We have already learned how to talk about diet, weight, height, together with some good phrases for expressing what happens during the time you’re on a diet. Now we’re going to learn about the food groups so that we can have/hold a long discussion about this subject.
Foods from the basic food groups provide the nutrients essential for life and growth. In particular, vegetables, legumes, and fruit protect against illness and are essential to a healthy diet.
The food groups are:
- Dairy and/or their alternatives: the foods in this group are excellent sources of calcium, which is essential for strong and healthy bones. Most adults do not get enough dairy in their diet. For your heart health, pick from the many low-fat or fat-free choices in the dairy group. Choosing fat-free or low-fat milk and yogurt, as well as lower-fat cheese, gives you important vitamins and minerals, with less fat. Not many other foods in our diet contain as much calcium as these foods.
- Fruit: fruit provides vitamins, minerals, dietary fiber and many phytonutrients (nutrients naturally present in plants), that help your body stay healthy.
- Grain (cereal) foods: always choose wholegrain and/or high fiber varieties of bread, cereals, rice, pasta, noodles, etc. Refined grain products (such as cakes or biscuits) can be high in added sugar, fat and sodium.
- Lean meats and poultry, fish, eggs, tofu, nuts and seeds, and legumes/beans: our bodies use the protein we eat to make specialized chemicals such as hemoglobin and adrenalin. Protein also builds, maintains, and repairs the tissues in our body. Muscles and organs (such as your heart) are primarily made of protein.
- Vegetables and legumes/beans: vegetables should make up a large part of your daily food intake and should be encouraged at every meal (including snack times). They provide vitamins, minerals, dietary fiber and phytonutrients to help your body stay healthy.
VEGETABLES OR PROTEIN
Are you confused about whether to count beans and peas as vegetables or protein foods? Try this—count them in the vegetable group if you regularly eat meat, poultry, and fish. Count them in the protein foods group if you are a vegetarian or vegan or if you seldom eat meat, poultry, or fish.
OILS
If possible, use oils instead of solid fats, like butter, when cooking. Oils are high in calories, but they are also an important source of nutrients like vitamin E.
https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/know-your-food-groups
https://www.foodstandards.gov.scot/consumers/healthy-eating/nutrition/the-five-food-groups
https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/healthyliving/food-variety-and-a-healthy-diet
