Eating Well

If you and your family want to feel good then try to Eat Well!

The Eat well plate shows how eating a variety of foods each day will help you get the balance!

Eat well by:

Eating lots of fruit and vegetables.

Remember to try and have at least 5 portion of fruits and vegetables a day, dried, tinned frozen and fruit juice all count, and a portion is roughly a handful.

Have plenty of starchy foods such as wholegrain bread, pasta, rice.

A good tip is to plan your meals around starchy foods. Aim to include 1 food from this group in each meal.

Eat some protein rich foods such as meat, fish, eggs and beans

Go lean - remove the skin from chicken and the excess fat from meat. Remember to try to include two portions of fish a week one of which should be oily

Have some dairy foods

Try to choose lower fat versions where possible for example, semi skimmed milk, low fat yoghurts, lower fat cheeses such as Edam or cottage cheese.

Go easy on your intake of foods containing fat and sugar

The national Change 4 Life campaign which aims to improve children’s and their families eating and levels of activity. 

This would help to reduce the threat to their future health and happiness. 

Eight key areas where behavior changes could be made to contribute to leading a healthier lifestyle have been outlined.

The campaign goal is to enable families to eat well, move more and live longer.

The 8 key messages are:

• Reducing sugar intake (“Sugar Swaps”)
• Increasing consumption of fruit and vegetables (“5 A Day”)
• Having structured meals, especially breakfast (“Meal Time”)
• Reducing unhealthy snacking (“Snack Check”)
• Reducing portion size (“Me Size Meals”)
• Reducing fat consumption (“Easy On The Fat”)
• 60 minutes of moderate intensity activity (“60 Active Minutes”)
• Reducing sedentary behaviour especially TV and screen time (“Up & About”)

Change 4 Life have also launched an adults campaign which features 6 key swaps for adults

The 6 top swaps are

• Reducing unhealthy snacking (snack swap)
• Reducing portion size (portion swap)
• Increasing intake of fibrous foods (fibre swap)
• Increasing fruit and vegetable intake (swap for 5 a day)
• Reducing calories consumed through drinks (drink swap)
• Increasing physical activity levels (swaps to get you up and about)

You can register for Change 4 Life or call 0300 123 1044

Eating Well is essential for good health and wellbeing, and contributes to reducing the risk of conditions including heart disease, stroke, some cancers, diabetes and osteoporosis.

Unfortunately modern life has made it easy to eat unhealthier foods and lead a less active life style.

We are eating too much and moving too little! If we go on like this, 9 out of 10 of our kids will grow up to have dangerous amounts of fat in their bodies.

The Foresight report (2007) also outlines that 1 in 4 adults is now classified as obese in the UK.

Remember small changes can make a big difference and help you and your family Change 4 Life!