Healthy eating
Eating healthy foods at meal times is the keystone of staying healthy. A well-balanced diet consists of the following every day:
3 - 5 servings of vegetables
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include a variety of colours; red, green, orange and purple as they provide key nutrients depending on their colour
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about 20% of your vegetable intake should be raw as this allows the body to get the most nutrients possible because none are removed via cooking methods.
- Note - a serving is half a cup
At least 2 servings of fruit:
- choose fruit from different families as this will provide a variety of nutrients (avoid adding sugar to stewed fruits).
Up to 6 servings of whole grain foods:
- avoid highly processed grain products (white breads and pastas) as the process they go through removes a lot of the vitamins and minerals of the grain and concentrates the calories
- whole grains are low glycaemic index (GI) which means that digestion is slow and you will feel fuller for longer, which prevents overeating.
Up to 1 serving of lean red meat:
- Ensure that excess fat is removed before cooking.
Up to 2 servings of fish, poultry, eggs:
- Fish is an excellent source of essental fatty acids. Remove fat before cooking, and remove skin from poultry.
1-3 servings of nuts, seeds and legumes:
- These provide so many different nutrients that are important in the diet every day.
Don't skip meals
Every day, everyone needs to eat three meals. Skipping meals is unhelpful in many ways; science tells us that those who skip breakfast consume more food than those who have breakfast. Skipping a meal leads to more storage of fat at the next meal.
This is because the body sees a missed meal as a sign of starvation and so when the next meal is eaten, it will store as much as possible as a survival mechanism. The missing nutrients from skipped meals lead to fatigue and loss of concentration which we cannot afford in our busy lives as well as it being a stressor on our health. Eating fast foods on the run e.g. in cars is almost as bad for us!
© Dr Tony Edwards, Radius Medical