Maintaining a healthy diet is fundamental to overall well-being, and it revolves around eating Food Properly. The cornerstone of a nutritious diet is consuming the appropriate amount of calories relative to your activity level, ensuring a balance between energy intake and expenditure.
When you consume more calories than your body utilizes, the surplus energy is stored as fat, leading to weight gain. Conversely, insufficient calorie intake results in weight loss. Furthermore, dietary diversity is crucial for obtaining a balanced diet and ensuring your body receives all the necessary nutrients for optimal function. It’s generally recommended that men consume approximately 2,500 calories daily, while women should aim for around 2,000 calories. Notably, a significant portion of adults in English-speaking countries often exceed their daily calorie needs, highlighting the importance of mindful eating habits and food properly.
1. Build Your Meals Around High-Fiber Starchy Carbohydrates
Starchy carbohydrates should constitute slightly over a third of your daily food intake. This food group encompasses potatoes, bread, rice, pasta, and cereals. Opting for higher fiber or wholegrain varieties, such as wholewheat pasta, brown rice, or potatoes with their skins, is highly beneficial.
These options are richer in fiber compared to their white or refined counterparts, contributing to prolonged feelings of fullness and supporting healthy digestion. Aim to incorporate at least one starchy food source into each main meal to ensure you’re eating food properly and getting sustained energy. While some perceive starchy foods as fattening, it’s important to note that, gram for gram, carbohydrates provide less than half the calories of fat. The caloric content often increases due to added fats during cooking or serving, such as oil on fries, butter on bread, or creamy pasta sauces. Therefore, being mindful of these additions is key to eating food properly and managing calorie intake.
2. Increase Your Intake of Fruits and Vegetables
A daily intake of at least 5 portions of diverse fruits and vegetables is highly recommended for optimal health. These can be fresh, frozen, canned, dried, or juiced, offering versatility in how you incorporate them into your diet and ensuring you eat food properly.
Reaching your “5 A Day” is simpler than it may seem. Consider adding a banana to your breakfast cereal or substituting your usual mid-morning snack with a piece of fresh fruit. A portion of fresh, canned, or frozen fruit and vegetables is defined as 80g. For dried fruit, which is best consumed during mealtimes, a portion is 30g. A 150ml glass of fruit juice, vegetable juice, or smoothie can also count as one portion, but it’s advisable to limit consumption to no more than one glass per day due to their sugar content, which can be detrimental to dental health. Prioritizing whole fruits and vegetables over juices is a better approach to eating food properly and maximizing nutritional benefits.
3. Consume More Fish, Including Oily Fish Regularly
Fish is an excellent source of protein and a wealth of essential vitamins and minerals, making it a vital component of eating food properly.
Aim to include at least two portions of fish in your diet each week, with one portion being oily fish. Oily fish are rich in omega-3 fatty acids, which are known to contribute to heart health. Examples of oily fish include salmon, trout, herring, sardines, pilchards, and mackerel. Non-oily fish options include haddock, plaice, coley, cod, tuna, skate, and hake. You can choose from fresh, frozen, or canned fish. However, be mindful that canned and smoked fish can be high in salt content. While increasing fish consumption is generally recommended, it’s worth noting that there are recommended consumption limits for certain types of fish, particularly for specific populations. Consulting dietary guidelines can help ensure you are eating food properly and safely when it comes to fish intake.
4. Reduce Your Intake of Saturated Fat and Sugar
While some fat is necessary in your diet, it’s crucial to be mindful of the amount and type of fat you consume. There are two primary types of fat: saturated and unsaturated. Excessive saturated fat intake can elevate blood cholesterol levels, increasing the risk of heart disease.
Saturated Fat
On average, men should limit their saturated fat intake to 30g per day, and women to 20g per day. Children under 11 should consume even less saturated fat than adults, although a very low-fat diet is not suitable for children under 5 years of age. Full-fat dairy products like cheese, fromage frais, and yogurt are recommended for children up to 2 years old.
