Planning a Healthy Diet

Added Sugars

Added sugars are sugars and other kilo-caloric sweeteners that are added to goods during processing, preparation, or at the table. Added sugars do not include the naturally occurring sugars found in fruits and milk products.

Adequacy

Adequacy reflects a diet that provides sufficient energy and enough of all the nutrients to meet the needs of health people.

Recommended Amounts

All food groups offer valuable nutrients and people should make selections from each group daily.

Imitation Foods

Imitation foods are foods that substitute for and resemble another food, but are nutritionally inferior to it with respect to vitamin, mineral or protein content. If the substitute is not inferior to the food it resembles and if its name provides an accurate description of the product, it need not be labeled imitation.

Actual Intakes

In general, consumers are not selecting the most nutrient-dense items from the food groups. Instead, they are consuming too many foods high in solid fats and added sugars. They are also not selecting the suggested quantities from each of the food groups.

Milk and Milk Products

Milk and milk products contribute protein, riboflavin, vitamin B12, calcium, potassium, and, when fortified, vitamin A and vitamin D. Make fat-free or low-fat choices. Choose other calcium-rich foods if you don't consume milk. Shoppers find a variety of fortified foods in the dairy case. In addition, shoppers may find imitation foods (cheese), food substitutes (egg substitutes) and functional foods (such as margarine with added plant sterols).

Moderation

Moderation contributes to adequacy, balance, and kilocalorie control. A person practicing moderation eats "bad" foods only on occasion and regularly selects foods low in solid fats and added sugars, a practice that automatically improves nutrient density.

Oils

Oils are not a food group but are included because they contribute vitamin E and essential fatty acids. Use oils instead of solid fats, when possible.

Ethnic Foods Choices

People can use the USDA Food Patterns and still enjoy a diverse array of culinary styles by sorting ethnic foods into their appropriate food groups.

Vegetarian Food Guides

People who do not eat meats or milk products can still use the USDA Food Patterns to create an adequate diet. The subgroups for protein foods have been reorganized to eliminate meats, poultry and seafood.

Percent Daily Value

Percent daily value is the percentage of a Daily Value recommendation found in a specified serving of food for key nutrients based on a 2000 kilocalorie diet.

Portion Sizes

Portion sizes are the quantity of food served or eaten at one meal or snack. It is not a standard amount. Consumers using the USDA Food Patterns can learn how standard serving sizes compare with their personal portion sizes by answering comparative questions.

Variety

Variety improves nutrient adequacy. A diet may have all of the virtues just described and still lack variety, if a person eats the same foods day after day. Different foods within the same group contain different arrays of nutrients. No food is guaranteed entirely free of substances that, in excess, could be harmful. Variety is the spice of life.

Diet-Planning Principles

1) Adequacy 2) Balance 3) kCalorie (Energy) Control 4) Nutrient Density 5) Moderation 6) Variety

MyPlate Shortcomings

1) MyPlate fails to convey enough information to help consumers choose a healthy diet. 2) MyPlate fails to recognize that some foods within a food group are healthier choices than others.

Nutrient-Dense Choices

A healthy eating pattern emphasizes nutrient-dense options within each food group. By consistently selecting nutrient-dense foods, a person can obtain all the nutrients needed and still keep kilocalories under control.

The Ingredient List

All packaged foods must list all ingredients-including additives to preserve or enhance foods, such as vitamins and minerals added to enrich or fortify products. The ingredients are listed on the label in descending order of predominance by weight.

Food Group Plans

Among the most widely used tools for diet planning are food group plans that build a diet from clusters of foods that are similar in nutrient content.

Healthy Eating Index

An assessment tool, called the Healthy Eating Index, can be used to measure how well a diet meets the recommendations of the Dietary Guidelines. An assessment of recent nutrition surveys using the Healthy Eating Index reports that the American diet scores 58 out of a possible 100 points (100 being the best). To improve this score, the American diet needs to decrease kilocalories from solid fats and added sugars by about 60 percent; increase fruits by 100 percent and vegetables and milk by 70 percent; maintain the quantity of grains but shift the quality to four times as many whole grains; and reduce salt by more than half.

Eating Pattern

An eating pattern is the customary intake of foods and beverages over time.

Balance

Balance in the diet helps to ensure adequacy. The art of balancing the diet involves consuming enough-but not too much-of different types of foods in proportion to one another. In a balanced diet, foods right in some nutrients do not crowd out foods that are rich in other nutrients.

Examples of Whole Grains

Barley, Buckwheat, Corn, Oats (Oatmeal), Quinoa, Rice, Whole Wheat. The more fiber, the more likely the bread is a whole-grain product.

