Nutrition

Healthy eating is a lifestyle choice. Choosing good nutrition and a healthy diet has many benefits. It helps overall health. It also helps to reduce your risk for certain diseases. These may include heart disease, high blood pressure and certain kinds of cancer. Whatever your age, the nutrition habits you choose now can affect your health for the rest of your life.

You can keep a healthy diet if you:

• Make smart food choices
• Find a balance between exercise and eating
• Get the most nutrition from every calorie

Ways to keep a healthy diet and lifestyle include:

• Choosing lean meat, poultry, fish, eggs, nuts and beans
• Choosing high calcium foods like broccoli, kale, low-fat cheese and milk
• Including plenty of fruits, vegetables and whole grains
• Adding in fat-free or low-fat milk or yogurt
• Using minimal fats, salt or sugar in food
• Eating breakfast
• Enjoying your food, but eating less
• Avoiding big portions
• Making half your plate fruits and veggies
• Choosing foods with low salt/sodium numbers
• Drinking water instead of sugary drinks
• Exercising for at least 30 minutes on most days
• Slowly raising the intensity and amount of time you work out

You may eat something unhealthy now and again. But,  you should go back to your healthy eating habits. For most people, healthy eating makes the most sense. Itt promotes long-term weight loss and health.

The amount of calories you may need each day depends on your age, gender and activity level. For example, a relatively active 20 year-old woman needs more calories than an inactive 55 year-old man.

Your body mass index (BMI) and your activity level is used to find the right calorie amounts for you. Your BMI is a number that represents your body fat. It is based on how tall you are and how much you weigh. This lets you know if you are underweight, overweight or a healthy weight.

To calculate your BMI and your recommended caloric intake, adults can use the Baylor University BMI and Calorie Calculator .

Talk with your doctor about how best to keep a healthy lifestyle and if you may need to lose weight. Your doctor can recommend other ways to live and eat well.