Balanced Diet

Tips For Balanced Diet 

You must be aware of your body’s vitamin and mineral requirements as well as the nutritional values of the food choices you make prior to selecting a daily food menu. To ensure that you are following a balanced diet, make sure that:

1. Your food choices originate from the five main food groups viz. fruits, vegetables, cereals and pulses, dairy, poultry, fish and meat products.
2. Since our body requires over 40 nutrients including vitamins, minerals, water, protein, carbohydrates and fats; it is important that we eat a variety of foods especially within vegetables and across the food groups. For example while vegetables like capsicum provide us with Vitamin C, spinach is rich in iron; both foods from the same food group but catering to different nutritional needs.
3. Your diet ensures that your Body Mass Index (BMI) is within the recommended range.
4. You follow low fat recipes, eating foods that are low in saturated and trans fat.
5. Sugar, oil and alcoholic beverage consumption is restricted.
6. Your food has low sodium content

The means used to grow, store and prepare food also plays an important in enhancing or depleting the nutritional value of the food. 

The human body requires various types of nutrients in order to keep the body healthy and fit. These nutrients should be taken appropriately in our diet. The diet that we follow should be balanced. Balanced diet is a diet, which provides all the nutrients needed by the body in correct proportions.

This means that it should contain all the types of nutrients in the required quantities. Each meal should contain sources of carbohydrates (such as cereals), proteins (such as pulses), fats (such as cooking oil), vitamins and minerals (such as variety of vegetables).

Some of the common foods and their composition are given below:

Food	Carbohydrate	Fat	Protein
Bread (Roti)	52%	3%	9%
Rice (cooked)	23%	0.1%	2.2%
Banana	20%	0.5%	1,0%
Potato	19%	0.1%	2%
Peas	16.7%	0.5%	5.2%
Apples	12.8%	0.5%	0.3%
Cabbage	5.5%	0.3%	1.2%
Spinach (Palak, Saag)	3.2%	0.3%	1.6%
Eggs	0.7%	12%	13%
Milk	4%	4%	4%
Butter	0.4%	81%	0.6%
Cheese	2%	32%	25%
Meat	0	30%	22%
Chicken	0	11%	20%
Fish	0	0.4%	17%

Given below is the recommended daily allowances of energy, proteins and fats:

Group	Body Wt in kg	Net Energy in k Cal	Protein in g	Fat in g
Adult Man	60	2875	60	20
Woman	50	2225	50	20
13-15 yrs Boy	47-48	2450	70	22
Girl	46-47	2060	55	22

In addition, the body also needs fibrous content called the roughage (for digestion) and water. A diet that contains all the above is called a balanced diet.

Balanced diets of moderately active adult Indians

Food	Recommended amounts (g per day)
	Adult Man	Adult Woman
Cereals (rice/wheat)	520	440
Pulses	50	45
Meat/Fish	30	30
Egg	1	1
Milk	200	150
Oil/fats	45	25
Sugar/molasses	35	20
Roots and tubers (potato, etc.)	60	50
Green leafy vegetables (spinach, etc.)	40	100
Other vegetables (cauliflower, etc.)	70	40

Energy requirement

A balanced diet should not only take care of the different types of nutrients but also consider the energy requirements of the individual. This is because different people have different lifestyles and varied nature of work. A man with sedentary habits does not require as much energy as the man who is on his feet for most of the day. The energy requirement is measured in terms of calories. The calorie requirement depends on the age, sex, height, weight, occupation and state of health.

Age	Energy required
5 years	6000 kJ per day
11 years	9000 kJ per day
18 years	11000 kJ per day
Adult (normal work)	9600 kJ per day
Adult (heavy work)	12000 kJ per day
Adult (very heavy work)	16000 kJ per day

A young boy of about 15 years requires more calories or energy than an adult man who does not do heavy work. Similarly, lactating mothers require high energy and high protein diet for good lactation.

High Energy Foods

Here is a handy list of high energy foods which you could attempt to integrate into your daily diet. A high energy food can supply your body with additional energy needed to get through the day.

Vegetables

The list of vegetables which supply your body with high amounts of energy is exhaustive. 

The main foods in the vegetable area which provide high amounts of energy are; sprouts, broccoli, asparagus and spinach.

Nuts

Some nuts are a great energy source and are often very suited to a quick snack. Almonds, peanuts and soy nuts are perfect for this example.

Yogurt

Yogurt is full of vitamin-B, and this vitamin helps your body convert other nutrients into energy. You should not eat excessive amounts of yogurt due to the fat content. You could eat a nut yogurt to mix the yogurt and nut energy foods into one snack.

Eggs

Eggs are a great source of energy, and this food will supply a high amount of protein throughout the working day. Some experts advise not to eat more than three eggs a week, so try to mix your weeks food plan up with other high energy foods.

Orange & Other Fruit Juice

Vitamin C can help to reduce levels of fatigue, which will keep you going all day long. As with many other vitamins, too much vitamin C can be bad for your body, so drink these juices in moderation.

Citrus fruits are also very good in providing vitamin C, a great example of this is the main ingredient in the fairly new lemon detox diet.

Beans & Lentils

Beans and lentils are a great source of potassium and carbohydrates. Kidney beans, lentils, baked beans and many others provide a great source of energy for your body.

Seeds

Sunflower and pumpkin seeds are also a great source of energy for your body. These are great as a stand-alone snack, and also combined with other ingredients in nut bars.