Healthy eating: the menu of a healthy and balanced daily diet

When a person thinks about how he/she should have a healthy diet, many doubts arise and the problem comes because we have never been told how to have a good diet.

Normally we learn to eat based on what we see at home during our childhood and adolescence and unless we are inquiring about these issues we will follow the pattern we have seen at home. This is not to say it is bad, but is it really the right thing to do?

At the office we come across many cases that have a good diet and many others that do not, but these people believe they are doing it correctly regardless. It is not anyone's fault, it is just that it would be important to teach people from a very young age what a good diet is all about.

With this article we will try to show some basics that will help to know what things to take into account in our day to day, whether you are a popular runner or a more sedentary person.

Do we listen to the nutritional pyramid?

The first nutritional pyramid was born in Sweden in the 70's. And you have to understand the situation at that time. There was a shortage of food, very low purchasing power and very high food prices.

So the pyramid focused more on foods based on their value. Perhaps at that time it was not so badly focused due to the type of work people had at that time (hard and much more physical work and they ate once or twice a day). Today we work with a food pyramid created in the USA in the 90's, it does not differ much from the Swedish one. Perhaps what changes is that it adds an individual step to the dairy products, but otherwise it is quite similar.

It is still a representation of a diet that is not so healthy to follow today. On the one hand at the base they have pasta, rice, bread... great sources of carbohydrates and there should be fruits, vegetables. There are no healthy fats either avocado, AOVE, seeds... If we look at the latest food pyramids some even included recommendations for alcohol intake and even pastries occasionally.

If we understand a food pyramid as a set of rules for a correct diet, alcohol and pastries should be left out of the pyramid.

So, how should I eat?

Nowadays there are many types of diets that can be correct, whether you are omnivorous, vegetarian or vegan; you take a paleo type diet (it can be a good guideline but not very sociable) but what we are going to try is to follow a good eating pattern.

If we want to work on the basis of a pyramid, right now the only valid pyramid would be the Australian pyramid. Why?

Photo: Healthy Eating Pyramid (Nutrition Australia)

• Because it follows a good eating pattern placing fruits and vegetables at the base and giving them a lot of importance.
• It places carbohydrates (energy source for our races) in the second step.
• It already talks about hydration, spices, healthy fats...

But I have to admit that I do not like it completely and I work with other tools.

On the one hand we would have the Harvard healthy plate that consists of this:

As we can see it is very complete and gives us a lot of information as it talks about all the types of nutrients we need, gives quite a few pointers, talks about whole grains, hydration and healthy fats and encourages us to stay active.

But if we want to give it a final twist, what I really like is this infographic because it is valid for both athletes and sedentary people:

• It talks about consuming in more or less carbohydrates depending on the activity you do throughout the day. If we do not do much activity we can prioritize sources of carbohydrates through fruit, vegetables and few grains.
• It talks about protein and already indicates that a minimum of 1g per kg of weight per day and upwards.
• It talks about water, fats, etc.

In short, much more complete and visual.

Through this all I want to make you see that there are different ways of eating and all can be fine as long as we follow the latest advice and eat carbohydrate sources based on our physical activity, include lots of fruit and vegetables, protein rations appropriate to our weight and exercise, and we do not forget the healthy fats.

I hope all this information helps you to keep up with your workouts!