Publication
The little book of white lies
| Contents: | Scotland's getting bigger...and it's affecting health and enjoyment of life more than ever. The diet starts tomorrow I don't have the time to exercise How foods can help you to maintain a healthy life - Balancing your diet Read your labels! How much is a lot? Maybe just one more? BMI Alchohol And Your Weight Keeping Track Further Information |
How foods can help you to maintain a healthy life - Balancing your diet
EATING FOR HEALTH
A healthy diet:
• is one you enjoy
• boosts your energy
• protects your body against infection and disease
• provides your body with the right foods to work efficiently.
Eating in a way that helps you manage your weight - to get it lower, and then to keep it at that level - doesn’t mean eating anything special, odd or unfamiliar to you.
It doesn’t mean eating ‘slimming foods’.
In fact, it just means choosing a balance of foods - a balance that’s been shown to reduce your risk of a range of health problems, to allow you to enjoy a longer, healthier life.
• Protect yourself by cutting down on fats, especially saturated fats (found mainly in animal products), e.g. full fat dairy products and the white fat on meat.
Diets high in fat can lead to hardened, narrowed arteries. When the heart has to work harder to get the blood round the body because of this, you’re at risk of high blood pressure, coronary heart disease and stroke.
• Protect yourself by eating more fruit and vegetables.
Fruit and vegetables are high in antioxidant vitamins, which help maintain the immune system, so you stay healthy.
Fruit and vegetables are comparatively low in calories - you can eat large amounts, without worrying about their effect on your weight. So increasing your intake helps you maintain a healthy weight, too.
• Protect yourself by ensuring your diet is high in fibre - found in the cell walls of fruit, vegetables, and grains, and present in ‘wholegrain’ versions of bread, pasta and rice.
Fibre helps your digestive system work well, and eating foods with it in means you are more likely to avoid constipation and piles. Fibre fills you up - it actually swells in the stomach, and allows you to feel fuller, sooner, so it can help you to avoid overeating.
Make sure you drink plenty of fluids throughout the day as well. Aim for 8-10 mugfuls of fluids in total each day. Choose from drinks such as water, sugar-free diluting juice, diluted natural fruit juice, semi-skimmed/skimmed milk, weak tea.
Aim to make changes to your diet, so it looks more like this.
The Eating for Health plate shows the best proportions of the different food groups;
keeping your own diet in roughly similar proportion will give the healthiest diet, according to good research.
The food groups and what’s in a measure.
Fruit and Vegetables - fresh, frozen or canned; pure juices and dried fruits.
A measure is:
• 1 small glass fruit juice
• 2 tablespoons of vegetables
• 1 piece of fresh fruit
• small handful of fruits such as grapes or strawberries
• small bowl of salad.
How much? 5-9 measures a day.
Bread, Cereals and Potatoes - crackers, noodles, oats, chapattis, pasta and rice also come into this group.
A measure is:
• 1 slice of bread
• 5 tablespoons of breakfast cereal
• 2 tablespoons of cooked rice, pasta or noodles
• 2 egg-sized potatoes.
How much?
5-14 measures a day.
Milk and Dairy Foods - low-fat types are better, so go for semi-skimmed or skimmed milk, and lower fat cheeses like gouda or edam, and cottage cheese.
A measure is:
• 200 ml (one-third of a pint) of semi-skimmed/skimmed milk
• 30g (1 ounce) of cheese
• 1 small pot of yogurt
• 120g (4 ounces) cottage cheese.
How much?
2-3 measures a day.
Lean Meat, Poultry, Fish and Alternatives
- try to have fish two or three times a week, including oil-rich fish such as mackerel or salmon. ‘Alternatives’ are pulses, nuts, seeds and soya products.
A measure is:
• 60-90g (2-3 ounces) meat, poultry or oily fish
• small can of beans
• 240g (8 ounces) cooked pulses
• 120g (4 ounces) fish
• 1 egg (not fried).
How much?
2-3 measures a day
Fatty and Sugary Foods - use all these in small quantities. This group includes margarine and butter, cooking oils and sugar, so it means fewer fried foods, crisps, biscuits and high-fat, high-sugar snacks.
How much?
Cut back; you don’t actually need any of these.
Research looking at what Scottish people eat indicates that for many of us, too many of our calories come from the fatty and sugary food group. We don’t eat enough starchy foods, fruits and vegetables, and we don’t drink enough water.
1 ounce = 28g. Measures have been rounded for ease of use..