10 Tips for a Great Plate

Making healthy food choices can be easy if you follow these 10 tips. They will help you balance your calories, pick foods to eat more of, and cut back on foods to eat less of.

1. Balance your calories
Find out how many calories you need each day. This is a good first step for staying at a healthy weight. Being active also helps you balance your calories.

2. Enjoy your food, but eat less
Take time to really enjoy your food. Eating too fast, or not paying attention while you eat, can lead to eating too much. Notice when you feel hungry and when you feel full. This helps you know when to eat and when to stop.

3. Avoid oversized portions
Use a smaller plate, bowl, and glass. Measure out your food before eating. When eating at a restaurant, choose a smaller size, share your meal, or take some home for later.

4. Foods to eat more often
Eat more vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and fat-free or low-fat (1%) milk and dairy foods. These foods give you important nutrients like potassium, calcium, vitamin D, and fiber. Make them the main part of your meals and snacks.

5. Make half your plate fruits and vegetables
Pick red, orange, and dark-green vegetables like tomatoes, sweet potatoes, and broccoli. Add other vegetables too. Add fruit to your meals as a side dish or even dessert.

6. Switch to fat-free or low-fat milk
Fat-free and low-fat (1%) milk have the same calcium and nutrients as whole milk, but fewer calories and less unhealthy fat.

7. Make half your grains whole grains
Try swapping refined grains for whole grains, like eating whole-wheat bread instead of white bread, or brown rice instead of white rice.

8. Foods to eat less often
Cut back on foods with a lot of solid fats, added sugar, and salt. These include cakes, cookies, ice cream, candy, sugary drinks, pizza, and fatty meats like ribs, sausage, bacon, and hot dogs. Save these foods for occasional treats, not everyday eating.

9. Compare sodium (salt) in foods
Use the Nutrition Facts label to pick foods with less sodium, like soup, bread, and frozen meals. Choose canned foods labeled "low sodium," "reduced sodium," or "no salt added."

10. Drink water instead of sugary drinks
Save calories by drinking water or drinks without added sugar. Soda, energy drinks, and sports drinks add a lot of sugar and calories to what Americans eat and drink.

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10 Tips to Add More Vegetables to Your Day

It's easy to eat more vegetables! Vegetables are important because they give you vitamins and minerals, and most are low in calories. Here are some simple ways to add more vegetables to your meals.

1. Discover fast ways to cook
Cook fresh or frozen vegetables in the microwave for a quick side dish. Try steaming green beans, carrots, or broccoli in a bowl with a little water.

2. Be ahead of the game
Cut up bell peppers, carrots, or broccoli ahead of time. Keep them ready to grab when you're busy. Enjoy them on a salad, with hummus, or in a wrap.

3. Choose vegetables rich in color
Brighten your plate with red, orange, and dark-green vegetables. They are full of vitamins and minerals. Try acorn squash, cherry tomatoes, sweet potatoes, or collard greens.

4. Check the freezer aisle
Frozen vegetables are quick, easy, and just as healthy as fresh ones. Add frozen corn, peas, green beans, spinach, or sugar snap peas to your favorite dishes.

5. Stock up on veggies
Canned vegetables are a great addition to meals. Keep canned tomatoes, kidney beans, garbanzo beans, mushrooms, and beets on hand. Look for ones labeled "reduced sodium," "low sodium," or "no salt added."

6. Make your garden salad glow with color
Brighten your salad with black beans, sliced red bell peppers, shredded radishes, chopped red cabbage, or watercress. It will look great and taste great too.

7. Sip on some vegetable soup
Try tomato, butternut squash, or garden vegetable soup. Look for soups that are low in sodium.

8. While you're out
If you're eating away from home, ask for an extra side of vegetables or a side salad instead of fried sides.

9. Savor the flavor of seasonal vegetables
Buy vegetables that are in season for the best flavor and lower prices. Check your grocery store or visit a farmer's market for the best deals.

