6 Tips to Help You Stay Healthy

This week is Health Information Week (3rd to 9th July 2017) which is a great opportunity to ensure you are eating healthy and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. After all, keeping healthy throughout your life can reduce the risk of illnesses including cancer so it’s important to follow recommended healthy guidelines. 

It can be difficult to know what a healthy diet is as recommendations seem to change from time to time and fad diets aren’t necessarily good for your health as they offer quick weight loss solutions usually through an unhealthy and unbalanced diet.

To support Health Information Week, below are 6 basic guidelines to help you stay on top form:

1) Five a day

Aim for at least five varieties of fruit and vegetables to ensure you are consuming over 1/3 of fruit and veg. 

2) Wholemeal or brown

Choose wholemeal or brown options rather than white; a further 1/3 of your daily diet should be starchy foods such as potato, bread, rice, pasta and cereal.

3) Add some protein 

Beans, pulses, fish, eggs and meat are the best sources of protein and you don’t need much - small amounts should fill you up and you should stay fuller for longer. 

4) Low fat options all the way

Dairy or dairy alternatives with low fat and sugar options are also essential for healthy diets. For example, semi skimmed or skimmed milk and low fat cheeses. 

5) Reduced sugar

We all have those sugary cravings from time to time, especially when we are tired and need a quick burst of energy. It’s important to eat foods containing sugar occasionally rather than them becoming part of your daily diet. I reduced my sugar intake last year for a few months and I felt much better for it; I was more energetic, had healthier teeth and I found I was a lot less lethargic after eating starchy foods like pasta and bread. 

6) Traffic light food labels help

Most food products now have the traffic light food labels on them so look out for these when buying your food. This was developed to help people make healthier choices quickly and easily. Go for those that are mostly amber or green rather than those red products – the red means they contain too much of either fat, saturates, sugars or salt.

Sources:

http://breastcancernow.org/news-and-blogs/blogs/making-healthy-food-choices?utm_source=twittero&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=blogs&utm_content=032017-staticimg 

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As it is also National Childhood Obesity Week (3rd to 9th July 2017), check out these 10 tips to maintain and encourage a healthy lifestyle for kids.