A diet used to be considered healthy, as long as it consisted of selections from each of the four food groups. Today, advancements in nutritional research, coupled with extensive food allergy studies, show the most appropriate diet for health should be extremely varied, and include adequate amounts of protein, complex carbohydrates and plenty of vegetables. It should also be rich in vitamins, trace minerals and phytonutrients.

Horses are herbivores, so they do not naturally eat meat, and lions are carnivores, so they don’t rely on vegetables to survive, but bears, being omnivores, have thrived on a wide variety of seasonally available foods.Is this new to you? Catch up here For humans, who were the original hunter-gatherers, it has been the same way, although bears are more adept at hunting, while gathering comes easier to humans. Even after humans started cultivating land, they still ate a wide variety of foods, with the emphasis remaining on vegetables. The most appropriate diet for human health should follow the same basic blueprint our ancestors followed, a varied omnivore diet, with an abundance of fresh fruits and vegetables in season, nuts and legumes in regular, small amounts, and fish, meat, eggs and dairy products at least daily. It should contain minimal white sugar and refined carbohydrates, to keep insulin levels in check. It should also contain adequate amounts of saturated and unsaturated fat, with soluble and insoluble fiber to promote a full feeling and aid in digestion.

Fast foods should be avoided whenever possible, as should any prepackaged, processed foods, since processing takes away nutrients and adds undesirable chemicals, food colors and preservatives. There is a large nutritional difference between enriched food products and natural foods. A healthy diet should contain so many naturally occurring vitamins and minerals that a vitamin supplement is unnecessary. As a rule, food should be as minimally processed as possible, in order to retain the natural vitamins and minerals.