Balanced Eating

The benefits of a balanced eating pattern include ensuring adequate energy and nutrients for daily needs while fostering longterm health and disease prevention. BC Dining offers resources to help you find a healthy, balanced diet.

What Is Balanced Eating?


Variety is...

  • Having multiple colors on your plate
  • Having different meals throughout the week
  • Key to combating vitamin or mineral deficiencies

Moderation is...

  • Giving yourself permission to eat all foods, in any proportion, at any time
  • Listening to what you want to eat
  • Being mindful about what is satisfying

Adequacy is...

  • Eating regular, frequent, full meals
  • NOT using food choices or amounts of food to manipulate body or "make up for" exercise or drinking alcohol
  • Key to having a regular appetite

Balanced Eating Resources

Avocado toast and eggs.

Variety, Moderation, and Adequacy

Variety, moderation, and adequacy are all necessary for balanced eating. Enjoyment and satisfaction during eating are important.

A balanced eating pattern contains foods from all food groups, with no emphasis placed on one food group over others. The benefits of a balanced eating pattern include ensuring adequate energy and nutrients for daily needs while fostering longterm health and disease prevention.

Balanced eating is achievable at any weight. Being in a larger body does not mean someone is unhealthy or overeats. In fact, nearly half of people who are in the “overweight” category of the Body Mass Index (BMI) are metabolically healthy, and about 30 percent of “normal” weight individuals are not. The belief that BMI is a proxy for health contributes to weight stigma.

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