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2: Achieving a Healthy Diet

  • Page ID
    8688
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    In this chapter, we explore the tools you can use to achieve a healthy diet, as well as important nutrition concepts like balance and moderation.

    • 2.1: Chapter Introduction
      The government works to provide citizens with information, guidance, and access to healthy foods. How will you decide which information to follow? What are the elements of a healthy diet, and how do you figure out ways to incorporate them into your personal diet plan? The dietary toolkit can be likened to a mechanics toolkit, with every tool designed for a specific task(s). Likewise, there are many tools in the dietary toolkit that can help you build, fix, or maintain your diet for good health.
    • 2.2: Nutrition Recommendations - Understanding the Bigger Picture of Dietary Guidelines
      US dietary guidelines are based on evolving scientific evidence and are updated every five years. The goals of the 2010 Dietary Guidelines are to prevent nutrient inadequacy, promote health, reduce chronic disease, and decrease the prevalence of overweight and obesity.  To have a healthy eating pattern, reduce the intake of sodium, saturated and trans fats, cholesterol, added sugars, and refined grains. Increase consumption of fruits, vegetables, low-fat dairy products, dietary fiber, and oils.
    • 2.3: Understanding Dietary Reference Intakes (DRI)
      Nutrient-intake recommendations set for healthy people living in the United States and Canada are known as Dietary Reference Intakes.     The DRIs includes the AI, EAR, RDA, and UL for micronutrients and the AMDR ranges for energy-yielding macronutrients. The DRI provide a set of standards for researchers and government policy-makers, and specifies nutrient consumption guidelines for individuals.
    • 2.4: Using MyPlate to Plan a Healthy Diet
      MyPlate is the most up-to-date nutrition teaching tool. MyPlate was developed by the United States Department of Agriculture (U.S.D.A.) Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion as an easy to use visual guide to help all American develop healthy eating patterns. It replaces the former MyPyramid teaching tool and correlates with the 2015 - 2020 U.S. Dietary Guidelines.
    • 2.5: Portion Size - When Enough is Enough
      Judging portion sizes can be done using your hand or household objects in comparison. It can also be done using the MyPlate guide to determine how much food is a portion for that meal.
    • 2.6: Discovering the Nutrition Facts Food Label
      Understanding the significance of dietary guidelines and how to use DRIs in planning your nutrient intakes can make you better equipped to select the right foods the next time you go to the supermarket. The Nutrition Facts food label is an another essential tool to help consumers understand what is in the foods they eat. All packaged foods sold in the United States and Canada must have nutrition labels that accurately reflect the contents and nutritional value of the food products.
    • 2.7: National Goals for Nutrition and Health: Healthy People 2020
      Healthy People 2020 is a health initiative with a ten-year objective of helping Americans improve health and well-being, and to live long, healthy lives. The goals of Healthy People 2020 are founded upon a determinants of health approach, which means they are reflective of the circumstances in which people are born, live, and work, as well as the conditions that shape their circumstances such as money, power, and resources at the local, national, and global levels.
    • 2.E: Exercises


    2: Achieving a Healthy Diet is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by LibreTexts.

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