What a day’s worth on food on a healthy diet looks like
The diets used in the DASH and OmniHeart studies trim blood pressure and LDL (“bad”) cholesterol. Here’s an example of what those diets look like. Our day’s worth of food is a hybrid of the two OmniHeart diets—one higher in protein and one higher in unsaturated fat—that also lowered triglycerides.
Click here for a chart that shows you how many servings to aim for—and what a typical serving consists of—if you eat roughly 2,000 calories a day. (Those servings are listed in the chart below each sample meal.)
We used the “Wild Card” serving for protein, but you can use it for more oil or carbs if you prefer. And we added a few extra servings of fruits and vegetables. Extra salad greens can’t hurt!
Breakfast
| Fruit | 2 servings | 1 banana, 1 melon wedge |
| Low-fat Dairy | 1 serving | 1 cup milk |
| Grains | 2 servings | 1 cup bran cereal |
Lunch & afternoon snack
| Fish & Poultry | 1 serving | 4 oz. chicken |
| Vegetables | 6 servings | 4 cups greens, 1 cup raw veggies |
| Oils & Fats | 1 serving | 1 Tbs. oil (in 2 Tbs. salad dressing) |
| Fruit | 2 servings | 1 orange, 1/4 cup dried fruit |
| Legumes & Nuts | 1 serving | 1/4 cup almonds |
| Grains | 2 servings | 2 oz. baguette |
Dinner & evening snack
| Fish & Poultry | 1 serving | 4 oz. salmon (“Wild Card”) |
| Vegetables | 3 servings | 1 cup broccoli, 1/2 cup carrots |
| Legumes & Nuts | 1 serving | 1/2 cup bean salad |
| Oils & Fats | 1 serving | 1/2 Tbs. oil (in bean salad), 1/2 Tbs. oil (in broccoli & carrots) |
| Low-fat Dairy | 1 serving | 1 cup plain yogurt |
| Fruit | 1 serving | 1/2 cup berries |
| Desserts & Sweets | 2 servings | 2 small cookies |
Photos: Paige Einstein/CSPI (breakfast), Stephen Schmidt/CSPI (lunch & dinner).
The information in this post first appeared in the March 2015 issue of Nutrition Action Healthletter.
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without calorie counts I cannot adjust to meet my need for many fewer calories, which makes this practically useless for me
This is pretty generic and basic food. It shouldn’t be difficult to look up the calories. But it’s not just calories that count. You can a 200 calorie piece of cake or 200 calories in basic fruit (ie, not cooked into anything-just a piece of fruit). Which do you think you’d be better off eating?
How do I adjust this down to my required 1300 calories/day?