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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A balanced diet is the one that fulfills all or at least most of the following: has neither too much nor too little calories (so you’re not getting fat or malnourished), had necessary amounts of protein, has necessary amounts of fat, has necessary amounts of carbohydrates, has necessary amounts of fiber, has necessary amounts of minerals, vitamins, and preferably containing a large variety of foods because there isn’t a single food that has everything you need optimally.
What exactly those amounts are is still up for debate and different scientists and doctors will tell different things. Nutrition science is still in pretty early stages. It also varies on your sex, age, activity level, current physical condition.
But the overall consensus is that if you base your diet on whole foods (i.e. unprocessed), and eat a lot of plant-based foods, eat a lot of fiber and avoid simple carbs, you’ve done 80% of the work in creating a good diet.
Of course, this is a huge oversimplification, but it’s a good starting point.
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