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We’ve all heard the old saying “you are what you eat.” And it’s still true. If you stick to a healthy diet full of vitamins and minerals, your body reflects it. You feel healthy, energized, and just all-around great.

However, people who limit their diet to junk foods will undoubtedly suffer the consequences of not giving their bodies what they need to thrive.

The result is not only fatigue and low energy, but poor health as well. Understanding this clear connection between your health and your diet may spur you to make better dietary choices.

The major adjustment is the focus on filling half of your plate with fruits and vegetables at every meal. Women need at least seven servings of fruits and vegetables each day, while men need at least nine.

Food gives us the fuel to think and the energy to move our muscles. The micronutrients, the vitamins, the minerals are there so that our bodies can function. You need food not just to sustain health, but to feel better.

And the only way the body will get the many nutrients needed to stay healthy and function is by eating a wide variety of healthy foods. Food went from being a necessity to simply function to being the key to enabling the body to be at its functional best.

Research shows that the right nutrition optimizes health and that getting enough of certain vitamins and minerals can also lower disease risk.

Many foods have a huge impact on heart health. Research has long shown that fruits and vegetables and a diet rich in whole grains and low in saturated fats can help protect the body from heart disease and high blood pressure, while a diet high in saturated and trans fats without enough fruits and vegetables can actually cause those diseases.

Even small diet deficiencies can have an enormously negative impact on your health. The most common health problem due to a lack of nutrients in the United States is iron deficiency.

Menstruating women and girls need plenty of iron in their diets to replace what they lose each month during their periods. Iron is also an essential nutrient for infants, children, and growing teens.

Eating a well-rounded and varied diet will go a long way toward making sure you have all the nutrients you need.

Remember that our body uses everything we put into it, and what we give it determines how it’s used — for good health, or for bad.