March is national nutrition month and aims to educate people on the importance of good nutrition and healthy eating for overall health and wellbeing. Here’s our top five points to help you learn more about nutrition covering food labels, eatwell guide, portion control, food swaps and eating on the go.
Food labels
The nutrition labels on food products can help you check the amount of fat, saturated fat, carbohydrates, sugars, protein and salt. Checking this information on food products can help you make better choices over your food and eat a balanced diet.
More and more food products are now also displaying the traffic light nutritional information on the front of packaging. This system shows you fat, saturated fat, sugar and salt within the product and highlights them in red, amber or green. If the product is labelled red it means it has a high level of that nutrition, amber is medium, and green is low.
So, the greener the label on the product the healthier the choice. You should aim for products that are green and amber whilst cutting down and eating less of the products with red.
Eatwell guide
The NHS provides an eatwell guide to help you understand what food groups should be on your plate getting a balance of healthier and sustainable food. The plate is made up of the following elements:
Fruit and vegetables – You should aim to eat a variety of at least 5 portions of fruit and vegetables each day. These should make up over a third of the food you eat each day.
Dairy and alternatives – Milk and dairy products are a good source of protein and calcium. The fat content in dairy products can vary so always opt for lower fat options where possible.
Oil and spreads – Unsaturated fats are healthier fats and provide essential fatty acids when consumed in a small amount, this creating a balanced diet.
Starchy foods – These are your main source of carbohydrates and should make up a third of what you eat, selecting high fibre whole grains. These are a good source of energy and the main source of nutrient in your diet.
Proteins – This group includes foods such as beans, pulses, fish, eggs and meat. Choosing lean cuts of meat and 2 portions of fish a week. Also choosing alternatives in this group to meat gives you a low in fat and high in fibre option.
Drink – Drinks can often have a high level of calories which can easily be overlooked. You should aim to drink 6 to 8 glasses a day of water, low fat milk or sugar-free drinks including tea and coffee.
Fat, salt and sugar – These foods should be eaten less often and in small amounts to balance your diet.
Portion control
Portion control can play a big part in our diet and although a meal may look healthy if we are pouring on too much of one dressing the calories can soon start to add up. When preparing a meal be mindful of how much food you are making and try weighing out the right amount of food you need rather than guessing or adding that bit extra for luck!
Also consider the size of your plate and how big this is. Do you need to fill it all? It can be frustrating if we think we are eating well but actually eating too much so not losing the weight we desire. This can push us back to eating the wrong food when all we really needed to do was cut down to see the results.
Food swaps
Making small healthy food swaps to your diet can really start to add up and make a big difference. Looking for healthier alternatives and trying to just make a few small changes at a time can be a more realistic and achievable goal you can stick to.
The change for life scheme is a big advocate of making healthy swaps and have lots of recommendations on eating a healthy diet. Their app also allow you to scan food on the go. Click here to take a look.
Here’s five easy swaps you can make a start with:
swap the frying pan for a grill when cooking meat
swap whole milk for semi-skimmed milk
swap sugar on your cereals for fruit
swap fizzy drinks for no added sugar drinks
swap white bread for wholemeal, brown bread
Eating on the go
We can all get busy and rush around not thinking about what we are going to eat until we are too hungry to make a healthy choice. This resulting in us picking the high calorie, high sugar food and often eating too much whilst on the go. Planning ahead, thinking of what you are going to eat and preparing in advance will help you to make healthier choices.
When picking up lunch on the go try to opt for salads without dressings or mayonnaise to remove those extra calories. For sandwiches pick wholemeal, brown bread rather than white and opt for sandwiches with no butter or spreads if the filling is moist. Reading the food labels and opting for the healthier choice out of two can all help and grow your understand of what's in the food. Remember all the little swaps you can make add up and get you closer to a healthier balanced diet.
More restaurants are adding healthier options to their menu and menus are often visible online so give you chance to plan your meal ahead to ensure you pick the healthiest option rather than selecting on the day. Try not to snack on bread and nibbles before your meal and avoid adding salt as additional salt may of been added whilst cooking. Don't order too much in one go and try to take time in between courses to see how full you are and if you need to eat anymore.
We hope this has been useful to help you start to understand nutrition and the changes you can make towards a healthy balanced diet. If you are struggling with your weight or have concerns over your weight a number of our pharmacies offer weight management support. Take a look to find your local branch by clicking here.
