Healthy vs. Unhealthy Food Chart: Your Ultimate Guide to Smart Eating Choices

Consuming a healthy diet throughout life helps prevent malnutrition in all its forms and a range of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and conditions. However, lifestyles have led to a shift in dietary patterns. People now consume more foods high in energy, fats, free sugars, and salt/sodium, and many do not eat enough fruit, vegetables, and other dietary fiber, such as whole grains. Understanding the difference between healthy and unhealthy food is crucial for maintaining optimal health, preventing disease, and promoting well-being at all ages. This article provides a detailed overview of healthy versus unhealthy foods, offering practical advice and guidelines for making informed dietary choices.

Defining Healthy and Unhealthy Foods

The exact make-up of a diversified, balanced, and healthy diet will vary depending on individual characteristics (e.g., age, gender, lifestyle, and degree of physical activity), cultural context, locally available foods, and dietary customs. However, the basic principles of what constitutes a healthy diet remain the same.

Healthy Foods

A healthy diet includes a variety of nutrient-dense foods that provide the body with essential vitamins, minerals, and macronutrients. These foods support growth, repair, and overall bodily functions. Key components of a healthy diet include:

Fruits and Vegetables: Aim for at least 400g (five portions) of fruit and vegetables per day.
Legumes: Include lentils, beans, and other legumes for plant-based protein and fiber.
Nuts and Seeds: These provide healthy fats, protein, and essential nutrients.
Whole Grains: Opt for unprocessed maize, millet, oats, wheat, and brown rice.
Lean Proteins: Fish, poultry, beans, and nuts are healthy, versatile protein sources.
Healthy Fats: Choose vegetable oils like olive, canola, soy, corn, and sunflower, and avoid partially hydrogenated oils, which contain unhealthy trans fats.

Unhealthy Foods

Unhealthy foods are typically high in calories, saturated and trans fats, free sugars, and sodium, while being low in essential nutrients. Regular consumption of these foods can lead to weight gain, increased risk of chronic diseases, and overall poor health. Common examples of unhealthy foods include:

Processed Foods: These often contain high levels of saturated fats, trans fats, free sugars, and salt/sodium.
Sugary Snacks and Beverages: Candies, sugary snacks, soft drinks, fruit juices, and flavored milk drinks contribute to unhealthy weight gain and dental issues.
Fried Foods: High in unhealthy fats and calories, fried foods can increase the risk of heart disease.
Foods High in Saturated and Trans Fats: These include fatty meats, high-fat dairy products, and baked goods containing industrially produced trans fats.

Detailed Components of a Healthy Diet

Fruits and Vegetables

Eating at least 400 g, or five portions, of fruit and vegetables per day reduces the risk of NCDs and helps ensure an adequate daily intake of dietary fiber. Improving fruit and vegetable intake can be achieved by:

Always including vegetables in meals.
Eating fresh fruit and raw vegetables as snacks.
Choosing fresh fruit and vegetables that are in season.
Eating a variety of fruit and vegetables.

Fats

Reducing the amount of total fat intake to less than 30% of total energy intake helps to prevent unhealthy weight gain in the adult population. The risk of developing NCDs is lowered by:

Reducing saturated fats to less than 10% of total energy intake.
Reducing trans fats to less than 1% of total energy intake.
Replacing both saturated fats and trans fats with unsaturated fats - in particular, with polyunsaturated fats.

Fat intake, especially saturated fat and industrially produced trans-fat intake, can be reduced by:

Steaming or boiling instead of frying when cooking.
Replacing butter, lard, and ghee with oils rich in polyunsaturated fats, such as soybean, canola (rapeseed), corn, safflower, and sunflower oils.
Eating reduced-fat dairy foods and lean meats, or trimming visible fat from meat.
Limiting the consumption of baked and fried foods, and pre-packaged snacks and foods (e.g., doughnuts, cakes, pies, cookies, biscuits, and wafers) that contain industrially produced trans-fats.

Salt, Sodium, and Potassium

Most people consume too much sodium through salt (corresponding to consuming an average of 9-12 g of salt per day) and not enough potassium (less than 3.5 g). High sodium intake and insufficient potassium intake contribute to high blood pressure, which in turn increases the risk of heart disease and stroke. Reducing salt intake to the recommended level of less than 5 g per day could prevent 1.7 million deaths each year.

Salt intake can be reduced by:

Limiting the amount of salt and high-sodium condiments (e.g., soy sauce, fish sauce, and bouillon) when cooking and preparing foods.
Not having salt or high-sodium sauces on the table.
Limiting the consumption of salty snacks.
Choosing products with lower sodium content.

Potassium can mitigate the negative effects of elevated sodium consumption on blood pressure. Intake of potassium can be increased by consuming fresh fruit and vegetables.

Sugars

In both adults and children, the intake of free sugars should be reduced to less than 10% of total energy intake. A reduction to less than 5% of total energy intake would provide additional health benefits. Consuming free sugars increases the risk of dental caries (tooth decay). Excess calories from foods and drinks high in free sugars also contribute to unhealthy weight gain, which can lead to overweight and obesity.

Sugars intake can be reduced by:

Limiting the consumption of foods and drinks containing high amounts of sugars, such as sugary snacks, candies, and sugar-sweetened beverages (i.e., soft drinks, fruit or vegetable juices and drinks, liquid and powder concentrates, flavored water, energy and sports drinks, ready‐to‐drink tea, ready‐to‐drink coffee, and flavored milk drinks).
Eating fresh fruit and raw vegetables as snacks instead of sugary snacks.

