There are loads of superfoods and special extras that can help enhance a healthy diet, but what are the basics you need in place to support your wellbeing? Let’s take a look at the main advice you need to get your wellness in order:
1. Base your meals on starchy foods: Of all the foods you eat, starchy foods – including potatoes, cereals, pasta, rice and bread – should make up roughly a third. Carbs and starch have gained a bit of an unfair reputation in the dieting world, with most of us worrying about our waistlines. However, gram for gram, starchy foods contain fewer than half the calories of fat, so try to include at least one starchy food with each main meal.
2. Eat plenty of fruits and vegetables: They say you need to eat your five-a-day, and so many of us feel good about ourselves if we approach the three or four mark. However, you need to eat AT LEAST five portions of fruit and veg every day to guard your wellness against chronic diseases. Try to get a few more portions in place by chopping a banana over your breakfast cereal, drinking a glass of 100% unsweetened fruit juice or swapping your usual mid-morning snack for some dried fruit.
3. Eat fish more often: Of your recommended two portions of fish a week, at least one portion should be oily fish. As well as containing the protein, vitamins and minerals found in all fish, oily fish is packed with omega-3 fats, which may help to prevent heart disease. Try to get a variety of oily fish in your diet – including salmon, mackerel, trout, herring, fresh tuna, sardines and pilchards – as well as a variety on non-oily fish like haddock, plaice, coley, cod, tinned tuna, skate and hake.
4. Eat saturated fat less often: While you do need some fat in your diet, the amount and type of fat you’re eating is very significant. If you consume too much saturated fat – found in foods , such as hard cheese, cakes, biscuits, sausages, cream, butter, lard and pies – you can increase your blood cholesterol level, which, in turn, raises your risk of developing heart disease. Replace saturated fats with healthier, unsaturated versions, such as vegetable oils, oily fish and avocados.
5. Eat sugar less often: While we’re on things to avoid, if you live in the UK it’s likely that you eat too much sugar – we all do! Sugary foods and drinks, including alcoholic ones, contribute to weight gain and tooth decay, so cut down on sugary fizzy drinks, alcoholic drinks, cakes, biscuits and pastries, and focus on the sugars that are found naturally in foods such as fruit and milk.
6. Eat less salt: The chances are that you eat too much salt, even if you don’t add any to your food. Eating too much salt can raise your blood pressure, which eventually increases your risk of developing heart disease or having a stroke. Cut down with the help of trusty food labels; if there’s more than 1.5g of salt per 100g, the food is high in salt and should be avoided. Anyone over the age of 11 should eat no more than 6g of salt a day. Younger children should have even less.
7. Drink lots of water: To keep from getting dehydrated, you need to drink about 1.2 litres of fluid every day. While all non-alcoholic drinks count, your best options are water, milk and fruit juices. As sugary soft and fizzy drinks are high in added sugar and calories, why would you bother?
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