Good nutrition should be part of an overally healthy lifestyle which includes regular physical activity, not smoking, and stress management. It should also mean regularly eating foods that have a lot of vitamins and minerals in them, as well as foods that are not high in fat.

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.

If you want to eat healthy, it is important to make healthy choices in what you eat all the time - meals and snacks:

• Be sure to eat a variety of foods
• Eat plenty of vegetables, fruits, and whole greain products
• Include low-fat dairy products, lean meats, poultry, and fish in your diet
• Drink a lot of water
• Go easy on the salt, sugar, alcohol and saturated fat
• Eat regular meals
• Eat a good breakfast

Foods play a very important roll in overall nutrition. Eating the right foods with the right nutrional values can be key.

Protein is necessary for the growth, repair, and maintenance of muscle and other lean tissues.

Carbohydrates are the primary fuel for anaeraobic exercise and are the kindling fuel necessary for optimal fat burning aerobic exercise. A high-carbohydrate diet will result in greater buildup of muscle glycogen and power output during exercise. Glycogen is the important fuel for anaerobic exercise! Conversely, a low-carbohydrate diet will not only reduce physical performance, but also affect mood and behavioral factors such as increased tension, depression, fatigue, anger, mental confusion, and reduced vigor.

Dietary fats include a variety of compounds that are insoluble in water, including cholesterol, saturated fats and unsaturated fats. Since fats are insoluble in water, they will just store in your body. Your body does burn some of it off automatically, but you can control the amount of fat in your body by exercising it off. Excess fat intake increases the risk of cancer, heart disease, and diabetes. But your body does need some dietary fat; the recommended amount of fat in your diet should be about twenty percent.

Fluids - Dehydration resulting from inadequate fluid replacement is the most common contributor to reduced physical performance. Water is the best fluid for replenishing your thirst buds. Since thirst is a poor indicator of fluid needs, a general rule is to drink twice as much water as is needed to quence thirst. You should drink water prior to, during, and following exercise.

The food pyramid shown below is a good chart to help show you how to eat healthy.

Why does my pyramid usually end up upside-down? I need to eat better! Grrrr... I swear if the bottom stuff tasted like the top stuff on the pyramid, I'd be in great shape!