Serving Sizes

Because labels present nutrient information based on one serving, they must identify the size of the serving. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has established specific serving sizes for various foods and requires that all labels for a given product use the same serving size (8 fl. oz. for beverages). When examining the nutrition facts on a food label, consumers need to compare the serving size on the label with how much they actually eat and adjust their calculation accordingly. The total number of servings per container is listed just below the serving size. Be aware that serving sizes on food labels are not always the same as those of the USDA Food Patterns (discrepancy).

Claims on Labels

Consumers may find various claims on labels including nutrient claims, health claims and structure-function claims.

Consumer Education

Consumers who understand how to read labels are best able to apply the information to achieve and maintain healthful dietary practices. The FDA has designed several programs to educate consumers.

Notable Nutrients

Each food group contributes key nutrients. This feature provides flexibility in diet planning because a person can select any food from a food group (or its subgroups) and receive similar nutrients.

Daily Values

Daily Values reference values developed by the FDA specifically for use on food labels.

kCalorie (Energy) Control

Designing an adequate diet within a reasonable kilocalorie allowance requires careful planning. The amount of energy coming into the body from foods should balance with the amount of energy being used by the body to sustain its metabolic and physical activities. One key to kilocalorie control is to select foods of high nutrient density.

Nutrients of Concern

Dietary fiber, vitamin D, calcium, and potassium are nutrients of concern. In general, people need to eat more vegetables, fruits, whole grains, seafood, and milk and milk products; and less sodium, saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol, and fewer refined grains and foods and beverages with solid fats and added sugars.

Discretionary Calories

Discretionary calories are the kilocalories remaining in a person's energy allowance after consuming enough nutrient-dense foods to meet all nutrient needs for a day.

Exchange Lists

Exchange lists are diet-planning tools that organize foods by their proportions of carbohydrate, fat and protein. Foods on any single list can be used interchangeably. Unlike the USDA Food Patterns, which sort foods primarily by their vitamin and mineral contents, the exchange system sorts foods according to their energy-nutrient contents.

The Daily Values

Food labels list the amount of some nutrients in a product as a percentage of its Daily Value, which makes the numbers more meaningful to consumers. The Daily Values reflect dietary recommendations for nutrients and dietary components that have important relationships with health. The "% Daily Value" column applies to a 2000 kilocalorie diet. Be aware that for some nutrients, you will want to select foods with a low "% Daily Value" and for others you will want a high "% Daily Value." Daily Values also make it easy to compare foods.

Food Substitutes

Food substitutes are foods that are designed to replace other foods.

Empty Kilocalorie Foods

Foods that are notably low in nutrient density are called empty kilocalorie foods. The kilocalories these foods provide are called "empty" because they deliver energy with little, or no, protein, vitamins are minerals.

Fortified Foods

Fortified refers to the addition to a food of nutrients that were either not originally present or present in insignificant amounts. Fortification can be used to correct or prevent a widespread nutrient deficiency or to balance the total nutrient profile of a food (cereals).

Fruits

Fruits contribute folate, vitamin A, vitamin C, potassium and fiber. Consume a variety of fruits and choose whole or cut-up fruits more often than fruit juice. Chose fresh fruit often. Frozen, dried and canned fruits without added sugar are acceptable alternatives to fresh.

Grains

Grains contribute folate, niacin, riboflavin, thiamin, iron, magnesium, selenium and fiber. Make most (at least half) of the grain selections whole grains. Refined grains have lost many nutrients during processing, enriched grains have had some nutrients added back, and whole-grain products have all the nutrients and fiber found in the original grain. When it became a common practice to refine wheat flour used for bread by milling it and throwing away the bran and the germ, consumers suffered a tragic loss of many nutrients. As a consequence, in the early 1940's Congress passed legislation requiring that all grain products that cross state lines be enriched. Food labels must specify the enrichment ingredients.

Health Claims

Health claims are statements that characterize the relationship between a nutrient or other substance in a food and a disease of health-related condition. In cases where there is emerging-but not established-evidence for a relationship between a food or a food component and disease, the FDA allows the use of a qualified claim that must use specific language indicating the evidence supporting the claim is limited.

Grain Enrichment Nutrients

Iron, Thiamin, Riboflavin, Niacin, Folate

Legumes

Legumes are plants of the bean and pea family, with seeds that are rich in protein compared with other plant-derived foods. Legumes contribute the same key nutrients (protein, iron, zinc) as meats, poultry and seafood.

Food labels

Many consumers, especially those interested in preventing chronic diseases, read food labels to help them make healthy choices. Food labels appear on virtually all packaged foods, and posters or brochures provide similar nutrition information for fresh meats, fruits and vegetables. Restaurants with 20 or more locations must provide menu listings of an item's kilocalories, grams of saturated fat, and milligrams of sodium. Keep in mind that restaurants tend to serve extra-large portions.

Nutrient Claims

Nutrient claims are statements that characterize the quantity of a nutrient in a food (rich in calcium). Nutrient claims must meet the FDA definitions, which include the conditions under which each term can be used. Some descriptions imply that a food contains, or does not contain, a nutrient. Implied claims are prohibited unless they meet specified criteria.

