Good nutrition is about consistently choosing healthy foods and beverages. Lifestyle The Dietary Guidelines for Americans promote “Eat Real Food.” Healthy eating patterns can include foods and beverages that reflect personal preferences and budgetary considerations.

Healthy eating emphasizes protein, dairy (without added sugars), vegetables, fruits, healthy fats, and whole grains. Protein options include eggs, poultry, seafood, red meat, beans, peas, lentils, legumes, nuts, seeds, and soy.

Most people in the United States need to eat more nutrient-dense foods. At the same time, we need to limit highly processed foods, added sugars, added sodium, and refined carbohydrates.

Do you wake up feeling sluggish most mornings? Have caffeinated beverages become a necessity to help power you through the day?

If this sounds familiar, it’s time to ditch the quick fixes you rely on, and develop an energy management plan. Getting started may seem daunting, but soon you’ll be energized to keep going once you recap the benefits of a happier, healthier and more productive lifestyle.

What is energy management?

Think of your energy as a limited resource, like money in an account. Lifestyle You begin the day with a certain amount to spend. The amount varies from person to person based on factors, such as age, sleep, stress levels, medical conditions and lifestyle.

Activities and interactions withdraw energy from or deposit energy into your account. While you may not always have control over activities that deplete your energy, you can take steps to deposit more energy into your account.

Aim for a variety of colors

A good practice is to aim for a variety of colors on your plate. Fruits and vegetables like oranges, tomatoes, and dark, leafy greens—and even fresh herbs—are loaded with vitamins, fiber, and minerals.

To get a variety of healthy foods, try this:

• Add fresh herbs to salads or meat dishes.
• Make a red sauce with fresh tomatoes, fresh herbs, and spices.
  • Or start with canned tomatoes with no salt added.
• Add diced vegetables to stews and omelets to boost color and nutrients.
  • Peppers, broccoli, and onions are great options.
• Top unsweetened yogurt with your favorite fruit.

Limit added sugars

Too much added sugar in your diet can contribute to weight gain, obesity, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease. Lifestyle Added sugars are sugars and syrups that are added to foods and drinks when they are processed or prepared.

Added sugars have many names, including cane sugar, corn syrup, dextrose, and fructose. Table sugar, maple syrup, and honey are also considered added sugars. Sugary drinks are a common source of added sugars

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To limit added sugars, try this:

• Drink water instead of sugary drinks.
  • Add berries or slices of lime, lemon, or cucumber for more flavor.
• Add fruit to your whole grain cereal or yogurt for sweetness.
• Limit sugary snacks.
  • Instead, snack on fruit and vegetable slices.
• At coffee shops, skip the flavored syrups.
  • Or get back to basics with black coffee.
• Read nutrition labels.
  • Choose foods with no or lower amounts of added sugars.

A healthy diet is essential for good health and nutrition.

It protects you against many chronic noncommunicable diseases, such as heart disease, diabetes and cancer. Lifestyle Eating a variety of foods and consuming less salt, sugars and saturated and industrially-produced trans-fats, are essential for healthy diet.

A healthy diet comprises a combination of different foods. These include:

• Staples like cereals (wheat, barley, rye, maize or rice) or starchy tubers or roots (potato, yam, taro or cassava).
• Legumes (lentils and beans).
• Fruit and vegetables.
• Foods from animal sources (meat, fish, eggs and milk).

Here is some useful information, based on WHO recommendations, to follow a healthy diet, and the benefits of doing so.

• Breastfeed babies and young children:
  • A healthy diet starts early in life – breastfeeding fosters healthy growth, and may have longer-term health benefits, like reducing the risk of becoming overweight or obese and developing noncommunicable diseases later in life.
  • Feeding babies exclusively with breast milk from birth to 6 months of life is important for a healthy diet. It is also important to introduce a variety of safe and nutritious complementary foods at 6 months of age, while continuing to breastfeed until your child is two years old and beyond.
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• Eat plenty of vegetables and fruit:
  • They are important sources of vitamins, minerals, dietary fibre, plant protein and antioxidants.
  • People with diets rich in vegetables and fruit have a significantly lower risk of obesity, heart disease, stroke, diabetes and certain types of cancer.
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• Eat less fat:
  • Fats and oils and concentrated sources of energy. Eating too much, Lifestyle particularly the wrong kinds of fat, like saturated and industrially-produced trans-fat, can increase the risk of heart disease and stroke.
  • Using unsaturated vegetable oils (olive, soy, sunflower or corn oil) rather than animal fats or oils high in saturated fats (butter, ghee, lard, coconut and palm oil) will help consume healthier fats.
  • To avoid unhealthy weight gain, consumption of total fat should not exceed 30% of a person’s overall energy intake.

timeless habits for better health

A veritable avalanche of influencers, news headlines, and well-meaning friends and family offer conflicting advice on wellness. If you’re overwhelmed by fads and hype around wellness, read on. Dr.Lifestyle Wynne Armand, a primary care physician at Harvard-affiliated Mass General Brigham health care in Boston, recommends five simple habits to boost health and wellness in everyday life.

Five wellness habits for life

Quick fixes and fads may do little for our health, and some even prove harmful.Lifestyle Try to work healthy habits into your daily routines. If you’re a parent, sharing and modeling them can help children and teens embrace wellness, too.

