What exactly is a balanced diet and how do you get one?
Following the food pyramid is a good place to start and maybe it’s the best place for some people. If you take all the food somebody eats at the end of the week and look at how much variety there was, you will find that there really wasn’t that much variety.
People generally have a dozen foods they like to eat and they will end up eating the same foods day after day for most of their life and that is where one runs into problems. You get stuck in a rut and fail to use a variety of foods in your diet and fail to get the nutritional balance that you should be getting.
If you know nothing about food but incorporate a lot of variety of fresh fruit and vegetables, cereals, dairy, protein sources, small amounts of “good” fats, and legumes and nuts into your diet the chances of your missing out on the right nutrients essential for good health are lowered.
The point is the more variety you can get in your diet the greater the possibility that if you are lacking in something that you are going to get it.
As well, one needs to look at the food labels. With just a little bit of knowledge of how to read food labels and what you need you can make the right choices it shouldn’t be difficult to have a balanced diet.