Your nutrition is the fuel that helps keep your body moving at its best, giving you the ability to breathe, move, and think properly. A balanced diet provides the essential nutrition to help you get the right balance of vitamins, minerals, fiber, protein, carbs and other nutrients you need daily. Too much of one nutrient or too little of another and the delicate balance is thrown off.

Where to start

A good place to start is ChooseMyPlate.gov, which provides tips to help build healthier diets based on appropriate portion sizes of five food groups, including fruits and vegetables. Most fruits and vegetables are naturally low in fat, sodium and calories, and provide a rich array of many nutrients like potassium, dietary fiber, vitamins C, A and folic acid.

Stay whole

Make at least half of the grains you consume whole grains, be it cereals, breads, crackers, pasta or rice. Whole grains provide dietary fibers, B vitamins and minerals like iron and magnesium.

Fortify bones with calcium

MyPlate suggest switching to fat-free or low-fat (1%) milk. Milk and some milk products are also fortified with Vitamin D, which is essential for calcium absorption. If you don’t or can’t consume milk, choose lactose-free products. Many non-dairy foods contain added calcium, including some breakfast cereals, breads, orange juice and soy milk. Be sure to read the labels carefully to find the ones that are calcium-fortified. Dark green, leafy vegetables also provide calcium.

Build muscle with protein

Protein is an important building block of muscle. You can get your daily intake of protein from meats, poultry, fish, eggs, dried beans and peas, nuts and seeds. Beyond protein, these foods are an important source of iron, magnesium, zinc and Vitamin E.  

Stay on track

We all know how difficult it can be to eat balanced meals. Good thing that just one 8-ounce bottle of BOOST® Original Complete Nutritional Drink can help fill the gaps. With 26 essential vitamins and minerals, plus other key nutrients, it’s easy to get back on the right track and maintain a complete and balanced diet.