Bring mindfulness into your day

Mindfulness and meditation are overlapping techniques proven to ease stress, improve sleep, and enhance concentration. “Anxiety and stress are very common issues in my practice,” says Dr. Armand. Worrying too often about the past or future is rarely helpful. Lifestyle The too-frequent release of stress hormones affects our heart, brain, and sleep, all of which have downstream consequences for our health.

Practicing mindfulness – whether simply by appreciating birds and plants on a walk in green space, or using apps like Calm and Headspace – anchors you in the present moment. This can calm anxiety, improve focus and concentration, and amp up positive feelings. When applied to eating, mindfulness may help with weight loss by encouraging people to slow down to savor meals.

Meditation knits together body and mind by focusing on sensations, such as breathing, images, or a repeated word or phrase. One exercise that works equally well for adults and younger people is box breathing. The rhythmic pattern of breathing helps regulate the nervous system, reining in anxiety and stress, lowering heart rate and blood pressure, and boosting focus. The rhythmic pattern of breathing helps regulate the nervous system, reining in anxiety and stress, lowering heart rate and blood pressure, and boosting focus.

Prioritize sleep

Sleeping poorly can leave you feeling awful – snappish, foggy-headed, slow moving – and take a toll on your health over time. By contrast, getting sufficient, restful sleep supports the immune system, helps control weight, and aids physical well-being, mental well-being, memory, judgment, and other cognitive functions. It may even extend longevity.

But how much sleep do you need? That varies with age and other factors: most adults need at least seven hours per night, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, sleep quality (a measure of refreshing, uninterrupted sleep versus tossing and turning) may be more important than nailing seven hours. And it’s worth noting that too much sleep – nine hours or more in one analysis of multiple studies – is linked to higher risk for early deaths, too.

Be aware that sleep patterns and circadian rhythms that help rule sleep and wakefulness change over time. Good sleep hygiene can help. Tips include getting regular exercise, setting regular bedtime and wake-up times, avoiding caffeine in the afternoon and evening and large meals and alcohol before bedtime, and turning off screens at least 30 minutes before going to bed.

 For your health, less alcohol is better, none is best

Alcohol is a toxic, psychoactive, dependence-producing substance. Alcohol consumption is causally linked to over 200 health conditions and other risks, including liver diseases, cancers, cardiovascular diseases, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, road injuries, violence and suicide. For all of these, there is a direct link between the amount of alcohol consumed and the likelihood of illness, injury or death – the more alcohol you drink, the higher the risk.

Learn more about the harms of alcohol use in the WHO/Europe factsheet linked on this webpage.

Enjoy a healthy, balanced diet

A healthy diet helps to protect against malnutrition in all of its forms, as well as NCDs such as cardiovascular diseases (including heart disease and stroke), type 2 diabetes and some cancers.

It is important to have a diet that includes a variety of foods across all food groups. Healthy dietary practices start early in life. Healthy diets can also contribute to an adequate body weight. Opting for a balanced, adequate and varied diet is an important step towards a healthy lifestyle.

Healthy diet for infants and children

Exclusive breastfeeding is recommended for the first 6 months of life to ensure optimal growth, development and health. From 6 months onwards, breastfeeding should continue alongside the introduction of safe, diverse and nutrient-dense complementary foods. These foods should be prepared without added salt or sugar. Continued breastfeeding is encouraged up to 2 years of age and beyond, as it remains an important source of nutrition and immune protection.

Healthy diet for pregnant and postpartum women

Nutritious, safe diets are essential before and during pregnancy and while breastfeeding to support maternal and child health.

Learn more about healthy nutrition in the WHO/Europe factsheet linked on this webpage.

Stay physically active

Physical activity includes any movement of the body that expends energy: walking, cycling, swimming, dancing, sports, exercise, taking the stairs, doing housework, etc. Benefits include:

• improved mental and physical health;
• reduced risk of cardiovascular diseases, cancers (especially breast and colon), diabetes, obesity, dementia, anxiety and depression;
• enhanced cognitive function and academic performance, especially in children and adolescents; and
• better mobility, balance, independence and quality of life in older adults.

How can everyone lead an active lifestyle?

Infants (under 1 year of age):

• Several active sessions daily, including at least 30 minutes in a prone position (tummy time) spread throughout the day.

Children (1–4 years):

• At least 180 minutes of any physical activity per day.
• For children 3–4 years of age: at least 60 minutes of this time should be moderate- to vigorous-intensity activity.

Children and adolescents (5–17 years):

• An average of 60 minutes per day of moderate- to vigorous-intensity activity.
• Include muscle- and bone-strengthening activities at least 3 times per week.

Adults (18–64 years):

• At least 150–300 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity per week, or 75–150 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic activity, or a mix of both.
• Include muscle-strengthening activities at least 2 times per week.

Older adults (65+ years):

• Same as adults, with added focus on functional balance and strength training to prevent falls.

Pregnant and postpartum women:

• At least 150 minutes per week of moderate-intensity aerobic activity.
• Include a mix of aerobic activity, muscle-strengthening activities and gentle stretching.

Learn more about the benefits of physical activity in the WHO/Europe factsheet linked on this webpage.