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Simple advice on eating a nutritious, well-balanced diet from NHS Direct.

To be sure of eating a well-balanced diet, you need to eat a variety of different foods each day.

For most people, the move towards eating a healthy, balanced diet means eating more starchy foods and more fibre. These include foods like bread, breakfast cereals, noodles, pasta, potatoes and rice, which should make up the main part of most meals.

Eat More Starchy Foods & Fibre

The wholegrain varieties of starchy foods are a particularly good source of fibre, for example wholemeal bread, brown rice, and wholegrain pasta. These foods contain more vitamins and minerals, and are filling but low in calories, so they aid weight loss. It is often thought that starchy foods are particularly fattening. This is not true, but they become so if either served or cooked with fat.

Eat Less Sugar

Sugar contains only calories, with no other nutrients, and, when eaten frequently during the day, is a major cause of tooth decay. If you are overweight, cutting back on sugar is one of the easiest ways to cut calories without losing nutrients.

Eat Less Fat

A small amount of fat in the diet is essential for your health, but most of us eat far too much. Eating too much fat, especially saturated fat, increases the risk of coronary heart disease and can lead to becoming overweight. The amount of saturated fat in your diet is the main influence on blood cholesterol levels, and high blood cholesterol is a major contributor to coronary heart disease.

Some fats are easy to spot like cream, fat on the outside of meat, butter and margarine. These are known as visible fats. There are also hidden fats in cakes, chocolate, biscuits, crisps and pastry.

Eat Less Salt

Too much salt in the diet can lead to high blood pressure. This in turn is a risk factor for coronary heart disease, kidney disease and strokes. Most of us eat more salt than we need. On average, our salt intake needs to be reduced by about one-third.

Information provided courtesy of NHS Direct

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