Healthy Active Lifestyle Educational Resources

In the United States, there are many educational resources available to help you achieve a healthy, active lifestyle. Two excellent resources available online are HealthierUS and the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

HealthierUs is "a national effort to improve people's lives, prevent and reduce the costs of disease, and promote community health and wellness." Brought to you by the Executive Office of the President and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS)

The HealthierUS website has a wide range of information on topics such as nutrition, physical activity, preventative screenings and healthy choices. For good nutrition, the recommendation is to follow the basics: "eat a healthy diet by choosing a variety of fruits and vegetables. Avoid fats, added sugars, and salt. Eat in moderation.

Eating right makes you feel good, and it's important for reducing your risk for diseases like heart disease, certain cancers, diabetes, stroke and osteoporosis. In fact, healthier eating could reduce cancer deaths in the United States by as much as 35 percent. http://www.healthierus.gov/nutrition.html

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans have been published jointly every five years since 1980 by the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The guidelines "provide authoritative advice for people two years and older about how good dietary habits can promote health and reduce risk for major chronic diseases.

These guidelines serve as the basis for Federal nutrition policy and nutrition programs.

Becoming a healthier you isn't just about eating healthy—it's also about physical activity. Regular physical activity is important for your overall health and fitness. It also helps you control body weight by balancing the calories you take in as food with the calories you expend each day.

Consider This:

If you eat 100 more food calories a day than you burn, you'll gain about 1 pound in a month. That's about 10 pounds in a year. The bottom line is that to lose weight, it's important to reduce calories and increase physical activity.

Choose the most nutritionally rich foods you can from each food group each day—those packed with vitamins, minerals, fiber, and other nutrients but lower in calories. Pick foods like fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and fat-free or low-fat milk and milk products more often.

Nutrition: To know the facts…

Most packaged foods have a Nutrition Facts label. For a healthier you, use this tool to make smart food choices quickly and easily. Try these tips:

* Keep these low: saturated fats, trans fats, cholesterol, and sodium.
* Get enough of these: potassium, fiber, vitamins A and C, calcium, and iron.
* Use the % Daily Value (DV) column when possible: 5% DV or less is low, 20% DV or more is high.

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