Total Diet Approach: Pathway to Healthy Eating

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In the position paper, “Total Diet Approach to Healthy Eating,” The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics discusses the idea of a total diet approach, and why it has been recommended.1 The Total Diet Approach focuses on overall eating behaviors that supply adequate nutrients to meet energy requirements and other important benefits.1 The position paper also discusses issues regarding ethnic health disparities, and the way the total diet approach can help deal with them.1 The consumption of nutrient rich foods and beverages in moderation, along with the incorporation of physical activity are the foundation of a healthy lifestyle.1 The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics refers to this as the total diet approach to healthy eating. 1 This approach Throughout this position paper there are some key recommendations made by The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics about how to improve the diets and nutritional status by specifically using the total diet approach.1 One key recommendation is that nutrition messages tend to be more effective when they are focused on positive ways to make changes overtime, opposed to listing specific foods that are to be avoided completely.1 Foods should also not be labeled “good” or “bad” because it can result in negative attitudes and poor judgments.1 Instead of having people cut certain foods out of their diets completely it is more effective to teach the concepts of moderation and proportionality.1 This position paper also mentions programs that already support the total diet approach such as MyPlate, the White House’s Let’s Move campaign, Nutrition Facts labels, nutrients intake recommendations, and Healthy People 2 The goal in a food service industry should always be to meet nutrient guidelines of the public while also following cultural, ethnic and religious

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