Maintaining a healthy weight contributes to good health and reduces the risk for many medical conditions. Controlling your weight requires making dietary changes.
Eating a variety of foods helps keep your body balanced. Avoid foods that are high in sugar and fats. Eat smaller meals throughout the day. This prevents overeating and can help you manage your hunger.
Healthy Fats
Fat provides energy, helps with moods and brain function, and contributes to a feeling of fullness. Unhealthy fats, such as saturated and trans fats, promote insulin resistance, inflammation and increased fat storage, which can lead to obesity and chronic disease.
Healthy high-fat foods include avocados, olive oil, whole milk, grass-fed beef and fatty fish. Unhealthy high-fat foods to avoid are processed meats and snack foods, such as cookies and crackers, which are often high in artery-clogging trans fats.
A diet high in healthy fats is associated with lower cholesterol and heart disease risk, a reduced risk of diabetes, cancer and certain diseases and improved mental health. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2015-2020 recommend limiting intakes of saturated fat and trans fat, while increasing intake of unsaturated fat. However, since fat contains 9 calories per gram, it’s important to keep in mind that consuming too many calories from any source can lead to weight gain. Ideally, you should aim to consume a variety of healthy foods throughout the day.