Healthy eating

Eating a varied and balanced diet is important for anyone. It helps to make eating more enjoyable and will help you to stay healthy and active.

If you want to eat a healthy diet, these practical tips can help you make healthier choices, whether you're planning a meal, or picking up a snack.. It's important to eat the right amount of food for how active you are, and to eat a range of foods to make sure you're getting a balanced diet. A healthy balanced diet contains a variety of types of food, including lots of fruit, vegetables and starchy foods such as wholemeal bread and wholegrain cereals; some protein-rich foods such as meat, fish, eggs and lentils; and some milk and dairy foods.

For more information the Food Standards Agency's consumer advice and information website eatwell gives reliable and practical advice about healthy eating, understanding food labels and how what we eat can affect our health.

Visit the eatwell website

 

If you want to get the balance of your diet right, then the eatwell plate makes healthy eating easier to understand by showing the types and proportions of foods we need to have a healthy and well balanced diet. Eating the right foods is only half the story when it comes to a healthy diet, the other half is eating the right amount.

Look at the eatwell plate

Top tips for healthy eating

1. Base your meals on starchy foods

Starchy foods such as bread, cereals, rice, pasta and potatoes are a really important part of a healthy diet. Try to choose wholegrain varieties of starchy foods whenever you can.

Starchy foods should make up about a third of the food we eat. They are a good source of energy and the main source of a range of nutrients in our diet. As well as starch, these foods contain fibre, calcium, iron and B vitamins.

Most of us should eat more starchy foods - try to include at least one starchy food with each of your main meals. So you could start the day with a wholegrain breakfast cereal, have a sandwich for lunch, and potatoes, pasta or rice with your evening meal.

2. Eat lots of fruit and veg

Most people know we should be eating more fruit and veg. But most of us still aren't eating enough. Try to eat at least five portions of a variety of fruit and veg every day. It might be easier than you think. For example, you could have:

• A glass of juice and a sliced banana with your cereal at breakfast
• A side salad at lunch
• A pear as an afternoon snack
• A portion of peas or other vegetables with your evening meal.

You can choose from fresh, frozen, tinned, dried or juiced, but remember potatoes count as a starchy food, not as portions of fruit and veg.

3. Eat more fish

Most of us should be eating more fish - including a portion of oily fish each week. It's an excellent source of protein and contains many vitamins and minerals.

Aim for at least two portions of fish a week, including a portion of oily fish such as salmon, mackerel, trout, herring, fresh tuna or sardines. You can choose from fresh, frozen or canned - but remember that canned and smoked fish can be high in salt.

4. Cut down on saturated fat and sugar

Fats - To stay healthy we need some fat in our diets. What is important is the kind of fat we are eating. There are two main types of fat:

• Saturated fat - having too much can increase the amount of cholesterol in the blood, which increases the chance of developing heart disease
• Unsaturated fat - having unsaturated fat instead of saturated fat lowers blood cholesterol.

Try to cut down on food that is high in saturated fat such as meat pies, sausages, hard cheese, butter, pastry, cakes and biscuits. Instead have foods that are rich in unsaturated fat instead, such as vegetable oils (including sunflower, rapeseed and olive oil), oily fish, avocados, nuts and seeds.

Sugar - Most people in the UK are eating too much sugar. We should all be trying to eat fewer foods containing added sugar, such as sweets, cakes and biscuits, and drinking fewer sugary soft and fizzy drinks.

Having sugary foods and drinks too often can cause tooth decay, especially if you have them between meals. Many foods that contain added sugar can also be high in calories so cutting down could help you control your weight. When you check the food labels watch out for other words used to describe added sugars, such as sucrose, glucose, fructose, maltose, hydrolysed starch and invert sugar, corn syrup and honey.

5. Try to eat less salt - no more than 6g a day

Lots of people think they don't eat much salt, especially if they don't add it to their food. But don't be so sure! Three-quarters of the salt we eat is already in the food we buy, such as breakfast cereals, soups, sauces and ready meals. So you could easily be eating too much salt without realising it.

Eating too much salt can raise your blood pressure. And people with high blood pressure are three times more likely to develop heart disease or have a stroke than people with normal blood pressure.

6. Get active and try to be a healthy weight

It's not a good idea to be either underweight or overweight. Being overweight can lead to health conditions such as heart disease, high blood pressure or diabetes. Being underweight could also affect your health. Whenever we eat more than our body needs, we put on weight. This is because we store any energy we don't use up - usually as fat.

If you're worried about your weight, ask your GP for advice. But if you think you just need to lose a little weight, the main things to remember are:

• Only eat as much food as you need
• Make healthy choices - choose low-fat and low-sugar varieties, eat plenty of fruit and veg and wholegrains
• Get more active to use up extra calories.

7. Drink plenty of water

We should be drinking about 6 to 8 glasses of water, or other fluids, every day to stop us getting dehydrated. When the weather is warm or when we get active, our bodies need more than this. But avoid drinking soft and fizzy drinks that are high in added sugar.

Alcohol - There is nothing wrong with the occasional drink. But drinking too much can cause problems. Alcohol is also high in calories, so cutting down could help you control your weight. For good health, it's a good idea to spread your drinking throughout the week and avoid binge drinking. Drinking heavily over a long period of time can damage the liver.

8. Don't skip breakfast

Breakfast can help give us the energy we need to face the day, as well as some of the vitamins and minerals we need for good health. Some people skip breakfast because they think it will help them lose weight. But missing meals doesn't help us lose weight and it isn't good for us, because we can miss out on essential nutrients. There is some evidence to suggest that eating breakfast can actually help people control their weight.

9. Watch your portion size

When it comes to getting a balanced diet, it's not easy understanding what a healthy portion looks like, after all it depends on what food you're eating for example, a cup of pasta a day is a recommended daily portion, but not a cup of butter! It may seem time consuming to begin with but one trick is to watch what you're eating throughout the day. Read food labels to check the serving size and nutritional value of each serving and if you've got time, use a food weighing scales to weigh out your portion size.

Top tips for portion control