9781422287866 Building a Healthy Diet with the 5 Food Groups

BUILDING A HEALTHY DIET WITH THE 5 FOOD GROUPS 26

Eating a healthy, balanced diet means eating food from many different food groups. Some foods might not have vitamins or nutrients that another food has, so you should eat a little of each.

grow. It gives the body a lot of energy. It also helps the body take in vitamins. Without fat, the body wouldn’t be able to absorb some vitamins, even if we ate a lot of them. Meat, nuts, and dairy have the most fat. Butter, for example, has a lot of fat. Whole milk has more fat than skim milk. Like carbohydrates, fat comes in different kinds. Unsaturated fat is the healthiest kind of fat. Unsaturated fat is in foods like avocados, oil, and nuts. This kind of fat keeps your body healthy, especially your heart. Saturated fat and trans fats are less healthy. They can make your heart sick if you eat too much of them. Saturated fats are found in meat and dairy. Trans fats are the fats in baked goods and snack foods.