We are all aware of the importance of eating a healthy diet. However, increased production of processed foods and changing lifestyles have led to a shift in our eating habits and we are now eating more foods high in fats, sugars and salt and not enough fruit, vegetables and other dietary fibre, such as whole grains.

Maintaining a healthy diet isn't always easy. This blog summarises some practical steps to help sustain healthy eating choices.

Fruit and vegetables

Eating at least five portions of fruit and vegetables a day reduces the risk of heart disease and stroke and helps to ensure an adequate daily intake of dietary fibre.

Our intake of fruit and vegetables can be improved by:

• Always including vegetables in meals;
• Eating fresh fruit and raw vegetables as snacks;
• Eating fresh fruit and vegetables that are in season and;
• Eating a variety of fruit and vegetables.

Fibre

Fibre is best known for keeping your bowel movements regular, and it can also help prevent more serious conditions including type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

Fibre helps with losing weight too, and staying at a healthy weight is one of the best things you can do to lower your risk for lots of diseases, including cancer.

Eating a diet with lots of foods high in fibre, including whole grains, like wholemeal bread or brown rice, reduces your risk of bowel cancer. We can increase our fibre intake by:

• Replacing processed grains such as white rice and white flour with whole grains

Fats

Reducing the amount of total fat intake to less than one third of our total energy intake helps to prevent unhealthy weight gain and the risk of heart disease.

Fat intake, especially saturated fat and industrially produced trans-fat intake can be reduced by:

• Steaming or boiling instead of frying when cooking;
• Replacing butter, lard and ghee with oils which are rich in polyunsaturated fats, such as soybean, rapeseed, corn, and sunflower oils;
• Eating reduced-fat dairy foods and lean meats, and trimming visible fat from meat; and
• Limiting the consumption of baked and fried foods, such as doughnuts, cakes, pies, cookies, and biscuits.

Salt and potassium

Most people consume too much salt and not enough potassium. High salt intake and insufficient potassium intake contribute to high blood pressure, which can increase the risk of heart disease and stroke.

People are often unaware of the amount of salt they eat in their food. Most salt in our diets comes from processed foods such as ready meals, processed meats such as bacon, ham, salami; cheese and salty snacks.

Salt is also added to foods during cooking, or when we add it ourselves when eating.

Our salt intake can be reduced by:

• Reducing the amount of salt and high-salt condiments we use when cooking and preparing foods;
• Not having salt or high-salt sauces on the table;
• Limiting the consumption of salty snacks and
• Choosing products with lower sodium content.

On the other hand, potassium can help mitigate the effects of high salt consumption and our intake of potassium can be increased by consuming fresh fruit and vegetables.

Sugars

Consuming added sugars, increases the risk of tooth decay and unhealthy weight gain, which can lead to overweight and obesity.

Sugar intake can be reduced by:

• Limiting the consumption of foods and drinks containing high amounts of sugars, such as sugary snacks, sweets, and sugar-sweetened drinks and
• Eating fresh fruit and raw vegetables as snacks instead of sugary snacks.
• A well-balanced diet provides us with all the energy we need to keep active throughout the day, the nutrients we need for growth and repair, and helps us stay strong and healthy and help prevents diet-related illness, such as heart disease and some cancers.

Hopefully, all these simple tips can help you maintain a healthy diet.

Source: https://www.who.int  https://www.nhsinform.scot