Food Choices GapFill

Many factors affect food choices, and it is important for people to know how to make informed choices when it comes to diet and health. Eating a  unbalancedmalnourishedbalancedvegetative diet allows a person to remain healthy, avoid certain diseases and  lose weightgain weightbecome malnourishedmaintain a healthy body weight. Using dietary guidelines such as  the Eatwell Guardthe Eatwell Systemthe Eatwell Guidethe Eatwell Bowl can make planning meals and diets much easier. 

This guideline divides food sources into categories and shows how much of each group a person should consume each day. These categories are: fruit and vegetables,  cerealsbread and pastaenergy-dense foodsstarchy foods, proteins,  milk and dairyfive a daycheese and yoghurtdairy and alternatives, and oils and spreads.

Another example of a healthy eating guideline is  food diarysix a dayfive a dayhigh five. It specifies how many portions of  fruit and vegetablescerealsvegetable oilsdairy and alternatives we should eat every day, and what is the size of a single portion. Eating correct amounts of these products is very important, as they provide many vitamins, minerals and  dietary fibreproteinfree radicalssaturated fats.

While these guidelines provide information for an average healthy person, when planning a diet it is also important to take into consideration the age, gender and  water balancefood diaryhealth statefamily size of the person. Religion, culture, lifestyle and personal choices or preferences can all influence a person's diet as well, so it is important to know how to tailor meals and diets to meet the needs of specific individuals. This includes concepts such as costs, any ingredients that should be avoided (due to intolerances or  allergensirritantsasphyxiationallergies, or portion  shapesizecostlength. For all people, eating an unbalanced, unvaried diet can lead to development of  imbalancemalconductionmalabsorptionmalnutrition.