one serve of these foods includes:
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Sweet biscuits (2 small)
Chocolate coated bars (1 bar)
Potato chips (30g)
Ice-cream (2 scoops)
Lollies/chocolate (30g)
Cake or muffin (1 medium piece).
The food pyramid
The three groups of foods you eat from are often shown as a food pyramid:
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The bottom of the pyramid is the biggest part of the pyramid. It contains the
foods you should eat most of the time.
The middle of the pyramid contains foods you should eat moderately (a
medium amount). They are important for health but we don’t need too much
of them.
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The top of the pyramid is the smallest part of the pyramid. It contains foods
you should only eat sometimes.
Naifa Secondary School
A Questionnaire about Healthy Food
1. What does Healthy Food mean ?
2. What are the main seven food groups "
3. Write down three of the main features of a Healthy
Diet ?
4. Give the main steps in any healthy diet plan ?
5. What are the bad effects of unhealthy diet ?
6. How does the kind of food we eat have cultural and
psychological factors ?
7. Mention two kinds of food on the following :
1) Food we should eat most of the time:---------------2) Food we should eat moderately :------------------3) Food we should sometimes eat :-------------------8. Which is the biggest part of the Food Pyramid /
And What does it contain ?