Eating a healthy, balanced diet is an important
part of maintaining good health, and can help
you feel your best. It doesn't have to be difficult
either. Just follow these eight diet tips to get
started.
The key to a healthy diet is to do the following:
Eat the right number of calories for how active
you are, so that you balance the energy you
consume with the energy you use. If you eat or
drink too much, you’ll put on weight. If you eat
and drink too little, you’ll lose weight. The
average man needs around 2,500 calories a
day (10,500 kilojoules). The average woman
needs 2,000 calories (8,400 kilojoules). Most
adults are eating more calories than they need,
and should eat fewer calories.
Eat a wide range of foods to ensure that you’re
getting a balanced diet and that your body is
receiving all the nutrients it needs.
These practical tips cover the basics of healthy
eating, and can help you make healthier choices:
Base your meals on starchy foods:
Starchy foods should make up around one third of
the foods you eat. Starchy foods include potatoes,
cereals, pasta, rice and bread. Choose wholegrain
varieties.
Most of us should eat more starchy foods: try to
include at least one starchy food with each main
meal. Some people think starchy foods are
fattening, but gram for gram they contain fewer
than half the calories of fat.
Eat lots of fruit and vegetable.
It’s recommended that we eat at least five
portions of different types of fruit and vegetable a day.
It’s easier than it sounds. A glass of 100%
unsweetened fruit juice can count as one portion,
and vegetables cooked into dishes also count.
Why not chop a banana over your breakfast
cereal, or swap your usual mid-morning snack for
some dried fruit?
Eat more fish:
Fish is a good source of protein and contains
many vitamins and minerals. Aim to eat at least
two portions a week, including at least one
portion of oily fish. Oily fish is high in omega-3
fats, which may help to prevent heart disease.
You can choose from fresh, frozen and canned:
but remember that canned and smoked fish can
be high in salt.
Oily fish include salmon, mackerel, trout, herring,
fresh tuna, sardines and pilchards. Non-oily fish
include haddock, plaice, coley, cod, tinned tuna,
skate and hake. Anyone who regularly eats a lot
of fish should try to choose as wide a variety as
possible.
Cut down on saturated fat and sugar:
We all need some fat in our diet. But it’s
important to pay attention to the amount and
type of fat we’re eating. There are two main types
of fat: saturated and unsaturated. Too much
saturated fat can increase the amount of
cholesterol in the blood, which increases your risk
of developing heart disease.
Saturated fat is found in many foods, such as
hard cheese, cakes, biscuits, sausages, cream,
butter, lard and pies. Try to cut down, and
choose foods that contain unsaturated rather
than saturated fats, such as vegetable oils, oily
fish and avocados.
For a healthier choice, use a just a small amount
of vegetable oil or reduced-fat spread instead of
butter, lard or ghee. When you're having meat,
choose lean cuts and cut off any visible fat.
Most people eat and drink too much
sugar. Sugary foods and drinks, including
alcoholic drinks, are often high in energy
(measured in kilojoules or calories), and could
contribute to weight gain. No surprise we have men with protruding bellies all over the country. And the funny part of it is that they still want to loss weight when their habit of too much alcohol drinking can't be stopped. Also eating a lot of sugar can cause
tooth decay, especially if eaten between meals.
Cut down on sugary fizzy drinks, alcoholic drinks,
cakes, biscuits and pastries, which contain added
sugars: this is the kind of sugar we should be
cutting down on rather than sugars that are found
naturally in foods such as fruit and milk.
Food labels can help: use them to check how
much sugar foods contain. More than 22.5g of
sugar per 100g means that the food is high in
sugar. Learn more in Sugars and Understanding
food labels.
Eat less salt
Even if you don’t add salt to your food, you may
still be eating too much. About three-quarters of
the salt we eat is already in the food we buy,
such as breakfast cereals, soups, breads and
sauces. Eating too much salt can raise your blood
pressure. People with high blood pressure are
more likely to develop heart disease or have a
stroke.
Use food labels to help you cut down. More than
1.5g of salt per 100g means the food is high in
salt. Adults and children over 11 should eat no
more than 6g of salt a day. Younger children
should have even less. Learn more in Salt: the
facts.
Get active and be a healthy weight:
Eating a healthy, balanced diet plays an essential
role in maintaining a healthy weight, which is an
important part of overall good health. Being
overweight or obese can lead to health conditions
such as type 2 diabetes, certain cancers, heart
disease and stroke. Being underweight could also
affect your health.
Most adults need to lose weight, and need to eat
fewer calories in order to do this. If you're trying
to lose weight, aim to eat less and be more
active. Eating a healthy, balanced diet will help:
aim to cut down on foods that are high in fat and
sugar, and eat plenty of fruit and vegetables.
Don't forget that alcohol is also high in calories,
so cutting down can help you to control your
weight.
Physical activity can help you to maintain weight
loss or be a healthy weight. Being active doesn’t
have to mean hours at the gym: you can find
ways to fit more activity into your daily life. For
example, try getting off the bus or taxi some distance away to your house on
the way home from work, and you can decide walking. Being
physically active may help reduce the risk of heart disease.
Don't get thirsty:
We need to drink about 1.2 liters of fluid every
day to stop us getting dehydrated. This is in
addition to the fluid we get from the food we eat.
All non-alcoholic drinks count, but water, milk
and fruit juices are the most healthy. Try to avoid
sugary soft and fizzy drinks that are high in
added sugars and can be high in calories and bad
for teeth. When the weather is warm, or when we
get active, we may need more.
Don’t skip breakfast:
Some people skip breakfast because they think it
will help them lose weight. Some even skip it due to work stress or in order to meet up in the morning, be it at the office, market or anywhere. In fact, research
shows that eating breakfast can help people
control their weight. A healthy breakfast is an
important part of a balanced diet, and provides
some of the vitamins and minerals we need for
good health. Whole meal cereal, with fruit sliced
over the top is a tasty and nutritious breakfast.
