HEALTH - Healthy Eating

Page Index

Introduction

Nowadays it is rarely possible to pick up a daily paper without seeing the result of some study concerning food. Usually the results tell us that the subject of the survey is bad for us, and should be avoided, or can lead to weight gain, or insomnia or any one of a dozen different things we would all rather avoid. This gets more complex when previous studies have shown the food stuff concerned to be good for us. You only have to take red wine, is it good for me as it helps my heart, or bad for me because its alcohol. You could find survey results to support both we are certain. The end result can leave you confused, and not surprisingly so. This is often due to the media reporting scientific studies before they have been fully reviewed by other scientists, and the reality is that basic nutritional advice hasn't changed for many years.

We all know that leading a healthy life style is recommended by the medical profession, with sensible drinking and no smoking, exercise, sensible eating and plenty of sleep and fresh water, but how can you steer through the mine filed which healthy eating has become.

Most parents will remember their children having eating 'fads' and we all know how hard it can be to get children to eat what is good for them and leave alone that which isn't.

What exactly is a healthy diet?

In essence a healthy diet is one which provides your body with all the nutrients it needs to function, and limits the intake of things which can do it harm. Eating a healthy diet can prevent the onset of many medical conditions, such as heart disease, and help you recover from many more, like high blood pressure or raised cholesterol.

Medical studies have shown that it is particularly important for children as it:

  • helps their bodies grow and develop
  • can prevent the onset of problems in later life

A study made by the NHS Information Centre revealed that in 2006, 16% of children aged 2 to 15 were classed as obese, which means their weight was putting their general health at risk. That figure rose to 24% in adults.

A Generally accepted definition of obese is when someone's weight is more than 20 percent higher than it should be. (A person's ideal weight must take into account their height, age, sex, and build.) Most medical professionals use your Body Mass Index (BMI) to calculate your ideal weight. We touched upon this in other sections of BEST Advice, but if you want to check you BMI and see if you are heavier than you should be you can do it on-line, but please remember that if you are super fit and have a large amount of muscle, a high BMI will not necessarily mean you are overweight.

Adult BMI calculators can be found on the following sites:

To check your children's BMI you will need to use a different calculator and you can find ones especially designed for kids at:

We have looked at cholesterol in another section of BEST Advice, but an unhealthy diet can also put you at risk of diabetes, stroke, heart disease, to name but a few.

What should a healthy diet consist of?

Nutritionalists have put food in to five main groups, so let's look at those first.

No one food group can give us all the nutrients, minerals and vitamins (more on those a little later) we need, so the most important thing is to ensure our diets are balanced.

Meat, fish, eggs and beans. (That’s pulses, not tinned!)

These foods are high in protein and as any budding biologist will tell you, proteins are made up of amino-acids which combine together in different combinations to make different proteins. Some of these amino acids (8 out of about 20 in total) are not made by our bodies, so we have to get then from eating certain foods.

Protein is necessary for building muscles and other tissues, so it is especially important for children, so experts tell us that about 15% of our daily calorie intake should come from proteins. Protein also helps the body defend itself against germs, keeping us healthy. Proteins should, ideally, form one-sixth of our diet and protein rich food also contains many of the vitamins we need as well as iron and magnesium, which we use to process our food.

Where meat is concerned, try to opt for lean cuts of red meat to reduce fat and skinless chicken, for the same reason. (While very tasty, chicken skin is very high in fat.)

Ideally we should aim to eat two portions of fish per week, one of which should be an oily fish as oily fish is very high not just in protein but also in Omega 3 oils which are good for the heart. If you opt for tinned fish remember the salt content can be high in some varieties.

The Eat Well Plate of Five Food Groups for a balanced diet

The Eatwell Plate is subject to copyright and is reproduced by kind permission of the Food Standards Agency

Fruit and Vegetables

Well, I suppose we all know that these are good for us and that, in a perfect world we should have five portions a day. In reality that needn't be as difficult as it sounds. Smoothie drinks and dried fruit are good ways to boost up the five a day, as is having some fruit with your breakfast cereal. A couple of portions of veg with either a cooked lunch or your evening meal and that the five a day sorted.

There is now mounting evidence that eating the right amount of fruit and veg can help prevent some major health problems like heart disease, strokes and some cancers.

Starchy Foods

Starchy foods should make up around one third of everything we eat. This means we should base our meals on these foods. Bread, rice, cereals, potatoes, pasta, maize and cornbread are an important part of a healthy diet, and are a good source of energy. They also contain a large source of other nutrients we need.

Where bread is concerned, wholemeal/wholegrain often contain more fibre vitamins and minerals than other types, as does brown or wholegrain rice.

(Fibre is what used to be called roughage and keeps the digestive system regular when it comes to getting rid of all the waste products.)

Milk and Dairy Products

Only a few years ago, some people really concentrated on the negative side of this food group. Yes, dairy products can be high in saturated fat, and that can raise the risk of heart disease and increased cholesterol levels.

