The definition of “a healthy diet” is continually shifting and changing in line with the evolving understanding of the roles that different foods, nutrients, and other food components play in health and disease.

A healthy diet is a consistent, habitual pattern of eating that:

1. Provides the optimal amount of energy to fuel your bodily processes and activity levels and maintain a healthy, stable body weight.

Studies are increasingly revealing just how important it is for us to make sure we don’t burden our bodies with more energy than our bodies can utilise. The technical term for this is “overnutrition”. It it is not a healthy thing to be doing on a regular basis. Overnutrition places significant strain on our bodies, generating inflammation at the cellular level, deposits of ectopic fat in our organs, and is directly related to type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. I wrote about overnutrition HERE.

2. Provides the optimal amount of macronutrients (water, carbohydrates, protein and fats) and micronutrients (vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients) to support all of your bodily systems and processes.

So what are these optimal amounts? The Australian National Health and Medical Research Council sets out the Nutrient Reference values for macronutrients, Vitamins and Minerals. It also sets out Suggested Dietary Targets to reduce chronic disease risk.

In order for our diet to provide us with the nutrients our body needs to function at its best, we need to focus in healthy whole foods, including plant-based foods, fresh fruits and vegetables, antioxidants,nuts, and sources of super-healthy omega 3 fatty acids, and reign in our consumption of foods high in saturated fats and trans fats, animal-derived proteins, and added/refined sugars.

3. Is balanced

Remember, we don’t eat “nutrients”, we consume foods and beverages that contain an array of macro- and micronutrients. Different foods are rich in different amounts of macro- and micronutrients. We need to make sure we meet our nutrient needs. We also need to ensure that a single nutrient does not dominate, or “crowd out” other nutrients. For example, calcium-rich foods like milk, cheese and yoghurt are rich in calcium. These foods also happen to be very low in iron. So if we were to habitually eat several serves of dairy each day, we would also need to ensure that we also consume foods that provide enough iron to meet our body’s needs. Another example of nutrient displacement or crowding out happens when people fill themselves up on fast foods that are loaded with calories, refined carbs and saturated fats, but bereft of vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients. Doing this habitually can not only place us into overnutrition, it can also place us at risk of health-damaging nutrient deficiency. In one extreme case a boy experienced a significant sight impairment due to vitamin A deficiency when his highly-processed diet completely crowded out any fruit and vegetables.

4. Provides variety

This is related to the concept of balance. It is important to eat an array of different foods across all food groups to give you the array of nutrients you need to support vibrant health. Variety in your diet prevents food boredom and flavour fatigue. Monotonous diets are not only less likely to give you enough of the vitamins and minerals you need, if you are habitually consuming late amounts of single types of foods, then you are likely to be consuming unnecessarily high amounts of any toxins or contaminants that may be present in those foods. So if you are habitually consuming deep fried fast foods that contain acrilomide and rancid fats, you will be undermining your health to a much greater degree than if you only consume these foods occasionally.

5. Is enjoyable

A single meal won’t make much difference to our health. It is our consistent, habitual way of eating that determines our health. No one ever stays on a diet they hate! So it is vitally important that in addition to observing all of the above elements of a healthy diet that we are choosing foods that we genuinely enjoy eating. If you are new to a healthy whole foods diet and your palate is accustomed to fast or ultra processed foods, it can take a little while for your palate to adjust. I will write a post on how we can guide our palate away from the super-sugary, salty and fatty processed stuff towards enjoyment of healthy whole foods, but for now I will just recommend that you start with small changes and build from there. And an important part of an enjoyable healthy balanced diet is the inclusion of the occasional indulgent treat, to be enjoyed wholeheartedly and without a shred of guilt! Just make sure that your treats happen 5% of the time and not 95% of the time!

REFERENCES

Cena H, Calder PC. Defining a healthy diet: evidence for the role of contemporary dietary patterns in health and disease. Nutrients. 2020 Feb;12(2):334.