Can a healthy diet include sweet foods and beverages?
A healthy diet provides all of the essential nutrients that your body needs to promote health, support a fit and active life, and reduce your risk of chronic diseases such as coronary heart disease, diabetes or cancer. A healthy diet includes a variety of foods: cereals and grains; fruits and vegetables; protein foods such as meats, fish, poultry, eggs, nuts and vegetables; milk and other dairy products like cheese or yoghurt; and small amounts of fats and oils.You can start planning a healthy diet by looking at the Dietary Guidelines for Americans ( by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

What are the most important steps to a healthy diet?
Although there are different food pyramids for you to choose from, the challenge is to pick one, then create an eating plan that embraces healthy food.Soft drinks contribute to the diet in two ways. Because they are predominantly water, they can help quench thirst and meet the body's fluid requirement -- about two quarts of liquid a day. In addition, soft drinks sweetened with sugar provide carbohydrates, which are readily available to the body for quick energy. Although soft drinks make these nutritional contributions to the diet, the Company markets them as a source of simple refreshment.

Can a healthy diet include sweet foods and beverages?
A healthy diet provides all of the essential nutrients that your body needs to promote health, support a fit and active life, and reduce your risk of chronic diseases such as coronary heart disease, diabetes or cancer. A healthy diet includes a variety of foods: cereals and grains; fruits and vegetables; protein foods such as meats, fish, poultry, eggs, nuts and vegetables; milk and other dairy products like cheese or yoghurt; and small amounts of fats and oils.Soft drinks contribute to the diet in two ways. Because they are predominantly water, they can help quench thirst and meet the body's fluid requirement -- about two quarts of liquid a day.

Will I learn about a heart-healthy diet?
Yes. The cardiac rehab registered dietitian does a computer analysis of your current diet and helps you to make changes in your diet that will show how to achieve sensible health-related dietary goals. For heart-healthy meal ideas, visit our recipe corner.A heart-healthy diet emphasizes foods low in saturated fat, total fat, and cholesterol to help lower blood cholesterol. This is the recommended eating pattern for Americans older than 2: Less than 300 mg a day of dietary cholesterol. Saturated fat increases blood cholesterol more than anything else you eat, so choose foods low in saturated fat to reduce blood cholesterol. If you are overweight, losing weight is important for lowering blood cholesterol.

What are the most important steps to a healthy diet?
Although there are different food pyramids for you to choose from, the challenge is to pick one, then create an eating plan that embraces healthy food.Since 20% of the cholesterol in the bloodstream derives from cholesterol in food, high cholesterol foods should be avoided if one is serious about lowering blood cholesterol levels. Although a few studies have not shown a cholesterol-lowering effect from the addition of eggs to the diet, these studies generally involved people who were already consuming large amounts of cholesterol.

How can we follow a healthy diet?
We must pay careful attention to the ingredients in everything we eat, avoiding harmful ones and choosing those that enhance our good health and help us fight illness. For example, we should eat foods that improve our immune system, decrease high cholesterol levels, and support our cardiovascular system and the regulation of hormones. At the same time, we should not base our diet solely on one type of healthy food.A healthy diet provides all the nutrients we need in a day. The amount a child needs from each food group depends on age, gender and daily physical activity. Children who are very physically active, for example, need more than children who get little or no physical activity. For students who get 30 to 60 minutes of daily physical activity it that means consuming at least 6-5-3-3-2: My students eat some foods I've never seen or tasted. I have no ideas what food group they belong to.A heart-healthy diet emphasizes foods low in saturated fat, total fat, and cholesterol to help lower blood cholesterol.