Campaign focuses on healthy choices for National Nutrition Month

WACO, TX — March is National Nutrition Month.

It was created by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. The campaign focuses attention on the importance of making informed food choices and developing good eating habits.

Some tips the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics are:

• Eat breakfast-- Start your morning with a healthy breakfast that includes lean protein, whole grains, fruits and vegetables.
• Make Half Your Plate Fruits and Vegetables. They add color, flavor and texture plus vitamins, minerals and fiber to your plate.
• Watch Portion Sizes-- get out the measuring cups and see how close your portions are to the recommended serving size.

Even if you follow the tips there really is no perfect way to eat.

According to Regina Mastin, a registered and licensed dietitian at Baylor University, it's about having at least three of the five main food groups in each meal. The five main food groups are fruit, vegetables, protein, grains and dairy.

"Your body needs to eat about every three to four hours, your body uses that food constantly throughout the day," Mastin said.

Working with students, she sees that they do not know what to buy when they visit the grocery store and they end up going for things that are easy.

"College students have a transitional time where they need to make their own meals and a lot of times they're just busy," said Mastin.

According to the surgeon general, people should get at least 30 minutes of activity a day. They say you can't just make healthy food choices to live a nutritious lifestyle. Working out plays a big part in staying healthy.

"It's really about where you are right now. If you have not been working out, uh for a while, maybe five minutes is all you need," said Van Davis, the Director of Wellness at Baylor.

She has taught fitness classes at Baylor for the past 20 years. According to Davis, when students work out regularly it reflects their work.

"Students with 3.5 GPA or higher are three times more likely to workout than students who have lower GPA," Davis said.

More benefits like being able to sleep better at night and being more awake and lively have also been proven from working out.

Although eating healthy and working out depend on each other, you can't do one and not the other.

"Some people take better care of their car than their actual life vehicle," Davis said.

It may be daunting to start eating healthy and work out, but Davis and Mastin both have tips to get you started.

"Write it [working out] down on your calendar when it's on your schedule its hard to say no I'll do it tomorrow," Davis said.

"Most focus on how can we take things out of our diet so it can be healthier but I'm sort of the school of what can we add to your diet to make it better, what colors can we add, " Mastin said.

For more information, about eating healthier visit this USDA website .