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.
In: Other
There’s an important thing to keep in mind with all of this I think, and it’s that dietary science isn’t often 100% exact, especially when you have to generalize and aren’t working with individual people with different needs, biological differences, environments, lifestyles, and so on. But, that doesn’t mean findings, trends, and generalizations aren’t still very helpful. Just because people can’t give you an exact idea of what you should be doing or not doing doesn’t mean you shouldn’t listen and try to take what lessons and advice that you can. Add to that, it’s not just as simple as what you eat or put into your body–there’s a lot going on that is difficult to account for, and people are still learning new things about this area.
Regardless, people *generally* break dietary intake into daily timeframes. You should be trying to hit specific targets per day, kind of thing, though there’s reason to think at least a somewhat balanced meal is better than separating it out so that all of x thing hits your system at once, then y hits you for dinner–spreading it out is likely better, but making up for low points in earlier meals is better than not doing it too.
And what IS balanced is more about, a mix of the major nutrients (protein, fat, and carbohydrates, but according to appropriate ratios), but often also having the smaller nutrients, such as vitamins and minerals. Though there’s reason to think also consuming a variety of different foods is also huge, as is cultivating healthy gut bacteria–which is a longer-term process and more related to what you habitually consume over time–and consuming nutrients in forms that are more conducive to healthy digestion and uptake.
The “simple” rule of thumb, generally, is eat a varied source of foods, try to balance protein/fats/carbs without going overboard in any of the three, avoid excess simple sugars and alcohols, and eat in moderation.
A balanced diet is one where you consume foods from a variety of sources to get a good balance of all the things your body needs. ie fiber, vitamins and minerals, other micronutrients, and a balance of fats, proteins and carbohydrates that is best suited to you.
Ideally, if you are going to split your meals up into three as you have, you will want a balance of each at the simplest level. A small source of protein is always a good idea, as are carbs and fats.
So a meal may look like a veggie, protein, carbs, fats from micronutrient dense foods.
As someone with a former ED, I know how hard this can be. Disordered eating is really hard to overcome. Feel free to reach out if you need anything or want to structure a meal plan
Just have a varied diet consisting of a good spread of macronutrients, instead of eating the same over and over. Avoid super processed foods and cook yourself as much as possible. Prefer simple carbs over complex carbs, limit shitty fats (butter, (seed) oil etc)
Avoid stuff like keto or meat only etc, its pointless. Controlling Calories in/out should be your go to for weight loss if you want that.
Do you have acces to healthcare? A (registered!) dietitian/nutritionist could help with this. The complicated thing about this is, as we all have different bodies and needs; there isn’t a straight anwser.
the very basic version is a little bit of everything for each meal. example dinner. potatos, cabbage, meat.
you would have 2/4 cabbage, 1/4 potatos and 1/4 meat meat and fat should always be the smallest ammount on the plate. vegetables and fruits should be the biggest ammount.
fruit as a snack is really great! you dont Have to be so strict on carbs, getting various vegtables and fruits is more important then if you eat it with 1/2 plate of rice.
– type 1 diabetic who’s been to too many dieticians
Yes splitting the food groups across meals like that is totally fine. Overall diet is much more of a high level thing. What you eat for one individual meal doesn’t truly matter to hat matters is the combination of foods you eat over a week.
Now, setting stuff up where every meal has a carb, protein, and vegetable can be very helpful especially when you are meal planning and like, cooking a bunch of food one day to consume throughout the week. It can just make things a bit simpler when you’re planning multiple days in advance.
But like, your body is designed for survival in the wild. Our ancestors did not eat 3 square meals a day with perfectly portioned veggies and meat. If you eat a buncha meat and potatoes one day, and then the next day you have nothing but salad, that is totally fine as long as things even out in the grand scheme.
This is mostly an anecdote, but–
In my experience, eating a balanced diet means a few specific things.
– Eating WHEN you are hungry
– Eating until you are NO LONGER hungry
– Eating CONSISTENTLY
– Eating a little of EVERY group as much as you can
So, it’s okay if you can’t cram a veggie in for breakfast, if you had a little bit of protein, a little bit of carbs, and a little bit of fruit, that’s a HUGE start for your day and gives your body a *variety* of fuels and resources to help you.
I try to eat *at least* three meals per day (I also suffer from disordered eating, but we’re recovering together–I wish us both good luck!) but sometimes I can only manage two with a midday snack. And that’s okay! I keep some snacks at my desk, stuff like granola bars, cups of yogurt, dried fruit, peanuts, stuff I love *and* has the benefit of hitting one or more of the big important groups.
Another thing they don’t tell you is FIBER. Fiber isn’t a ‘food group’ in its own right, but fiber digests slowly, because it’s tough, and your body can’t fully break it down–but that’s OK! It helps you to *stay* full for longer, *and* helps with gut flora and digestive health.
Which is another little secret I’ve found! You can ‘train’ your gut biome to eat certain foods if you eat them consistently enough, which is why having a little of each group is so critical. It helps fuel your whole body, and gives your gut flora a smorgasbord to enjoy, which leads to a lot of side-benefits like regular bowel movement, as well as *help balance your appetite* which is so, so important.
I hope this helps demystify stuff, and GL on your recovery! o7
Balanced diet is not eating the same foods over and over. For example, it is okay to eat oatmeal everyday, but it is beneficial to switch up the ingredients. One day have them with blueberries and honey, other day with banana, nuts and maple syrup. Or one day you can skip the oats entirely and just have some eggs and toast. Similarly with rice for example, have it with chicken and brocolli one day and ground beef and some baby carrots the next day.
So lets say for your lunch/dinner you pick either rice or potatoes as the main component, and then choose a few possible accompanying proteins, veggies and spices and then mix and match between them.
Balance between food groups of carbs, protein and vegetables. No need to have all three every day, but on average and most days your meals should be a mix of these unless you have some condition limiting one of these. Bad kidneys generally means care about protein intake and not overdoing that and overweight or diabetes means carefull around carbs.
It also means eating varied. You can have the same or a similar rotation every week but make sure you don’t eat the same meal every day. Somedays rice,, some days potatoes, sometimes pasta. etc. Mix up beef, chicken, vegetarian alternatives, beans, tofu, eggs and cheese etc. for protein. Get seasonal vegetables if you can, make sure you get some fruit most days.
Doing everything in one meal is not needed but can be better. Lunch or breakfast being a lot of carbs, sugar and fat will make you feel worse than whole grains and some vegetables or fruits but if you get all nutrients it is not bad. With food it is also perfectly fine to “sin”. It is absolutely not needed to eat good everyday or every meal. If you do good, have that pancake and syrup breakfast on sunday and grab those fries and a burger and shake. Just don’t do it most days.
Listen to your body aswell. If you are not very active and not hungry you don’t need to eat a full portion. Eat until you think you have had enough and don’t regularly skip meals.
Nobody knows. Can you have a balanced diet on carnivore or vegan? I’d say do something like dim sum small serving of a variety of things. Honestly the best thing most people can do is cutting out ultra processed food.
Latest Answers