Make a Healthy Diet Your Priority

Eating is one of life’s greatest pleasures and maintaining a nutritious diet will set you up for good health and well being.  

The benefits of eating well and exercising regularly are far reaching and include maintaining an ideal weight and reducing the risk of diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, some cancers, gallstones and even constipation.

A healthy diet plan also keeps the immune system in check by helping to fight off infections like colds and flu. There is even evidence that it helps with stress relief, which combined with exercise, is often all you need to stay on top of the blues.

So what is a healthy diet?  

Ah, well, that depends on who you speak to these days!  With so much conflicting information around it’s extremely hard for the average person to know where to start and what to believe.  

However, as qualified nutritionists and experienced health professionals, we are keen to give you some well considered advice on what constitutes a healthy diet to enable you to make informed food choices and increase your likelihood of long term good health.  So here we go!

Tips for healthy eating:

• Set yourself up for success - by planning a healthy diet as a number of small, manageable steps rather than one big drastic change.

• Moderation is the key - it’s not an all or nothing proposition. We all need a balance of carbohydrates, protein, fat, fibre, vitamins and minerals to stay healthy.

• It’s not just what you eat, it’s how you eat – so eat with others whenever possible and you will benefit both socially and emotionally.  Chew food slowly, savouring every mouthful, only eat when you’re hungry and never skip breakfast or your metabolism will slow down.

• Fill up on vegetables - just go easy on the fruit as it’s full of sugar. Try to eat a rainbow of vegetables, the brighter the better because they contain higher concentrations of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants.

• Include healthy carbs and whole grains - but limit refined carbs like white bread, pasta, rice and potatoes which will cause spikes in blood sugar levels and energy. Go for brown rice, whole grain bread and oats instead.

• Go for healthy fats - to nourish your brain, heart and cells, as well as your hair, skin and nails. Include moderate amounts of monounsaturated fats like canola, peanut and olive oil and polyunsaturated fats like sunflower, flaxseed and soybean.  Also include omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids found in fatty fish. Avoid saturated fats found in animal sources and dairy products and (that doesn’t mean cutting out meat and dairy just choose low fat varieties) and most importantly, avoid trans fat which are in foods like biscuits and chips.

• Lean protein is great - for iron and for weight loss. Try to combine animal sources of protein with legumes, nuts and soy products to maximise the health benefits. 

• Don’t forget calcium in your diet - because it’s one of the key nutrients that your body needs to stay strong and healthy and is an essential building block for lifelong bone health. Good sources are low fat dairy products and green vegetables.

• Limit salt and sugar as much as possible - because they won’t do you any favours.  Sugar causes energy ups and downs, health problems like diabetes and weight gain while too much salt is bad for you in every way!

Happy healthy eating!