When it comes to your dinner plate it's a great time to "Go Green" too
The newly released 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans offer a practical roadmap to help you make changes in your eating plan to improve your health.
Balancing Calories to Manage Weight
The first step is to focus on balancing calories with physical activity and consuming an overall healthy eating pattern. This will put you on the road to achieving or maintaining a healthy weight and reducing the risk of developing diet-related chronic diseases.
The Dietary Guidelines recommend shifting eating patterns to eat more of some foods and nutrients and less of others. A healthy eating pattern will allow you to meet the recommendations while staying within your calorie needs.
Foods and Nutrients to Increase
The Dietary Guidelines encourage Americans to eat more:
· Whole grains:
Increase whole grains by choosing whole grain breads and cereals, brown rice and whole wheat pasta. Make at least half your grain servings whole grains.
· Vegetables:
Eat a variety of vegetables, especially dark-green, red and orange vegetables plus beans and peas. Most adults need 2 ½ cups of vegetables per day.
Fruits:
Add fruit to meals and snacks-fresh, frozen or canned-to get about 2 cups each day.
· Low-fat or fat free milk, yogurt and cheese or fortified soy beverages:
Include 3 cups per day for calcium, vitamin D, protein and potassium. Lactose-free milk is also an option.
· Vegetable oils such as canola, corn, olive, peanut and soybean: These are high in monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. Use in moderate amounts in place of solid fats.
· Seafood -
Include a variety of seafood more often in place of some meat and poultry.
©2011 ADA. Reproduction of this tip sheet is permitted for educational purposes. Reproduction for sales purposes is not authorized.
This tip sheet is provided by:
Authored by American Dietetic Association staff registered dietitians.
The American Dietetic Association is the world's largest
organization of food and nutrition professionals.
ADA is committed to improving the nation's health and
advancing the profession of dietetics through research,
education and advocacy.
For a referral to a registered dietitian and for additional food and nutrition information visit
www.eatright.org.
