A Healthy Diet: Key to Good Health and Nutrition

A healthy diet is essential for maintaining good health and proper nutrition. It helps protect against many chronic noncommunicable diseases, such as heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. Eating a variety of foods, while limiting salt, sugar, and unhealthy fats (especially saturated and industrially produced trans fats), is crucial to staying healthy.

What Does a Healthy Diet Include?

A healthy diet is a balanced combination of different food groups, including:

• Staples like cereals (wheat, barley, rye, maize, or rice), starchy tubers, or roots (potato, yam, taro, cassava)

• Legumes such as lentils and beans

• Fruits and vegetables

• Animal-based foods, including meat, fish, eggs, and milk

Guidelines for a Healthy Diet (Based on WHO Recommendations)

🍼 Breastfeed Babies and Young Children

• A healthy diet begins early in life. Breastfeeding promotes healthy growth and may reduce the risk of obesity and noncommunicable diseases later in life.

• Exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months is vital. From 6 months onward, introduce a variety of safe and nutritious complementary foods, while continuing breastfeeding up to 2 years and beyond.

🥦 Eat Plenty of Vegetables and Fruits

• Rich sources of vitamins, minerals, fiber, plant proteins, and antioxidants

• Diets high in vegetables and fruits lower the risk of obesity, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and some types of cancer

🥑 Eat Less Fat

• Fats and oils are concentrated sources of energy. Consuming too much—especially saturated fats and trans fats—increases the risk of heart disease and stroke.

• Choose unsaturated vegetable oils (e.g., olive, soybean, sunflower, or corn oil) over animal fats or oils high in saturated fats (e.g., butter, ghee, lard, coconut oil, palm oil).

• Total fat should make up no more than 30% of your overall energy intake to avoid unhealthy weight gain.

🍬 Limit Sugar Intake

• Sugars should represent less than 10% of total energy intake, and reducing to below 5% brings additional benefits.

• Replace sugary snacks (cookies, cakes, chocolates) with fresh fruits.

• Limit sugary beverages like soda, fruit juices, flavored milk, and yogurt drinks.

🧂 Reduce Salt Intake

• Keep daily salt intake below 5g (about one teaspoon) to help prevent hypertension and reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke.

• Cut back on salt and salty condiments (e.g., soy sauce, fish sauce) when cooking and preparing meals.

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