These are general recommendations from expert groups for the average healthy adult:

• Eat a larger variety of foods, adequate to supply all nutritional requirements. Eating primarily foods such as whole grains, fruits, and vegetables, reduced-fat dairy products, and protein from legumes, while significantly reducing the amounts of meat, poultry, and fish, is the best way to improve your nutrition. Avoid excessive intake of foods high in saturated fat, sugar, and salt. Do not depend on supplements to provide basic nutrition. Supplements have a role to play as insurance against inadequacy, and in some cases of chronic disease such as arthritis, some cancers, heart disease, diabetes, and osteoporosis, but a wide variety of foods is the best source for nutrients. (Supplements are discussed later in this report.)
• Maintain your ideal weight by eating extra calories only when you are more physically active. Health benefits include lower blood fats and blood pressure and reduced risk for heart disease, diabetes, stroke, and some cancers. Preventing overweight and obesity is remarkably easier than permanently reducing. If you are overweight now, reduce to a more reasonable weight by eating fewer calories, particularly fat calories, than you expend. No other means has worked for as many people, and reducing fat calories has other health benefits as well. Even a modest, 10% reduction in excess weight has been proven to help your heart, blood pressure, and joints. Most experts agree that vegetarians tend to weigh less, probably because they eat more foods high in complex carbohydrates, compared with the more calorie-dense high-fat and high-protein meat, poultry, and fish.
• Add more whole grain cereals, breads, and more fruits and vegetables to your diet. Not only are these foods the best source of vitamins and minerals, they also provide complex carbohydrates to sustain energy, and fiber to clean the intestines and keep cholesterol in check. More importantly, each serving is a cocktail of additional natural plant molecules (phytochemicals) with potential health-enriching benefits, just waiting for discovery. A diet with plenty of these nutritious foods will also help ensure a diet that is low in fat.
  
• Eat less total fat, particularly saturated fat, such as from meat and butter, and eat less cholesterol. Also limit foods containing hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated fats that are high in trans fatty acids, such as commercial frying oil, pastries made with vegetable shortening, and most stick margarines. All of these fat sources raise cholesterol levels. Some individuals are more susceptible to both saturated fat and cholesterol and their ability to raise blood fats, so it seems smart to err on the side of less saturated fat instead of more. Substitute extra-virgin olive oil, peanut oil, and canola oil (especially for high-temperature cooking such as stir-frying) for your usual vegetable oil, as these monounsaturated fatty acids resist oxidation and help your arteries stay plaque-free. Boost your intake of essential omega-3 fatty acids with one or two teaspoons of flaxseed oil per day. It works best for low-temperature cooking and uncooked uses such as salad dressings.
• Avoid eating too much refined carbohydrate in the form of sugar or white flour products. A third of American adults get almost half of their daily calories from junk foods, victims of more than five billion dollars worth of some very sophisticated advertising. Obesity, diabetes, and heart disease, along with other chronic problems, are likely unless nutritious foods replace this blizzard of junk foods. If your diet is too high in refined carbohydrates, it is probably too high in calories and lacking in complex carbohydrates, fiber, and essential vitamins and minerals.
• Avoid eating too much heavily salted food. Many scientific studies have demonstrated an association between high sodium intake and high blood pressure, a key risk factor for stroke, heart disease, and kidney failure. Some people are very sensitive to salt, and overall, those with high blood pressure experience a modest reduction when restricting salt. Healthy adults usually need do no more than simply avoid excessive salt intake. Other things to help lower blood pressure are to achieve a reasonable weight, limit alcohol intake, and eat foods high in potassium, magnesium, and calcium.
• If you drink alcoholic beverages, do so in moderation. Most experts recommend that men should never exceed two, or women one, drink per day, consisting of 12 oz beer, 4 oz wine, or 1 oz liquor. This is not to encourage anyone to begin drinking, as alcohol consumption increases risk of high blood pressure, obesity, stroke, and liver disease, as well as accidents and even suicide.