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The 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, produced by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, describe a "healthy diet" as one that:
- Emphasizes fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and fat-free or low-fat milk and milk products or other foods rich in calcium;
- Includes lean meats, poultry, fish, beans, eggs, and nuts;
- Is low in saturated fats, trans fats, cholesterol, salt (sodium), and added sugars; and
- Stays within daily calorie needs, based on your age and how active you are:
Seniors need: 1,600 calories per day
Children: 1,600 calories per day
Inactive women: 1,600 calories per day
Inactive men: 2,200 calories per day
Moderately active women: 2,200 calories per day
Teenage Girls: 2,200 calories per day
Teenage Boys: 2,800 calories per day
Active men: 2,800 calories per day
Active women: 2,800 calories per day
Pregnant & breastfeeding women: 2,200 to 2,800 calories per day
A word about portion sizes: It can be hard to tell if you are eating larger servings than you need, since portion sizes have increased dramatically over the last few decades, especially in restaurants. Even our dinner plates at home have grown. The small "salad" plate we use now used to be about the size that people used for their whole meal. Take this portion size quiz to see how "portion-savvy" you are, then copy this wallet card that may come in handy at a restaurant; it tells you exactly how much a healthy serving size is for various types of food e.g. produce, grains, meat, etc.
Use Food to Prevent or Manage Chronic Health Conditions:
Start with USDA's Food and Nutrition Information Center's heart health resources to know your risk factors and how to minimize them. The National Heart Lung and Blood Institute's heart health guides specifically for the Latino, African American and Native American communities also have useful information for everyone looking to make their food choices add up to better health. Live Healthy Georgia's toolkit, "Live Healthy in Faith: A Faith Community Guide to Promoting Nutrition and Physical Activity" includes ideas for changing your environment, as well as sample health promotion and education programs.
Know What You're Eating!
Knowing how to read food labels is a bit like learning a foreign language. But, if you are like most people and eat processed foods sometimes instead of making everything from scratch, it's hard to know exactly what you're putting into your body unless you become a label reader. Take the time to read labels so you can avoid excessive sugar, fat, salt, preservatives, and other artificial ingredients. At the same time, you can move towards more made-from-scratch meals.
Pouring on the Pounds? Get the facts on sugar sweetened beverages (SSBs). Find out how much sugar is in your drink and what choices are healthier, all from the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
Quick Tips for Getting the Nutrients You Need:
- Think of ways to add more fruits and vegetables to your diet. You can get a lot of veggies in soups and stir frys or by adding them to pasta. Fresh fruit makes an easy snack, or consider adding fresh or dried fruit to other foods, like cereal or plain yogurt.
- Try building at least some of your meals around fruits and vegetables and grains (especially whole grains such as brown rice) and treating meat and dairy as the side dishes.
- Choose vegetarian proteins often, such as beans and tofu, nuts, and low-fat dairy products. Stick to lean cuts when choosing meat, and baking or roasting instead of frying.
- To avoid added sugars and fats and other ingredients that don't help you be healthier, serve foods as close to their natural state as possible: like fresh fruit instead of jam, whole wheat bread instead of white, and fresh meat instead of deli slices.
- Be prepared. Plan to have healthy snacks and meals with you if you know you'll be out all day.
- For more ideas, check out Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon's (EMO's) fact sheets on: "Quick Tips for Healthy Eating" and "Tips for Feeding Picky Eaters" (en Español).
More Menu Planning Ideas:
- Inspire everyone at your faith community to make small changes by creating a "Wellness Goal of the Month" or "Fruit and Vegetable of the Month" campaign. Holy Redeemer Catholic Church in Portland, Oregon designed these materials and they promote the program at church and with the parish's school children. During the growing season, the vegetable of the month will be one that is grown in the school garden or sold at the parish-based produce buying club.
- Choose foods that will give you the most "bang for your buck" nutritionally. Build the majority of your meals and snacks from this USDA chart of "nutrient-dense" foods to replace options that aren't quite as healthy.
- No foods are completely off-limits if you have them only once in awhile and in small amounts. Use this Go-Slow-Whoa chart from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute to help you decide if your snack is something you should eat pretty much any time, only once in awhile, or almost never.
- If you want more detailed information, you can try an interactive menu planner that lets you type in a whole meal and see how many calories, fat and carbohydrates you are eating.
Celebrate...Your Health:
- These ideas for healthy celebrations at schools would be just as fun and appropriate at your faith community's celebrations, or for holiday parties at home. They come from the Center for Science in the Public Interest.
- Look at these guidelines for healthy foods created by Ainsworth United Church of Christ (AUCC) in Portland, Oregon - a Congregational Wellness Project pilot site. AUCC uses them to help people choose nutritious snacks for their fellowship time, but they could be used as standards for all kinds of events at your congregation. Feel free to adapt the list with your own healthy ideas, but please give credit to the authors, saying your document is "based on fellowship food guidelines created by Ainsworth United Church of Christ in Portland, Oregon."
Check the Resources and Links page for more nutrition-related websites.
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