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Healthy eating
What is healthy eating?
Healthy eating is about getting the balance right, having enough fruit and vegetables, protein, fibre and starchy foods whilst not too much fat, sugar and salt.
How much should we eat?
A balanced diet is best shown by the five main food groups, which is based on the Food Standards Agencies ‘Balance of Good Health’ chart. When reading about the different food groups, it is clear why we should have a combination of the food groups to help us have a healthy, balanced diet.
Fruit and vegetables give us with fibre, vitamins and minerals and to get the best possible health benefits from them, The Department of Health recommends that we should eat at least 5 portions per day. Retailers are now labelling fruit and vegetables with the Department of Health’s ‘5 a Day logo’ which gives a quick and easy guide to how many pieces of fruit or vegetables are included in certain products.
Improving our fruit and vegetables consumption is one of the best ways of maintaining a healthy diet and may help reduce the risk of some cancers and heart disease as part of a balanced diet.
Here are some good examples to help you understand what counts as a ‘portion’ of fruit or vegetables:
1 glass of fruit juice (150ml)
1 orange/apple/banana
2 small fruits – kiwis, Satsuma’s, plums etc.
1 handful of grapes
1 tablespoon of dried fruit
3 tablespoons of vegetables
3 tablespoons of fruit salad
1 small bowl of salad
Bread, cereals and potatoes should also make up a important part of the diet as they provide energy as well as fibre and some vitamins and minerals.
Meat, fish and alternatives are also very important, providing us with some vitamins, minerals and protein, but they should make up a smaller part of the diet.
Milk and dairy foods contain protein, some vitamins and calcium which is important for strong bones and teeth. These also should make up a smaller part of the diet.
Fatty and sugary foods should be kept to a minimum level in the diet, as they provide calories but not much nutrients.
The amounts of fat and sugar are printed the nutrition panels of food packaging. Low fat products contain no more than 3g of fat per 100g of food and low sugar products contain no more than 5g of sugar per 100g.
Salt
Why should salt intake be reduced in our diets?
Whilst we need salt in our diets, too much salt has been shown to be linked to health problems such as high blood pressure, which can lead to heart disease and strokes.
What is the healthy recommended daily intake?
The Food Standards Agency report that we are currently consuming an average of 9.5g of salt (3.8g sodium) per day. Government guidelines have recommended that the salt intake for adults should be cut to less than 6g of salt (2.5g sodium) per day. Salt intake for babies and children varies according to age.
How can we reduce salt in our diet?
Salt naturally occurs in lots of foods; however most of the salt in our diets comes from added salt when cooking or at the dinner table and in processed food. A decreased salt intake can be gained by reducing the amount of salt added to foods, checking the labels on processed foods and eating a healthy balanced diet.
Business
Many retailers & production companies recognise that they have a public as well as a legal responsibility to provide accurate and informative information, based on product ingredients. And as such people have the option to be more informed about what they eat, which leads to a healthy society.
Author D wall
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