Eating a balanced diet is essential for maintaining good health and wellbeing. Knowing which foods belong to which food group and how much of each food group you should eat is key to forming a healthy eating pattern. In this article, we'll explore the five main food groups and how they contribute to a healthy diet. The five food groups are fruits, vegetables, grains, proteins, and dairy.
Each of these food groups provides essential nutrients and vitamins that are necessary for a healthy body.
Vegetables
come in a wide variety of colors, flavors, and textures. They contain vitamins and minerals, carbohydrates, and are an important source of fiber. The plant food group includes dark green vegetables, red and orange vegetables, starchy vegetables, and legumes (beans and peas).Dark green vegetables include broccoli, kale, spinach, and collard greens. Red and orange vegetables include acorn squash, carrots, squash, tomatoes, and sweet potatoes. Starchy vegetables include corn, peas, and white potatoes. Other vegetables include eggplant, beetroot, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, celery, artichokes, green beans and onions.
Legumes include black beans, garbanzos (chickpeas), red beans, soybeans, and tofu. Legumes can also be counted in the protein food group. Fiber is a type of carbohydrate that the body cannot digest. It is found in many foods that come from plants, including vegetables, beans, and peas. Eating fiber-rich vegetables can help prevent stomach or intestinal problems and lower cholesterol.
Fruits
bring color, flavor and important nutrients to your diet.There are many options: citrus fruits such as oranges and grapefruits; different types of berries; fruits that grow on trees such as apricots, cherries, peaches and mangoes; and others such as figs, grapes and pineapples. According to the Dietary Guidelines (PDF, 30.6 million), older Americans generally don't eat enough fruit. Adding more fruit to your diet can have significant benefits for overall health. Fruits, like vegetables, contain carbohydrates and provide additional fiber that helps keep the digestive system moving. For even more fiber, eat fruits with skins on; just make sure you wash them thoroughly before eating them.
While 100% fruit juice also counts for this category, at least half of the fruits you consume should be whole fruits. When buying frozen, canned or dried fruit choose options with the lowest added sugar content. Wondering how many vegetables and fruits you should eat at one meal? Look at your plate: vegetables and fruits should fill half the plate.
Grains
are any food made from wheat, rye, rice oats cornmeal barley or other grains. This includes bread and pasta breakfast cereals grits tortillas and even popcorn. Cereals along with fruits vegetables and dairy products contain carbohydrates the body's main source of energy.At least half of the food you eat should be whole grains. Whole grains provide iron and lots of B vitamins as well as fiber. Examples of whole grains include whole wheat whole oats whole wheat bulgur (also known as broken wheat) and whole wheat corn flour. Some grain products are refined giving them a finer texture and a longer shelf life but eliminating fiber and nutrients. Most refined grains are enriched meaning that some nutrients are added back after processing.
Examples of refined grain products include white flour degerminated cornmeal white bread and white rice. Not sure if you should count beans and peas as vegetables or protein foods? Think of them as vegetables if you eat meat poultry or fish regularly; count them as proteins if you're vegetarian or vegan or if you rarely eat meat poultry or fish.