10. Try something new
You never know what you might like! Pick a new vegetable to try, and look up a recipe for it.

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10 Tips to Focus on Fruits

Eating fruit is good for your health. People who eat plenty of fruits and vegetables as part of a healthy diet may lower their risk of some long-term illnesses. Fruits give you important nutrients like potassium, fiber, vitamin C, and folate. Most fruits are naturally low in fat, sodium, and calories, and none have cholesterol. Fresh, canned, frozen, or dried fruit—and even 100% fruit juice—all count as fruit.

1. Keep visible reminders
Keep a bowl of fruit on the table, counter, or in the fridge so it's easy to grab.

2. Think about taste
Buy fresh fruit when it's in season—it often tastes best and costs less. Add fruit to sweeten a recipe naturally.

3. Think about variety
Buy dried, frozen, and canned fruit (in water or 100% juice) along with fresh fruit, so you always have some on hand.

4. Don't forget the fiber
Choose whole or cut-up fruit instead of juice most of the time. This way you get more fiber, which is good for your body.

5. Be a good role model
Eat fruit every day with meals or as snacks to set a good example for others.

6. Include fruit at breakfast
Top cereal with bananas, peaches, or strawberries. Add blueberries to pancakes. Drink 100% orange or grapefruit juice, or mix fruit with low-fat yogurt.

7. Try fruit at lunch
Pack a tangerine, banana, or grapes for lunch, or pick fruit from a salad bar. Single-serving fruit cups are easy too.

8. Experiment with fruit at dinner, too
Add crushed pineapple to coleslaw, or mix orange slices, dried cranberries, or grapes into a salad.

9. Snack on fruits
Dried fruits make great snacks. They're easy to carry and last a long time.

10. Keep fruits safe
Rinse fruit under clean running water before eating it. Rub gently to remove dirt, then dry with a clean towel.

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10 Tips to Make Half Your Grains Whole

Any food made from wheat, rice, oats, cornmeal, barley, or another cereal grain is called a grain product. Bread, pasta, oatmeal, cereal, tortillas, and grits are all examples. Grains come in two types: whole grains and refined grains. Whole grains have the entire grain—called the bran, germ, and endosperm. Eating whole grains as part of a healthy diet can lower your risk of some long-term illnesses.

1. Make simple switches
Swap refined-grain foods for whole-grain ones. For example, eat 100% whole-wheat bread instead of white bread, or brown rice instead of white rice.

2. Whole grains can be healthy snacks
Popcorn is a whole grain! Make it with little or no added salt or butter. Whole-wheat or rye crackers are good choices too.

3. Save some time
Cook extra bulgur or barley when you have time. Freeze half to heat up later for a quick side dish.

4. Mix it up with whole grains
Add whole grains to mixed dishes, like barley in soups or stews, or bulgur wheat in casseroles. Try a quinoa salad too.

5. Try whole-wheat versions
Use brown rice or whole-wheat pasta instead of the regular kind. Try brown rice stuffed in peppers or tomatoes, or whole-wheat pasta in mac and cheese.

6. Bake up some whole-grain goodness
Try swapping buckwheat, millet, or oat flour for up to half the flour in pancake, waffle, or muffin recipes. You may need a little more baking powder to help them rise.

7. Be a good role model for children
Eat whole grains every day at meals or snacks to set a good example.

8. Check the label for fiber
Look at the Nutrition Facts label to check fiber content. Foods with 10–19% of the Daily Value are good sources; 20% or more is an excellent source.

9. Know what to look for on the ingredients list
Choose foods that list a whole grain first, like "whole wheat," "brown rice," "bulgur," "buckwheat," "oatmeal," "whole-grain cornmeal," "whole oats," "whole rye," or "wild rice."

10. Be a smart shopper
The color of food doesn't tell you if it's whole grain. Labels like "multi-grain," "stone-ground," "100% wheat," "cracked wheat," "seven-grain," or "bran" don't always mean the food is 100% whole grain—it might have little or no whole grain at all.

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Got Your Dairy Today?

The Dairy Group includes milk, yogurt, cheese, and fortified soymilk. These foods give you calcium, vitamin D, potassium, protein, and other nutrients your body needs to stay healthy throughout your life. Choose fat-free or low-fat options to cut down on calories and unhealthy fat.