The healthiest foods
The healthiest foods can lower high blood pressure, reduce LDL (“bad”) cholesterol levels, and cut the risk of heart disease. Odds are, those same foods can also help prevent weight gain, type 2 diabetes, and some common cancers.
What's the first step to eating healthier?
Fill half your plate with vegetables and fruit, and get cooking!
The healthiest diet
A DASH-style way of eating is rich in vegetables and fruit, and it favors poultry, fish, and beans over red meat.
See the plan
Fruits & veggies
All fruits & veggies are good fruits & veggies. But our ratings make it easy to load up on the most nutritious superstars.
See the superstars
Healthy recipes
What good is healthy without delicious? That's where our recipes from The Healthy Cook, Kate Sherwood, come in.
Let's get cookingWant to learn more about how to reduce your risk of disease?
Heart disease, type 2 diabetes, many cancers...the list goes on. Here's how eating healthy can cut your risk of disease.
Eat unprocessed foods instead of ultra-processed foods
Unprocessed foods aren’t just more nutrient-rich than ultra-processed foods like chips, cookies, hot dogs, fries, and sugary drinks. It’s hard to overeat unprocessed foods like whole fruits and vegetables. They’re low in calorie density (calories per bite) and high in nutrient density (nutrients per calorie). Win-win.
Don't be (calorie) dense
Why it's hard to overeat unprocessed foods
A key study
Are ultra-processed foods making us fat?
What 100 calories looks like
How snack foods stack up
Whole grain vs. whole grain
Does processing matter?
Eat healthy proteins instead of red meat
Healthy proteins are leaner poultry (chicken or turkey), seafood, and plant proteins, like beans, peas, lentils, tofu, nuts, and seeds.
They’re not just lower in unhealthy saturated fat. Many healthy proteins—like fatty fish, edamame, tempeh, tofu, nuts, and seeds—are high in heart-healthy unsaturated fats. And proteins from plants are rich in nutrients that aren’t always easy to come by, like magnesium, potassium, vitamin E and fiber.
Your best bet? Go for any of them to replace red or processed meats.
Eat healthy fats instead of saturated fats
Healthy fats include monounsaturated fats (like avocado, canola oil, olive oil, safflower, and sunflower oil) and polyunsaturated fats (like fatty fish, nuts, seeds, soybean oil, and sesame oil).
Oils, nuts, seeds, etc.
The good fats
Red meat, butter, cheese, etc.
The bad fats
Saturated vs. unsaturated
A quick guide to fats and oils
Oxidation, explained
Does cooking make your oil dangerous?
Whole grains are healthy grains
Looking for the healthiest grains? Go for whole grains instead of refined. Here’s how to find the best.
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