You may have grown up with the “Basic 4″: dairy group, meat group, grain group, and the fruits and vegetables group. As nutrition science has changed, so have these food groups. This section helps explains food groups and provides some healthy eating plans. Water is is involved in every function of the body. It’s in every cell, tissue and organ of the body. In this section you’ll learn why getting enough water everyday is important for your health. Whether you’re looking for information about monounsaturated fat, polyunsaturated fat, saturated fat, trans fat, or cholesterol, you’ll find what you need here. You may be wondering what all the hype is about carbohydrates or “carbs” as they are often called. Find out the facts. Then there’s protein. How much do you really need? Can you get too much? You’ll find answers to these questions and more by visiting this section. Vitamins and minerals are nutrients your body needs to grow and develop normally. The NIH Vitamin and Mineral Supplement Fact Sheets provide information about the role of vitamins and minerals in health and disease.

Are you interested in healthy eating and having a balanced diet? If so, you’ll want to learn more about food groups. You may have grown up with the “Basic 4″: dairy group, meat group, grain group, and the fruits and vegetables group. As nutrition science has changed, so have these food groups. Foods are grouped together when they share similar nutritional properties. The groups below are based on the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) eating plan. Depending on the plan you choose, you might find the food groups arranged with some slight differences. For example, MyPyramid has a meat and beans group instead of a meat, poultry, and fish group.

The grains are composed of whole wheat bread and rolls, whole wheat pasta, English muffin, pita bread, bagel, cereals, grits, oatmeal, brown rice, unsalted pretzels and popcorn,

Now the fruits are composed of apples, apricots, bananas, dates, grapes, oranges, grapefruit, grapefruit juice, mangoes, melons, peaches, pineapples, raisins, strawberries, tangerines, and 100% fruit juice.

The Vegetable group are composed of broccoli, carrots, collards, green beans, green peas, kale, lima beans, potatoes, spinach, squash, sweet potatoes, and tomatoes.

Fat-free or low-fat milk and milk products consist of fat-free (skim) or low-fat (1%) milk or buttermilk, fat-free, low-fat, or reduced-fat cheese, fat-free or low-fat regular or frozen yogurt.

Lean meats, poultry, group includes beef, poultry, pork, game meats, fish, shellfish Select only lean; trim away visible fats; broil, roast, or poach; remove skin from poultry. .

Nuts, seeds, and legumes group includes almonds, hazelnuts, mixed nuts, peanuts, walnuts, sunflower seeds, peanut butter, kidney beans, lentils, and split peas.

So now that you have the official food groups, you are now equipped with the tools to improve your health. Keep the list somewhere close and use it.

To cut out the chemicals and preservatives for continued good health, means going back to food in their natural state. Skip the pre-packaged and pre-prepared foods as often as possible.

These fast foods are not whole food giving the vitamins, minerals and enzymes needed by your body. Sometimes what is eaten is not even real foods and provide little nutrition to build or restore health.

You need to take a look at what you eat and whether you are getting your health and nutrition needs met. One health and nutrition secret is to use the first-rate foods, grown organically if possible.

Eating a balanced diet is genuinely the best way to ensure that you have good health and good nutrition. Nutrition experts suggest that the daily diet include so many servings from the five food groups of breads and cereals, vegetables, fruits, milk, meat/protein such as poultry, fish, beans, eggs and nuts. Fats would be included, but used sparingly.

People living 50 to 100 years ago usually ate that way all the time, gaining nutrition from whole grain foods, vegetables and fruits grown and eaten fresh from the garden, or sold locally. They generally ate smaller amounts of meat or chose meals with beans, peas and other legumes.

Are you one of the people that consider that if you don’t eat well, you can just pop a vitamin pill and make up for it? Here is an additional health and nutrition secret: your body absorbs vitamins and minerals found in foods more readily than those found in vitamin pills.

Make vegetables, specially leafy green vegetables very dominant in your diet for a natural source of the vitamins and minerals that you must have for good health. Without this good source of nutrition, it is very hard to have good health. Choose genuine food over vitamins, then fill in if you think you are lacking with a super food powder.

A meal that you do it by yourself for you and your family, is the best. But you can’t do that, you should limit to use the fast foods to make sure that you don’t receive the harmful foods for your health. Set up a nutrition plan for yourself to always ensure that you have your health and nutrition enough to face with the busy life today.

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