Vary Choices Of Fruit And Vegetables

Key facts

• A healthy diet helps protect against malnutrition in all its forms, as well as noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), including obesity, diabetes, heart disease, stroke and cancer.
• Unhealthy diet and lack of physical activity are leading global risks to health.
• Healthy dietary practices start early in life – breastfeeding may have longer-term benefits, like reducing the risk of overweight and obesity in childhood and adolescence.
• Energy intake (calories) should balance energy expenditure. Evidence indicates that total fat should not exceed 30% of total energy intake to avoid unhealthy weight gain (1, 2, 3), with a shift in fat consumption away from saturated fats to unsaturated fats (3), and towards the elimination of industrial trans fats (4).
• Limiting intake of free sugars to less than 10% of total energy (2, 5) is part of a healthy diet. A further reduction to less than 5% of total energy (6) is suggested for additional health benefits.
• Keeping salt intake to less than 5 g per day helps prevent hypertension and reduces the risk of heart disease and stroke in adult population (7).
• WHO Member States have agreed to reduce the global population’s intake of salt by 30% and halt the rise in diabetes and obesity by 2025.