Balanced diet – an attempt at a summary

Every year another new clutch of books arrives on our shelves proclaiming to have the answer to the question, “What exactly is a well balanced diet?” But, on closer inspection, they usually raise more questions than they answer.

And for every book there are a dozen new web pages offering advice and insight into the workings of our digestive systems. We hope that this particular one will improve your understanding by offering, towards the bottom of this page, some simple generalisations which might help you.

By way of a definition you might find something like, “A balanced diet is a diet that provides adequate amounts of all the necessary nutrients required for healthy growth and activity.”

Does that help anyone? No, not really. A lot is known about nutrition now and this Healthy Eating section contains many pages of information for you to check out. But even the best brains in the world cannot agree what the necessary nutrient requirements are for a whole population, let alone the specific needs of an individual.

So the question cannot be answered any more than asking “What is the best car?” or “Who is the most attractive person in the world?” The answer will always be, “It depends.”

Some broad rules which move us towards a well balanced diet

So there is no definitive answer since the correct diet will always depend on the individual asking the question. But there are some general guides which should help most people move towards an improved diet, most of the time.

Try to do more of these:

• eat more fruit and vegetables including salad crops
• eat a wider variety of fruit of fruit and vegetables including salad crops
• include animal protein, especially poultry and fish
• eat vegetable protein such as pulses and nuts
• choose wholegrain foods, such a bread, cereal, rice and pasta
• eat healthy snacks between meals
• eat unsaturated fats
• drink more water

At the same time, try to:

• eat less trans fats, reducing intake to zero if possible
• eat less saturated fats by cutting back on red meats and dairy products (either consume them less often or in reduced portion sizes or, better still, do both)
• eat less processed carbohydrates, such as products made from white flour
• avoid empty calories completely, such as sugary drinks and confectionary
• cut down or stop adding salt to your food
• cut down or stop adding sugar to your food, like hot drinks and breakfast cereals

Using these simple guides will help develope eating and drinking habits that more closely relate to the mythical well balanced diet. But remember that common sense and well informed decision making should always take the lead roles in forming healthy eating patterns.