Nutrient Density

Nutrient density is a measure of the nutrients a food provides relative to the energy it provides. The more nutrients and the fewer kilocalories, the higher the nutrient density. To eat well without overeating, select nutrient-dense foods-that is, foods that deliver the most nutrients for the lease food energy (milk vs cheese). To calculate nutrient density, divide milligrams by kilocalories. The more milligrams per kilocalorie, the greater the nutrient density. Combining variety with nutrient density helps to ensure the adequacy of all nutrients.

Processed Foods

Processed foods are foods that have been treated to change their physical, chemical, microbiological or sensory properties.

Protein Foods

Protein foods contribute protein, essential fatty acids, niacin, thiamin, vitamin B6, vitamin B12, iron, magnesium, potassium and zinc. Choose a variety of protein foods from the three subgroups (seafood, meat/poultry/eggs, nuts/seeds/soy products). When shopping, look closely for "round" or "loin" meets because they generally have less fat. Because nuts and seeds are energy dense, they need to be consumed in small quantities and in place of-not in addition to-other protein products. To keep fat intake moderate, bake, roast, broil, grill, or braise meats, poultry, and seafood. Remove the skin from poultry after cooking. Trim visible fat before cooking and drain fat before cooking.

Nutrition Profiling

Ranking foods based on their overall nutrient composition is known as nutrient profiling.

Serving Sizes

Serving sizes are the standardized quantity of food. Such information allows comparisons when reading food labels and consistency when following the dietary guidelines.

Solid Fats

Solid fats are fats that are not usually liquid at room temperature. They are commonly found in most foods derived from animals and vegetable oils that have been hydrogenated. Solid fats typically contain more saturated and trans fats than most oils.

Mixtures of Foods

Some foods fall into two or more food groups (taco). With a little practice, consumers can learn to see these mixtures of foods as items from various food groups.

Structure-Function Claims

Structure-function claims can be made without FDA approval. Product labels can claim to "slow again," "improve memory," and "build strong bones" without any proof. Structure-function claims can be deceptively similar to health claims, and most consumers do not distinguish between these two types of claims.

Dietary Guidelines for Americans

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans provide what a person should eat to stay healthy. These guidelines translate the nutrient recommendations of the DRI into food recommendations. In general, a healthy diet emphasizes a variety of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and fat free and low-fat milk products; includes lean meats, poultry, seafood, legumes, eggs, seeds and nuts; is low in saturated and trans fats, cholesterol, salt, and added sugars; and stays within your daily energy needs for your recommended body weight.

Nutrition Facts Panel

The FDA requires labels to include key nutrition facts such as serving sizes, nutrient quantities, and Daily Values.

Nutrient Quantities

The FDA requires that the Nutrition Facts panel on food labels present nutrient information in two ways-in quantities (such as grams) and as percentages of standards called the Daily Values. The Nutrition Facts panel must provide the nutrient amount, percent daily value, or both for the following: total food energy (kilocalories), food energy from fat (kilocalories), total fat (grams and percent Daily Value), saturated fat (grams and percent Daily Value), trans fat (grams), cholesterol (milligrams and percent Daily Value), sodium (milligrams and percent Daily Value), total carbohydrate which includes starch, sugar and fiber (grams and percent Daily Value), dietary fiber (grams and percent Daily Value), sugars which includes both those naturally present in and those added to the food (grams), and protein (grams). The labels must also present nutrient content information as a percent Daily Value of vitamin A, vitamin C, iron and calcium.

USDA Food Patterns

The USDA Food Patterns assign foods into five major groups: fruits, vegetables, grains, protein foods, milk and milk products; and recommend daily amounts of foods from each group to meet nutrient needs.

MyPlate

The USDA created an educational tool called MyPlate to illustrate the five food groups. The MyPlate icon divides a plate into four sections, each representing a food group-fruits, vegetables, grains and protein. A circle next to the plate represents the milk group. The MyPlate icon does not stand alone as an educational tool.

Proteins

The protein foods group is sorted into three subgroups.

Vegetables

Vegetables contribute folate, vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin K, vitamin E, magnesium, potassium and fiber. Consume a variety of vegetables each day and choose from all five subgroups several times a week. The dark-green vegetables deliver the B vitamin folate; the red and orange vegetables provide vitamin A; legumes supply iron and protein; the starch vegetables contribute carbohydrate energy; and the other vegetables fill in the gaps and add more of these same nutrients. The recommended intake of vegetables should be varied among the 5 subgroups. "Think variety, think color." Choose fresh vegetables often, especially dark-green leafy and red and orange vegetables such as spinach, broccoli, tomatoes and sweet potatoes. Choose often from the variety of legumes available (black beans, lentils, lima beans, peanuts).