Practical Advice on Maintaining a Healthy Diet

For Adults

A healthy diet for adults includes:

Fruit, vegetables, legumes (e.g., lentils and beans), nuts, and whole grains (e.g., unprocessed maize, millet, oats, wheat, and brown rice).
At least 400 g (i.e., five portions) of fruit and vegetables per day.
Less than 10% of total energy intake from free sugars, with a further reduction to below 5% providing additional health benefits.
Less than 30% of total energy intake from fats, with a shift away from saturated and trans fats.
Less than 5 g of salt (equivalent to about one teaspoon) per day, with iodized salt.

For Infants and Young Children

In the first 2 years of a child’s life, optimal nutrition fosters healthy growth and improves cognitive development. It also reduces the risk of becoming overweight or obese and developing NCDs later in life. Advice on a healthy diet for infants and children is similar to that for adults, but the following elements are also important:

Infants should be breastfed exclusively during the first 6 months of life.
Infants should be breastfed continuously until 2 years of age and beyond.
From 6 months of age, breast milk should be complemented with a variety of adequate, safe, and nutrient-dense foods.
Salt and sugars should not be added to complementary foods.

The Importance of Early Education

Teaching children about healthy versus unhealthy foods from a young age is essential for developing lifelong healthy eating habits. Interactive activities, such as sorting games and worksheets, can help children:

Read also: Healthy Eating on the Run

Gain knowledge about nutrition and health.
Identify healthy and unhealthy foods.
Learn how to make healthier food choices.
Understand the importance of keeping themselves fit and healthy.

Activities for Young Learners

Various activities can be incorporated into educational programs to reinforce the concept of healthy eating. These include:

Sorting Activities: Cut-and-paste sorting activities where children categorize food pictures into "Healthy" or "Unhealthy" columns.
Food Group Mix: Sorting healthy versus unhealthy snacks, meals, and drinks.
Lunchbox Choices: Activities where children sort foods into appropriate lunchbox categories.
Interactive Games: Smart Board games that engage children in identifying healthy foods.
Worksheets: Worksheets that encourage critical thinking and fine motor skills while learning about nutritious food options.

Government and WHO Initiatives

Governments play a central role in creating a healthy food environment that enables people to adopt and maintain healthy dietary practices. Effective actions by policymakers include:

Creating coherence in national policies and investment plans - including trade, food, and agricultural policies - to promote a healthy diet and protect public health.
Increasing incentives for producers and retailers to grow, use, and sell fresh fruit and vegetables.
Reducing incentives for the food industry to continue or increase production of processed foods containing high levels of saturated fats, trans fats, free sugars, and salt/sodium.
Encouraging reformulation of food products to reduce the contents of saturated fats, trans fats, free sugars, and salt/sodium, with the goal of eliminating industrially produced trans fats.
Implementing the WHO recommendations on the marketing of foods and non-alcoholic beverages to children.
Establishing standards to foster healthy dietary practices through ensuring the availability of healthy, nutritious, safe, and affordable foods in pre-schools, schools, other public institutions, and the workplace.
Exploring regulatory and voluntary instruments (e.g., marketing regulations and nutrition labeling policies) and economic incentives or disincentives (e.g., the addition of front-of-pack labeling to facilitate consumer understanding).
Providing nutrition and dietary counseling at primary health-care facilities.
Promoting appropriate infant and young child feeding practices.

The World Health Organization (WHO) also provides guidance and support to countries in promoting healthy diets and physical activity. Key initiatives include:

The “WHO Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity, and Health.”
Recommendations on the marketing of foods and non-alcoholic beverages to children.
Global voluntary targets for the prevention and control of NCDs, including a halt to the rise in diabetes and obesity and a 30% relative reduction in salt intake by 2025.
The “Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases 2013-2020.”
The Commission on Ending Childhood Obesity.
The Second International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2) and its associated Rome Declaration on Nutrition and Framework for Action.
The 13th General Programme of Work (GPW13), which identifies healthier populations as a priority.
The REPLACE action package to eliminate industrially produced trans fats.

Tools for Healthy Eating

The Healthy Eating Plate

The Healthy Eating Plate, created by nutrition experts at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, offers a visual guide for creating healthy, balanced meals. Key components include:

Vegetables: The more veggies - and the greater the variety - the better.
Fruits: Choose whole fruits over fruit juice.
Whole Grains: Eat a variety of whole grains (like whole-wheat bread, whole-grain pasta, and brown rice).
Protein Power: Fish, poultry, beans, and nuts are all healthy, versatile protein sources.
Healthy Plant Oils: Choose healthy vegetable oils like olive, canola, soy, corn, sunflower, and peanut, and avoid partially hydrogenated oils, which contain unhealthy trans fats.
Water: Drink water, tea, or coffee (with little or no sugar). Limit milk/dairy (1-2 servings/day) and juice (1 small glass/day).

The Healthy Eating Plate does not define a certain number of calories or servings per day from each food group. The relative section sizes suggest approximate relative proportions of each of the food groups to include on a healthy plate.

Alternative Healthy Eating Index

The Alternative Healthy Eating Index is a scoring system used to assess how closely a person's diet aligns with the principles of a healthy eating pyramid. Studies have shown that individuals with higher scores on the Alternative Healthy Eating Index have a lower risk of chronic diseases and mortality.

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