So what is healthy eating? It may surprise you to know that nothing in the U.S. food guide is actually unhealthy. There is really nothing that can be considered healthy either. Also note that making choices based on the portions set out in the food guide will probably not help you lose weight.
The only thing that determines the healthiness or unhealthiness of a food is how much of it you choose to eat and how often you eat it. We already know that eating too much fat is unhealthy so lets look at it a different way here. If you tried to eat zero fat and survive it would be impossible. You would die of starvation first. A lot of naturally occurring foods have fat in them even if it's only trace amounts. Vegetables are very healthy but they also contain small amounts of fat.
We know that fibre is healthy for us but what would happen if you ate 6 - 10 bran muffins every day and nothing else at all. I don't think I need to tell you what would happen just trust me when I say you would become increasingly unhealthy the longer you did that.
The trick to healthy eating is balance and I'm sure you've heard that before. A good way to balance your meals is to make sure you choose at least three different food groups for each of your meals. This article is for meat eaters and doesn't apply to vegetarianism since that is a complex diet that requires proper iron and protein from sources other than meat. Most people know the food groups but lets go over it real quick for reference.
Group 1
Meats, Legumes, Nuts and Alternatives
Group 2
Grain Products
Group 3
Dairy Products
Group 4
Fruit and Vegetables
Group 5
Oils and fats
For our purpose here we are going to ignore the oil and fat group. When choosing foods for your meals use very little fat and build it up with foods from the first four groups.
Lets look at an example of spaghetti sauce. You have the sauce and pasta so that is vegetable and grains covered but what about the third? It's obvious if you add meat you've completed the three groups but you could also add some cheese. Parmesan or Romano are great tasting choices. Now what about the healthy part? Try using lean meat in the sauce and keep the cheese down to no more than a tablespoon.
Let's look at a stir-fry next. You would definitely have grains and vegetables covered but we need a third. Most stir-fry's are also made with meat so there you have your three groups.
Remember use fats sparingly and balance out the rest of the meal with at least three different food groups.