Saturated fat is prevalent in foods such as fatty cuts of meat, sausages, butter, hard cheese, cream, cakes, biscuits, lard, and pies. To eat food properly and reduce saturated fat intake, opt for leaner cuts of meat, trim visible fat, and choose unsaturated fats like vegetable oils, olive oil, oily fish, and avocados. When cooking, use small amounts of vegetable or olive oil or reduced-fat spreads instead of butter, lard, or ghee. Remember that all types of fat are high in calories, so moderation is key to eating food properly and managing weight.
Sugar
Regular consumption of foods and drinks high in sugar significantly increases the risk of obesity and tooth decay. Sugary items are often high in calories and can contribute to weight gain if consumed excessively. They also promote tooth decay, especially when eaten between meals.
Free sugars, which are added sugars in foods and drinks or sugars naturally present in honey, syrups, and unsweetened fruit juices and smoothies, are the type of sugar you should limit. This is different from the sugars found naturally in fruits and milk. Many packaged foods and drinks contain surprisingly high amounts of free sugars. Free sugars are found in sugary fizzy drinks, sugary breakfast cereals, cakes, biscuits, pastries, puddings, sweets, chocolate, and alcoholic beverages. Utilize food labels to check sugar content. More than 22.5g of total sugars per 100g indicates high sugar content, while 5g or less per 100g is considered low. Being mindful of sugar content and opting for lower sugar alternatives is crucial for eating food properly and maintaining good health.
5. Limit Salt Intake: No More Than 6g Daily for Adults
Excessive salt consumption can elevate blood pressure, increasing the risk of heart disease and stroke. Even if you don’t add salt to your meals, you might still be consuming too much as approximately three-quarters of the salt we eat is already present in processed foods like breakfast cereals, soups, breads, and sauces.
Utilize food labels to monitor salt intake. More than 1.5g of salt per 100g indicates high salt content. Adults and children over 11 years should consume no more than 6g of salt (about a teaspoonful) daily. Younger children require even less. Choosing low-sodium options and being mindful of salt content in processed foods are important steps in eating food properly and supporting healthy blood pressure levels.
6. Be Physically Active and Maintain a Healthy Weight
Alongside healthy eating, regular physical activity significantly reduces the risk of serious health conditions and is crucial for overall well-being.
Being overweight or obese can lead to conditions like type 2 diabetes, certain cancers, heart disease, and stroke. Conversely, being underweight can also negatively impact health. Most adults needing to lose weight should focus on reducing calorie intake and increasing physical activity. A healthy, balanced diet supports maintaining a healthy weight. You can check if you are at a healthy weight using BMI calculators. If you are aiming to lose weight, a structured weight loss plan combining healthy eating and physical activity can be beneficial. If you are underweight or have concerns about your weight, seeking advice from a healthcare professional is recommended to ensure you are eating food properly and maintaining a healthy weight.
7. Stay Hydrated and Avoid Thirst
Adequate fluid intake is essential to prevent dehydration. It is recommended to drink 6 to 8 glasses of fluids daily, in addition to the fluid obtained from food.
All non-alcoholic drinks count towards fluid intake, but water, lower-fat milk, and lower-sugar drinks like tea and coffee are healthier choices. Avoid sugary soft and fizzy drinks as they are high in calories and detrimental to teeth. Even unsweetened fruit juice and smoothies are high in free sugar. Limit your combined intake of fruit juice, vegetable juice, and smoothies to a maximum of 150ml per day. Remember to increase fluid intake during hot weather or when exercising to ensure you are eating food properly and staying adequately hydrated.
8. Don’t Skip Breakfast
Skipping breakfast is a common misconception for weight loss. However, a healthy breakfast rich in fiber and low in fat, sugar, and salt is an integral part of a balanced diet and provides essential nutrients for good health.
A wholegrain, lower-sugar cereal with semi-skimmed milk and fruit is a nutritious and tasty breakfast option. Eating breakfast regularly is a key aspect of eating food properly and establishing healthy eating habits for the entire day.
