Most of us probably think we have a pretty good idea of what a "balanced diet" looks like. And a lot of us may be wrong. "I don't love the term," which can give people an outdated or oversimplified idea of what healthy eating looks like, said Dr.
Matthew Landry, an assistant professor of population health and disease prevention at the University of California, Irvine. Some people he's counseled as a dietitian think a balanced meal means "balancing the good and bad foods." That idea troubles him.
"We wouldn't tell someone that they can smoke a couple of cigarettes just as long as they get 60 minutes of exercise during the day," Landry said. "So similarly, we shouldn't tell folks that they should have foods that aren't really nutrient-dense, just as long as they have some vegetables on their plate." Finding balance in your diet also is more than just adding up numbers, said Dr.
Shilpa Bhupathiraju, an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston. "If I tell you, 'You should eat so many milligrams of a certain nutrient,' you'll be like, 'Well, what does that mean?'" Even for an experienced nutritionist like her, that's tough to envision. But a healthy approach to eating doesn't have to be complicated, they said.
Here's their advice. 1. Picture the plate Focusing on nutrient-dense foods is a healthy way to start, Landry said.
That is, when deciding what to eat, ask, "Does that really have a lot of vitamins and minerals, or does it not?" The U.S. Department .