The difference between people who end up eating healthily and people who try every January is not usually willpower but method: small, concrete changes that add up, with a clear idea of where you are heading. The official guidelines give you that idea.
The healthy plate: the guide that needs no scales
The Harvard School of Public Health sums it up in one plate: half vegetables and fruit, a quarter whole grains and a quarter healthy protein (fish, poultry, legumes, nuts). Two details people often forget: potatoes and chips do not count as vegetables, and the drink is water, tea or coffee with little or no sugar. Dairy, 1 to 2 servings a day, and juice, one small glass at most.
How much of each: the AESAN portions
The 2022 AESAN dietary recommendations put numbers on the plate, including the size of each portion. They are meant for healthy adults; if you have a medical condition or special needs, adjust them with your doctor or dietitian. The figures for meat and dairy also take environmental impact into account, not only health: the report says so explicitly.
| Food group | How much | One portion is |
|---|---|---|
| Vegetables | At least 3 a day | 150-200 g: a plate of salad or cooked vegetables |
| Fruit | 2-3 a day (juice does not replace it) | 120-200 g: one medium piece |
| Potatoes and other tubers | In moderation, separate from vegetables | 150-200 g: one large potato or two small ones |
| Cereals (preferably whole grain) | 3-6 a day; no more than 4 if you need to eat fewer calories | 40-60 g of bread or 60-80 g of dry pasta or rice |
| Legumes | At least 4 a week, working up to daily | 50-60 g dry weight: a normal plateful |
| Nuts | 3 or more a week, up to 1 a day | 20-30 g: a handful |
| Fish | 3 or more a week, preferably oily fish | 125-150 g: one fillet |
| Eggs | Up to 4 a week | 1 medium egg |
| Dairy | 3 a day at most, without added sugar | 200-250 ml of milk or 125 g of yoghurt |
| Meat | 3 a week at most, preferably poultry and rabbit; processed meat kept to a minimum | 100-125 g: one medium steak |
| Olive oil | Daily, in the main meals | 10 ml: one tablespoon |
| Water | The main drink, as much as you need | Coffee, tea and herbal teas without sugar also hydrate |
A sample day (1,661 kcal)
This is what a day that follows the plate and the portions above looks like: 5 portions of fruit and vegetables, one of legumes, one of oily fish, an egg, a dairy serving and a handful of nuts. The calories come from USDA FoodData Central and add up to 1,661 kcal, with about 83 g of protein.
| Meal | What and how much | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Breakfast | 2 slices of wholemeal bread (64 g) with 1 grated medium tomato (123 g), 1 teaspoon of olive oil (4.5 g) and 1 hard-boiled egg (50 g without shell) | 301 |
| Mid-morning | 1 medium apple (182 g) | 95 |
| Lunch | Cooked lentils (198 g) stewed with 1 carrot (61 g); lettuce (94 g) and tomato (123 g) salad with 1 tablespoon of olive oil (13.5 g); 1 slice of wholemeal bread (32 g); 1 orange (131 g) | 554 |
| Afternoon snack | 1 plain unsweetened yoghurt (113 g) and a handful of walnuts (28 g) | 252 |
| Dinner | Baked salmon (125 g), boiled broccoli (156 g) and 1 small boiled potato (125 g) with 1 teaspoon of olive oil (4.5 g) | 459 |
| Total | About 83 g of protein | 1,661 |
If you need more energy, change the bread, legumes and oil before the vegetables: one extra slice of wholemeal bread at lunch and at dinner (81 kcal each), one extra tablespoon of oil (119 kcal) and a medium banana (105 kcal) take the day to about 2,050 kcal. The calorie calculator estimates what you personally need.
How to do the shopping
- Plan before you go: decide the week's lunches and dinners and build the list from them. With the weekly meal plan template it takes a few minutes.
- Start the trolley with fruit and vegetables in season. Frozen and tinned ones count too, as long as they have no added sugar or excess salt (WHO).
- Dried legumes, or tinned ones if you have no time to cook them; tinned, preferably low in salt (AESAN).
- Fresh, frozen or tinned fish: according to AESAN, frozen and tinned fish have a nutritional value equivalent to fresh. Tins, preferably low in salt.
- Wholemeal or whole-grain bread, pasta and rice instead of refined ones.
- Dairy without added sugar and plain nuts, without added salt, fat or sugar.
- Ultra-processed foods (pastries, fizzy drinks, packaged snacks, ready meals): no need to ban them, but do not make them the base of your trolley. Learn to spot them in how to read nutrition labels.
Why ultra-processed foods matter so much
In a controlled trial with 20 adults admitted to the US National Institutes of Health (Hall, 2019), the same people ate an ultra-processed diet for two weeks and an unprocessed diet for two weeks, matched for calories offered, energy density, macronutrients, sugar, salt and fibre, and could eat as much as they wanted. On the ultra-processed diet they ate on average about 500 kcal more a day and gained 0.9 kg; on the other they lost 0.9 kg. There is no need to cut them out completely: it is enough for the base of your diet to be minimally processed food. We explain it in what ultra-processed foods are and how they affect you.
The mistakes that sink most attempts
- Changing everything on Monday: perfect diet, zero treats and the gym every day. Better one change at a time; a habit takes weeks or months to become automatic, not 21 days.
- Drinking your calories: fizzy drinks and juices. The WHO asks for free sugars to stay below 10% of daily calories, and the sugar in fruit juice counts as free sugar.
- Confusing "healthy" with "light" or "fit": the packaging is not the label; check the per-100 g table and the ingredients list.
- Thinking potatoes count as vegetables: on the Harvard plate they do not, and AESAN puts them in a separate group.
- Cutting out whole food groups for no reason (all carbs, gluten, fruit "because of the sugar"): go over the most common nutrition myths.
- Giving up after a bad day: one worse meal does not undo a good week; go back to the plate at the next one.
Renzy helps with the hardest step: knowing what you really eat. You take a photo of your plate, see an estimate of calories and macros plus a health score for the plate, and correct it if something looks off.
Get your number in a minute, no account needed.
Calorie calculatorIn your browser, nothing to install
Or try it with a photo of your plate
See what is on my plateApp: 7 days free · card required · cancel anytime
If you want the changes to last beyond the food itself, the healthy habits guide explains how to anchor them so they do not depend on motivation.
Renzy calculates all of this for you
Get your number in a minute, no account needed.
Calorie calculatorIn your browser, nothing to install
Or try it with a photo of your plate
Start your 7-day trialApp: 7 days free · card required · cancel anytime
