What in the world is a ‘balanced diet’?

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I have a really poor relationship with food. Growing up, my parents never enforced the idea of ‘eat your greens,’ and my mom was mostly focused on body shaming. I’m trying not to slip back into an ED spiral, as I’ve just gotten out of it, and I’m working on disciplining myself—something I was never really taught. I’ve read countless articles, but I’m still struggling to grasp what a balanced diet actually looks like. For example, if I have mostly fats and carbs for lunch, fruit as a midday snack, and protein for dinner, is that balanced? Or should I have a little bit of everything in each meal? And those percentages they mention in articles—how do you even figure those out? I naturally have a small appetite, and I find it really hard to eat as much as I’m ‘supposed’ to. Honestly, I’m clueless when it comes to balanced meals and would love some clarity.

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Anonymous 0 Comments

Basically it just means that you get all the nutrients you need instead of only a few, ideally you’ll get carbs, protein, fiber, fats, minerals and vitamins in every meal, this is usually accomplished by including meat, vegetables and grains in a single meal but there’s no exact guide. Of course eating like this could be kinda difficult depending on your lifestyle but as long as you get your daily goals and don’t worry too much about every single dish you eat. Regarding percentages you have to remember that those refer to the ideal but you don’t need to make them exact unless you are following a very strict athletic program for example. My advice would be to stick to simple guidelines and avoid excess, one I found useful is that you should divide your plate filling half with veggies, 1/4 with grains and 1/4 with protein (egg/meat) while it is by no means perfect it is really easy to follow when you are starting

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