"Balanced diet" gets used so loosely that it can mean almost anything. The World Health Organization pins it down. Its healthy diet fact sheet, updated on 26 January 2026, says any healthy diet rests on four core principles: adequacy, balance, moderation and diversity. This article goes through each one, gives the numbers WHO attaches to them, and shows where a few dates fit into a day. It is general reading, not personal dietary advice.
The four principles in WHO's words
WHO defines adequacy as meeting, without exceeding, the body's micronutrient and macronutrient needs. Balance means total energy intake matches energy expenditure, with a sensible split across protein, fats and carbohydrates. Moderation means limiting the nutrients, ingredients and foods that may be bad for health. Diversity means eating a wide variety of nutritious foods within and across food groups.
The fact sheet also says the exact make-up of a healthy diet varies with age, gender, lifestyle, physical activity, culture and the foods people can get. The principles stay the same. So a plate in Kuala Lumpur and a plate in London can look different and still follow them.
The numbers behind balance
For most people, WHO says carbohydrates should supply about 45 to 75% of total daily energy. It wants them to come mainly from whole grains, vegetables, fruits and pulses, and its examples of whole grains include oats, millet and brown rice. For adults, fat should supply at least 15% of daily energy and up to 30%. No more than 10% should come from saturated fat, and no more than 1% from trans fat.
Protein at 10 to 15% of daily energy is generally enough for adults. WHO puts that at roughly 50 to 75 grams for a person of healthy body weight eating about 2,000 calories a day. Salt should stay under 5 grams a day for adults, which is 2 grams of sodium.
Fruit, vegetables and free sugars
Everyone older than 10 should aim for at least 400 grams of fruit and vegetables a day. WHO says fresh produce is a great choice, and frozen and canned are good too, as long as they have no added sugars or excess sodium.
Free sugars should stay below 10% of daily energy. At about 2,000 calories, that is 50 g, or about 12 level teaspoons. WHO's list of free sugars covers sugars added by the manufacturer, cook or consumer, plus the sugars naturally present in honey, syrups, fruit juices and fruit juice concentrates. Whole fruit and dried fruit are not on that list. Fruit juice is, even without added sugar, and WHO says its intake should be limited.
Dates still carry a lot of sugar by weight, so the amount matters. USDA FoodData Central (SR Legacy, 2019) lists one pitted Deglet Noor date at 7.1 g. Per 100 g it gives 282 kcal, 63.4 g of sugars, 8.0 g of fibre and 656 mg of potassium. Three dates come to 21.3 g, which works out at about 60 kcal, 13.5 g of sugars and 1.7 g of fibre. The NHS counts a 30g portion of dried fruit, such as dates, as one of your 5 A Day, and says it should be eaten at mealtimes, not as a snack between meals, to reduce the impact on teeth. For trade buyers, there is also Dates Supplier.
Moderation in the kitchen
WHO prefers unsaturated fat, found in fish, avocado and nuts and in sunflower, soybean, canola and olive oils. It lists fatty meat, butter, palm and coconut oil, cream, cheese, ghee and lard as sources of saturated fat. Its practical tips are to steam or boil instead of frying, to trim visible fat from meat, and to cut down on baked and fried foods and pre-packaged snacks.
For salt, the fact sheet names soy sauce, fish sauce, bouillon and stock cubes as salt added during cooking. It suggests using less of them, keeping salt and high-sodium sauces off the table, and choosing lower-sodium products. WHO also says potassium intake can be raised by eating fresh fruit and vegetables, and gives at least 3,510 mg a day as a level that may benefit adults. On the FDC figure, three Deglet Noor dates carry about 140 mg.
Diversity across the week
WHO encourages a wide variety of nutrient-dense foods: fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts, seeds and lean animal-source foods. It gives examples such as beans or lean meats for iron, and dark-green leafy vegetables for vitamin A. Dates are a fruit, so they count toward the fruit side of that mix, not toward vegetables or pulses.
For a worked example of one day's meals built around a single nutrient, this site has a sample day of meals with calcium. There is also an article on raw meals, cooking and skin. More about this site is on the About Us page and the contact page.