What is health eating? Well, it depends on two things: who you are and how you live. While there are standards that are pretty good for everyone, such as getting enough fiber and protein in your diet, no single standard will work equally as well for everyone.

Your diet needs to be constructed around your specific needs. Do you need more energy? Are you taking medications that require specific nutrient supplementation? Do you need to lose fat mass? Do want to increase your athletic performance? Do you need to lower your cholesterol?

Healthy eating starts by defining your personal health and looking for ways to improve it. While almost all of us need adequate carbohydrates, proteins and fats, we need them in different amounts. Thats why it is critical that you assess your eating lifestyle and determine how it is keeping you from being healthy. For a person who works a desk job and gets little regular exercise, a high carbohydrate diet is not healthy eating. But, neither is an extreme carb-restrictive diet.

To eat healthy you have to establish the following for your particular lifestyle:

• How many total calories do you actually need?
• What types and amounts of nutrients do you actually need?
• How does your physical activity level affect what you choose to eat?
• Do I have any medical conditions that need specific nutritional support?

Once you have figured these things out, start recording how you eat. Then, take that information to a nutritionist or doctor and talk to him or her about how to work on improving your diet. Once you have done this, you can learn what foods prevent you from reaching your goals, what foods accelerate your progress, what foods make you feel healthy and what foods you should be eating but arent.

If you can't afford to see a health professional or do not have access to one, consider reading books on nutrition and lifestyle. These are the books that are buried below all of those diet books in the bookstore! Do a little digging and you will find some good reference materials that can help educate you as to what type of nutrition is best for you. Once you are armed with your information, start making changes in your eating habits. Start slowly and track your progress. See what works and what doesnt work. Then, move on to more dramatic and permanent changes.

But for reference, here are some basic tips to eating well:

• Never under-eat and never-over eat
• Make sure that at least 50% of your fruits and vegetables are consumed raw
• Eat fruits and vegetables every day
• Eat plenty of fiber
• Avoid trans fatty acids
• Make sure that no more than 30% of your daily calories are coming from fat
• Eat lean proteins
• If you can, incorporate fish into your diet
• Eat plenty of whole grains
• Restrict your consumption of white sugar and sugar products
• Don't crash diet
• Don't try to change your eating habits overnight
• Learn about the nutrient values of different foods. Try to eat as many "nutrient rich" foods as possible
• Eat a variety of foods as much as possible
• Identify food allergies and avoid those foods

Here is a simple gauge of how healthy your diet is: Does your skin glow? How do your nails look? Are you overweight? Are you underweight? Does your hair "crunch" and break when you touch it? Do you look tired even when you have had a full nights sleep? Do you often feel tired? Do you have a hard time managing your blood sugar? Are you either really full or really hungry most of the time? Do you often suffer from heartburn or indigestion? Do you often feel nauseous after you eat?

The relationship between healthy eating and your body is straightforward: you eat badly, you will feel badly. So put down the cookies, pick up the carrots!

Get a better diet today! Start making changes, tracking those changes and having successes now!