Maintaining a healthy diet is the practice of making choices about what to eat with the intent of improving or maintaining good health. Usually this involves consuming necessary nutrients by eating the appropriate amounts from all of the food groups, including an adequate amount of water. Since human nutrition is complex, a healthy diet may vary widely, subject to an individual's genetic makeup, environment, and health. For around 20% of the planet's population, lack of food and malnutrition are the main impediments to healthy eating; people in developed countries have the opposite problem, and are more concerned about obesity.

If they managed to survive plague and pestilence, medieval humans may have enjoyed healthier lifestyles than their descendants today. Their low-fat, vegetable-rich diet - washed down by weak ale - was far better for the heart than today's starchy, processed foods.

The best weight loss plans are all high in fruit, vegetables and fiber, and low in artery-clogging types of fat. The worst is the high-protein, low-carb Atkins plan."Obese people already have a higher risk of heart disease," explained Dr. Yunsheng Ma. "So it's particularly important that they make heart-healthy diet changes that can be kept up."

A diet low in fat could reduce the risk of ovarian cancer in healthy postmenopausal women, according to new study results released Tuesday by U.S. National Heart, Lungand Blood Institute.

A Mediterranean-style diet high in olive oil and other "healthy" fats is just as good as the classicAmerican Heart Association low-fat diet for the 8 million Americans who have suffered a heart attack and want to prevent a repeat, new research suggests.

A low-carbohydrate diet does not increase the risk of heart disease in women, a major new study finds. Diet rich in vegetable protein and vegetable fat appears to have a benefit in lowering heart disease risk.