What is a Healthy Balanced Diet. By Dietitian, Juliette Kellow BSc RDA healthy diet doesn't mean surviving solely on bird seed, rabbit food and carrot juice! The new approach to eating healthily means we’re positively encouraged to eat a wide range of foods, including some of our favourites – it’s just a question of making sure we get the balance right. As no single food provides all the calories and nutrients we need to stay healthy, it’s important to eat a variety of foods to make a balanced diet. Meanwhile, most nutrition experts also agree that mealtimes should be a pleasure rather than a penance. This means it’s fine to eat small amounts of our favourite foods from time to time. A balanced diet means eating plenty of different foods from four main groups of foods and limiting the amount we eat from a smaller fifth group. Ultimately, it’s as simple as eating more fruit, veg, starchy, fibre- rich foods and fresh products, and fewer fatty, sugary, salty and processed foods. The following guidelines for a healthy, balanced diet are all based on guidelines recommended by the Food Standards Agency. Bread, Other Cereals and Potatoes. Eat these foods at each meal. They also make good snacks. Foods in this group include bread, breakfast cereals, potatoes, rice, pasta, noodles, yams, oats and grains. Go for high- fibre varieties where available, such as wholegrain cereals, wholemeal bread and brown rice. A balanced diet means getting the right types and amounts of foods and drinks to supply nutrition and energy for maintaining body cells, tissues, and organs, and for. These foods provide carbs, fibre, B vitamins and small amounts of calcium and iron. They should fill roughly a third of your plate at mealtimes. Typical serving sizes: 2 slices bread in a sandwich or with a meala tennis ball sized serving of pasta, potato, rice, noodles or couscousa bowl of porridgea handful of breakfast cereal. Top tips for slimmers: Carb- rich foods might have received a bad press in recent years, but they’re not as . It’s what we add to carbs that pushes up their calorie content, for example, adding butter to bread, frying potatoes to make chips or serving pasta with a creamy sauce. For example, 1 slice of wholemeal bread contains around 7. Add 1. 0g of butter to that slice of bread and it provides 1. Fruit and Vegetables. Eat five different servings every day. Foods in this group include all fruits and vegetables, including fresh, frozen, canned and dried products, and unsweetened fruit juice. Choose canned fruit in juice rather than syrup and go for veg canned in water without added salt or sugar. These foods provide fibre and a range of vitamins and minerals. They should fill roughly a third of your plate at mealtimes. Typical serving sizes: a piece of fruit eg apple, banana, pear. Top tips for slimmers: Fruit and veg are low in calories and fat but high in fibre. This makes them particularly good foods for helping to fill you up. Adding plenty of veg or salad to meals can also help it to look like you still have a full plate of food and aren’t depriving yourself. Milk and Dairy Foods. Eat two or three servings a day. Foods in this group include milk, cheese, yogurt and fromage frais. Choose low- fat varieties where available such as semi- skimmed milk, reduced- fat cheese and fat- free yoghurt. These foods contain protein, calcium and a range of vitamins and minerals. They should fill no more than a sixth of your plate at mealtimes. Typical serving sizes: 2. Top tips for slimmers: These foods are packed with calcium, a mineral that helps to keep bones and teeth strong and healthy. Raw Meat: The Completely Healthy 'Pet' Diet Your Vet Probably Vilifies. Eating a healthy, balanced diet is an important part of maintaining good health, and can help you feel your best. This means eating a wide variety of foods in the. The Eatwell guide shows what kind of foods you should eat, and in what proportions, to have a healthy and balanced diet and more sustainable food. Healthy Eating Simple Ways to Plan, Enjoy, and Stick to a Healthy Diet. Healthy eating is not about strict dietary limitations, staying unrealistically thin, or. Heart-healthy diet Description. An in-depth report on how to build the best diet for your heart's health. Alternative Names. Diet - heart health. Highlights. However, research also shows that the calcium found in low- fat dairy products helps the body to burn fat, especially from around our midriff. Meat, Fish and Alternatives. Eat two servings a day. Foods in this group include meat, poultry, fish, eggs, beans, nuts and seeds. Choose low- fat varieties where available such as extra- lean minced beef and skinless chicken and don’t add extra fat or salt. These foods provide protein and a range of vitamins and minerals, especially iron. They should fill no more than a sixth of your plate at mealtimes. Typical serving sizes: a piece of meat, chicken or fish the size of a deck of cards. Top tips for slimmers: Avoid adding extra fat to these foods when you cook or serve them. For meat, fish and chicken, try grilling, baking or dry roasting rather than frying and boil, scramble or poach eggs. Fatty and Sugary Foods. Eat only small amounts of these foods. Foods in this group include oils, spreading fats, cream, mayonnaise, oily salad dressings, cakes, biscuits, puddings, crisps, savoury snacks, sugar, preserves, confectionery and sugary soft drinks. These foods contain fat, sugar and salt and should only be eaten occasionally. Typical