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A healthy life starts with healthy eating. For taking our meals, we put food on our plates. The first important thing to know is what we should put on our plate when eating a meal. Every bite should take us to better health, and to achieve that, we must put healthy food on our plates. Continuously eating unhealthy meals will make us sick and vulnerable to chronic diseases like diabetes, hypertension and heart disease. Statistics reveal that one in every five deaths in the world is linked to poor diet and nutrition.

That’s why it is important to know about ‘the plate.’ We should never underestimate the power of nutrition. This applies to food we put on our plates to get used to healthy dietary habits.

We will start from the basics and then gradually expand the topics over time. A healthy eating plate should include fresh vegetables and fruits, whole grains and healthy proteins. Processed foods are unhealthy, and therefore, we must not eat processed food.

The main question is what should be in the portions on our plates?

Half of the plate should be vegetables. We should eat two vegetables every day—one, any fresh non-starchy vegetable of the season, and the other a green leafy vegetable. Fresh fruits are also part of this half of our meals, and we would keep talking about the details of vegetables and fruits. Potatoes are not counted as a vegetable at all. The final quarter of the plate should have whole grains. It can be wholegrain wheat or brown rice, or barley or oats. The remaining quarter of the plate should have healthy proteins like fish, chicken, beans, lentils and nuts. Processed meat is to be avoided, and also limit all types of red meat. We should always eat lean meat in this quarter.

Our foods are usually cooked in oils. We should only use oils from plants’ origin like olive, canola, soy, corn, sunflower etc. It is very important to discard animal-source fats because they contain unhealthy trans fats. It is also important not to use hydrogenated oils. The use of the ‘right oil’ is a complete subject in itself.

Sugary drinks must be avoided. Once again, no sugary drinks, please. Use of milk and dairy products should also be limited. Juices are restricted to one glass a day. Intake of table salt has to be very limited and should not exceed half a teaspoon per day. The problem with much of the ordered junk food is mostly it is mostly processed and uses high amounts of salt, and the best control is possible with home-cooked food.

We should drink plenty of water every day. There is no restriction on tea and coffee.

A few factors in our lifestyle help ‘our plate’ in achieving the goal of healthy living. Physical activity is important. Daily walking or exercise should be a routine and habit. A sedentary lifestyle is to be discouraged. In addition, sleep and stress management are also important. After all, our objectives are healthy living and longevity and it starts with the ‘healthy-eating plate’.

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