Table of contents
Healthy Diet and BMI: Striking a Balance Across Ages
For Adults:
Maintaining a healthy Body Mass Index (BMI) is closely tied to dietary choices. A balanced diet for adults includes:
- Portion Control: Being mindful of portion sizes to avoid excessive calorie intake.
- Nutrient-Rich Foods: Prioritizing fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean proteins, and healthy fats.
- Hydration: Ensuring an adequate intake of water for overall well-being.
- Limiting Sugars and Saturated Fats: Managing the consumption of added sugars and unhealthy fats.
Regular physical activity complements a healthy diet, aiding in weight management and overall health.
For Children and Teens:
Establishing healthy eating habits during childhood and adolescence lays the foundation for lifelong well-being. Considerations include:
- Balanced Nutrition: Providing a mix of food groups to support growth and development.
- Encouraging Active Lifestyles: Promoting regular physical activity to maintain a healthy weight.
- Educating on Choices: Teaching the importance of making nutritious food choices.
- Monitoring Growth: Regularly tracking growth and BMI to ensure healthy development.
Parents and guardians play a pivotal role in shaping these habits by creating a positive and supportive food environment at home.
Key Facts:
- A nutritious diet serves as a defense against various forms of malnutrition and noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) such as diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and cancer.
- Globally, unhealthy dietary habits and insufficient physical activity pose significant health risks.
- Establishing healthy dietary practices early in life, including breastfeeding, promotes robust growth, enhances cognitive development, and yields long-term health benefits. These benefits include a reduced risk of later-life issues like overweight or obesity and NCD development.
- Caloric intake should align with energy expenditure to prevent unhealthy weight gain. Total fat consumption should not surpass 30% of total energy intake, with saturated fats limited to less than 10%, trans-fats to less than 1%, and a preference for unsaturated fats. Efforts are underway to eliminate industrially-produced trans-fats.
- A healthy diet involves restricting free sugar intake to below 10% of total energy intake, with additional health benefits suggested for reductions to less than 5%.
- Maintaining salt intake at less than 5 g per day (equivalent to sodium intake of less than 2 g per day) is crucial for preventing hypertension, heart disease, and stroke in adults.
- WHO Member States have committed to reducing global salt intake by 30% by 2025. Additionally, efforts are in place to halt the escalation of diabetes, obesity in adults and adolescents, and childhood overweight by 2025.
Overview:
A healthy life-course diet is pivotal in preventing malnutrition and noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). Alas, increased processed food production and changing lifestyles have shifted dietary patterns towards high-energy, high-fat, high-sugar, and high-salt consumption, often lacking essential fruits, vegetables, and fiber.
For Adults:
- A healthy diet comprises fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, and whole grains.
- Aim for at least 400 g (five portions) of fruits and vegetables daily, excluding starchy roots.
- Limit free sugars to less than 10% of total energy intake, ideally less than 5% for added health benefits.
- Keep total fat intake below 30%, favoring unsaturated fats over saturated and trans-fats.
- Consume less than 5 g of salt per day, iodized.
For Infants and Young Children:
- Optimal nutrition in the first 2 years aids healthy growth and lowers NCD risks.
- Exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months, continuous breastfeeding until 2 years.
- Complement breast milk with nutrient-dense foods from 6 months, avoiding added salt and sugars.
Practical Advice:
Fruits and Vegetables:
- Consume at least 400 g daily to reduce NCD risk.
- Include vegetables in meals, opt for fresh, seasonal, and varied choices.
Fats:
- Keep total fat intake below 30%, emphasizing unsaturated fats.
- Reduce saturated and trans-fats, favoring oils rich in polyunsaturated fats.
- Limit baked and fried foods, opting for lean meats and reduced-fat dairy.
Salt, Sodium, and Potassium:
- Limit salt intake to less than 5 g per day.
- Reduce high-sodium condiments, choose products with lower sodium content.
- Increase potassium intake with fresh fruits and vegetables.
Sugars:
- Reduce free sugars to less than 10% of total energy intake.
- Further benefits with less than 5% intake.
- Cut sugary snacks and opt for fresh fruits and vegetables.