But... Milk and Dairy foods such as cheese and yoghurt are good sources of protein. They also contain calcium, which helps to develop teeth and bones and keeps them healthy. The experts now advise us to use semi-skimmed milk, skimmed milk or 1% fat milks, lower-fat hard cheeses or cottage cheese, and lower-fat yoghurt.

I guess common sense dictates that if you do eat the ordinary types of dairy foods, don't overdo them.

Fat and Sugar

Always a tricky one this. We all know fats and sugars can be bad for us, we are always being told that, as a nation, we consume too much of them, but none the less it still forms part of our balanced diet. How can that be?

Well, in reality we need fats and sugars to help our bodies work effectively. Both of them provide the fuel our bodies need to keep us going and are great sources of energy. The problem is if we consume more of them than we use, our body try to store the rest and we gain weight. This weight gain can lead to medical conditions such as obesity and that in turn to things like Type 2 diabetes and heart problems.

The first thing to realise is there are different types of fats and different types of sugars. Sugar occurs naturally in some foods. Fruit has a particular type of sugar in it which is formed as the fruit develops. Milk also has a particular type of sugar in it as well. These sugars are the types that don't raise weight gain issues, so we don't have to worry about eating them. The danger lies in added sugars. These are often found in fizzy drinks and prepared foods and their levels can be very high. Try sweeteners in tea and coffee instead of granulated sugar. (Many people don't notice the difference at all).

Be aware of added sugars in things like micro-meals, readymade sauces and baked beans. Most manufacturers now offer reduced sugar products which are just as tasty. Obviously sugar is present in thing like cakes, biscuits and sweets, and while they shouldn't really form a major part of our daily food intake either.

Fats also come in different types. For more information of good and bad fats, have a look at the cholesterol section of Best Advice. Saturated fat found in pies, sausages, butter etc., is the one to avoid, or at least limit. Unsaturated fat contains essential fatty acids which we need to help us stay healthy. Oily fish, nuts and seeds, avocados, olive oils and vegetable oils are sources of unsaturated fat.

That's the five major groups and the eatwell plate diagram shows you how each group makes up an ideal healthy daily diet.

Vitamins & Minerals

We mentioned vitamins and minerals earlier and a properly balanced diet will ensure that we eat the right types of these in the right amounts. The problem is that some of these are water soluble which, in essence, means the body can't store them so it is important that we top up our supplies every day. Eat the wrong foods, or even too little of the right ones, and those supplies aren't delivered.

For example, if you have the right intake of dairy food and bread you will have enough Zinc, and why do we need Zinc to function? It helps break down fats and make new cells.

If we eat the right amounts of veg and meat we will have the right level of Pantothenic acid, which helps release the energy from other foods.

For more information on all the vitamins and minerals you need visit the Food Standards Agency website and click on to a database page of minerals and vitamins.

Salt

Again, something which we cannot survive without, but which can cause us untold harm (even kill us) if we have too much. Salt helps regulate water in the body for one thing, and of course brings out the taste of many foods.

Experts estimate about 75% of our salt intake is already in the food we eat, so it’s easy to understand why they also estimate many of us have too much salt in our diets. To put in perspective the recommended salt intake for an adult is 6 grammes. That is about a teaspoon full. Many people exceed that by 50 to 100% and often don't even realise it. (The amount is considerably less for children, and a lot smaller for babies. in fact, breast fed babies get all the salt they require from Mum's milk.)

Now, let’s suppose you have hamburger with cheese, large fries with a smokey BBQ dip and a banana milkshake for lunch today. How much salt does that contain? Well according to the nutritional advice page of a very famous chain of burger restaurants - 4.6 grammes.

That is a whopping 76.6% of your recommended daily intake. (Large fries & dip contain 0.9g of salt each, milkshake 0.6g, cheeseburger 2.2g - Total 4.6 grammes.)

According to the excellent website www.beyondbakedbeans.com, which is aimed at students, single people and people on a tight budget, by eating six slices of bread you’ll be consuming a third or more of your recommended daily salt intake, and amazingly some breakfast cereals contain more salt per 100g than the equivalent amount of crisps! (On average ready salted crisps contain around 0.5g of salt.)

Many manufacturers have now either cut the salt in their products or make sure they show it on the packaging, so take advantage of this and read the nutritional advice on the labels. If you are aware that a lot of the salt we eat is hidden away, it makes it easier to try and keep our intakes inside the recommended guidelines.

Try not to add salt to food before you eat it, and limit the amount you use when cooking. Always read the labels on prepared foods.

Some final tips

Finally, some tips from the Food Standards Agency to help put the balance in balanced diet:

  • Base your meals on starchy foods
  • Eat lots of fruit and veg
  • Eat more fish
  • Cut down on saturated fat and sugar
  • Try to eat less salt - no more than 6g a day
  • Get active and try to be a healthy weight
  • Drink plenty of water
  • Don’t skip breakfast

Normally we would give you a list of web sites to visit for more information, but the internet is teaming with such sites, so probably best if you just enter your specific topic into your search engine and look at the results.

One last thing, please do remember that while healthy eating is good for us and common sense... ...so is a little treat every so often!