serving sizes: a small packet of sweets or a small bar of chocolatea small slice of cakea couple of small biscuits. Top tips for slimmers: These foods tend to be packed with calories so your waistline will benefit from eating less. You don’t need to avoid these foods completely – just limit the amount you eat. How to Make Your Plate a Slimming Plate. It’s really easy. Stick to the same proportions of the different foods on your plate but choose lower- calorie foods from each section. If you want to be really strict, you could also replace any fatty and sugary foods on your plate for extra fruit and veggies. Are there any other tips to help me eat healthily? As well as aiming to fill your plate with foods from the four main food groups – and not eating too many foods from the smaller fifth group – health experts recommend we all do the following: Eat more fish. The Food Standards Agency recommends we all eat two portions of fish each week, one of which should be oil- rich such as salmon, trout, mackerel, sardines, pilchards or fresh tuna. All fish is a good source of protein and many different vitamins and minerals. Plus, oil- rich fish are also a good source of omega- 3 fats, which help to keep our heart healthy. In particular, omega- 3 fats make the blood less sticky and so can help to prevent blood clots. They also keep the heart beating rhythmically and lower levels of triglycerides, a type of fat that’s found in the blood, high level of which are linked to heart disease and diabetes. Eat fewer saturated fats and trans fats. As well as cutting down on the total amount of fat that we eat, it’s also important to make sure we’re eating the right sorts of fats. Foods that are rich in saturates or trans fat increase the amount of cholesterol in blood, which in turn, increases our risk of heart disease. In contrast, polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats help lower blood cholesterol levels and so reduce the risk of heart disease. Foods that are rich in saturates include fatty meat and meat products, butter, lard, cream, pastry, biscuits and full- fat dairy products. Many processed and fried foods such as pies, takeaways and cakes also contain trans fats. These fats tend to be found in products that use hydrogenated vegetable fats or oils as an ingredient. In contrast, unsaturated fats are found in foods like pure vegetable oils such as sunflower, rapeseed and olive oil, oily fish, avocados, nuts and seeds. Many manufacturers are now using a . Red indicates the product is high in fat or saturates, amber indicates the product contains moderate amounts and green means it has a low content. If this system isn’t used, the Food Standards Agency says products with 2. Products with 3g fat or less per 1. Watch out for hidden sugars. Many sugary products such as sweets, cakes, biscuits and soft or fizzy drinks contain few nutrients but are high in calories. As a result they are sometimes described as providing . If you’re not sure whether a product contains a lot of sugar, check the label. Start by looking at the ingredients list. The higher up sugar appears in the ingredients, the more the product contains. Look out for ingredients like sucrose, glucose, fructose, maltose, invert sugar, corn syrup and honey, too – they’re all types of sugar. Looking at the values for sugars in the nutrition information panel on food packaging can be a little misleading as the figure includes both added sugars and naturally occurring sugars. This means fresh fruit may be labelled as having a medium or high sugar content. However, this is due to naturally occurring fruit sugars. That’s why it’s also important to look at the ingredients list. As a guideline, the Food Standards Agency says that 1. Have no more than 6g of salt a day. Too much salt increases the risk of high blood pressure, which in turn is a risk factor for heart disease and stroke. While most of us no longer add salt to cooking or meals, around three quarters of the salt in our diet comes from processed foods such as some breakfast cereals, soups, sauces, bread, savoury snacks, pies, pizza, takeaways and ready meals. As a result, it’s important to eat fewer of these foods and to opt for those that contain the least salt. Identifying the salt content of foods can be difficult as many food labels only state the sodium content. To calculate the salt content, multiply the sodium value by 2. As a simple guideline, the Food Standards Agency suggests that foods with 1. Those containing 0. Meanwhile, products claiming to be . As well as helping the body to get rid of waste products and toxins in the urine, water transports nutrients and oxygen around the body in the blood, it acts as a lubricant for our joints and eyes, it helps us swallow, it cushions and protects our nerves and it helps control our body temperature. Research also shows that drinking plenty of water and staying hydrated can do everything from helping with weight control and beating tiredness to boosting concentration and fighting wrinkles. Water is also one of the best choices for keeping teeth healthy and free from decay. Stick to sensible limits for alcohol. Health experts recommend women drink no more than 2- 3 units of alcohol a day and men no more than 3- 4 units daily, where one unit equals half a pint of standard strength beer, lager or cider, or a single measure of spirits. A glass of wine is about 2 units and a bottle of alcopop about 1.
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