A healthy diet: combines choosing more fresh fruits and vegetables and less processed foods. A healthy diet is: planned out with breakfast, lunch, dinners and snacks. A healthy diet has: more whole grains. A healthy diet includes: eating regularly to help boost metabolism and give added energy throughout the day. A healthy diet includes rules. A healthy diet: involves a wide variety of foods. The characteristics of a healthy diet consist of five categories. These are adequacy, balance, calorie control, moderation and variety. With adequacy, the goal is to eat foods that provide the essential amount of nutrients, fiber and energy. If you have a balance in your diet, that means that you’re making correct food choices, not too much or too little of certain kinds of food. Having calorie control means that you’re getting the right amounts of energy needed to life at a healthy weight. With moderation, you can still eat some of the tasty, but not so healthy foods, like cakes, candy, sodas, or potato chips, as long as it’s not excessive. Finally, variety. This is where the food choices are different from day to do, meaning you don’t eat the same lunch every day, or have the same things for breakfast every day. (Siezer & Whitney, 2011).
Some of the challenges associated with choosing the right foods are:
Media- so many commercials aim to get individuals to buy foods that are full of sugar (think, cold cereal), or processed (think, boxed foods, mac and cheese). They're cheaper than healthier food choices, and they're more convenient, taking only minutes to prepare.
Friends/family- when we're surrounded by people who don't care or worry about their food choices, it's easy for individuals to follow suit. Take a New Years Eve party. All the guests invited are asked to bring a dish to share. What are the chances of having plates of vegetables or fruit, when you could easily have meatballs or cookies instead? Individuals eat what's put in front of them and fall to peer pressure to easily.
Lack of education of food. - A basic challenge that people face, is having the correct knowledge of food. Why do we eat what we do? Why shouldn't we eat cakes and candy all the time? Or, harder yet, what's the difference between whole grains and enriched flour? When that basic knowledge is missing, it's easy to make poor food choices. However, when knowledge is put into action, it's easier to, not necessarily make better choices, but have a better understanding of why we should make better choices, and the consequences of those choices, both good and bad.
Cost- Healthy food is not cheap. The cost of processed foods, such as boxed macaroni and cheese, averages about .30 cents a box. The cost of two-three apples averages about $1.29 per pound, Even if you were to buy three boxes of macaroni and cheese, you're still getting them for under a dollar. Three boxes can feed a family of five easily, yet three apples won't even make a dent in their hunger. So which is more important, buying healthy food which costs more and can keep you on the right track, or unhealthy food that can temporarily fill you up, but cause more damage in the long run?
Convenience- Drive thru's offer quick, inexpensive meals. You don't have to worry about shopping or preparing the food. You don't have to dirty dishes, or clean up afterwards. All you do is drive up, order, and you're on your way. However, the food you're eating is typically food that will kill you from the inside out. Most fast food is made from processed ingredients, fried, and full of artificial ingredients that prolong the life of the food. If that food is able to be preserved for long periods of time outside of your body, imagine what it is doing once it gets inside your system. Yet, people still tend to choose fast food over healthier, home cooked meals, based on cost and time.
References: Siezer, F., Whitney. E., (2011). Nutrition Concepts & Controversies, 12th Edition . Wadsworth, Cengage Learning . Belmont, CA.
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