Promoting Healthy Diets:
- Governments play a crucial role in creating a healthy food environment.
- Coherent national policies to incentivize fresh produce and discourage processed foods.
- Implement WHO recommendations on food marketing to children.
- Explore regulations, incentives, and labelling policies to foster a healthy diet.
- Encourage consumer demand for healthy foods through education and awareness.
- Promote infant and young child feeding practices in line with international guidelines.
Questions and Answers:
A balanced diet and healthy BMI contribute to overall well-being. By practicing portion control, prioritizing nutrient-rich foods, staying hydrated, and limiting sugars and saturated fats, individuals can manage their weight effectively.
Regular physical activity complements a healthy diet by aiding in weight management and promoting overall health. The combination of a nutritious diet and exercise is crucial for a balanced lifestyle.
Parents play a pivotal role by creating a positive and supportive food environment at home. This includes providing balanced nutrition, encouraging active lifestyles, educating on food choices, and monitoring growth and BMI.
A nutritious diet acts as a defense against malnutrition and noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). Globally, unhealthy dietary habits and insufficient physical activity pose significant health risks.
Establishing healthy eating habits early in life lays the foundation for lifelong well-being. This includes breastfeeding, which promotes growth, cognitive development, and reduces the risk of later-life issues like overweight or obesity.
To maintain a healthy diet, it’s advised to limit free sugar intake to less than 10% of total energy intake, with additional health benefits suggested for reductions to less than 5%.
To prevent hypertension and heart disease, individuals should aim to keep salt intake below 5 g per day (equivalent to sodium intake of less than 2 g per day). Choosing iodized salt and opting for products with lower sodium content can help.
WHO Member States have committed to reducing global salt intake by 30% by 2025. Additionally, efforts are in place to halt the escalation of diabetes, obesity in adults and adolescents, and childhood overweight by 2025.
Governments play a crucial role by creating a healthy food environment through coherent national policies. This includes incentivizing fresh produce, discouraging processed foods, implementing WHO recommendations on food marketing, and exploring regulations and incentives.
Practical advice includes consuming at least 400 g of fruits and vegetables daily, limiting free sugars and saturated fats, keeping total fat intake below 30%, reducing salt intake, and promoting a positive food environment at home.
WHO Response Overview:
WHO has been actively addressing global health challenges through strategic initiatives. The “WHO Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health” emphasizes collaborative efforts for healthy diets and physical activity. Recommendations on marketing to children, a Comprehensive Implementation Plan on Nutrition, and global voluntary targets for NCD prevention showcase WHO’s commitment. The Commission on Ending Childhood Obesity and initiatives like the Second International Conference on Nutrition reinforce global action. WHO’s 13th General Programme of Work (GPW13) identifies salt and trans-fat reduction as priority actions, supported by the REPLACE action package to eliminate industrially-produced trans-fats. The ongoing efforts align with WHO’s mission for universal well-being.
WHO Q&A:
The “WHO Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health” is a comprehensive initiative adopted in 2004, calling for global, regional, and local actions to promote healthy diets and physical activity. It involves collaboration between governments, WHO, international partners, the private sector, and civil society.
In 2010, the Health Assembly endorsed recommendations on the marketing of foods and non-alcoholic beverages to children. These recommendations guide countries in developing and enhancing policies to minimize the impact of marketing on children.
The 2012 plan includes global nutrition targets to be achieved by 2025, covering aspects such as reducing stunting, wasting, and overweight in children, improving breastfeeding, and addressing issues like anaemia and low birthweight.
In 2016, the Commission proposed recommendations to address childhood and adolescent obesity globally, recognizing the rising obesity rates among infants and children in many countries.
ICN2, held in 2014, adopted the Rome Declaration on Nutrition and the Framework for Action. These documents recommend policies and strategies to promote diversified, safe, and healthy diets throughout life.
The 13th General Programme of Work (GPW13) identifies the reduction of salt/sodium intake and the elimination of industrially-produced trans-fats as priority actions. WHO has developed a roadmap, the REPLACE action package, to guide countries in accelerating actions for trans-fat elimination.
