Diet
The saying goes “You are what you eat”.
If most of your meals consist of junk food and ready meals after a while it’s going to show as you put the pounds on. Junk food can also have an affect on your mental health as it doesn’t contain enough of the essential vitamins and minerals needed by your nervous system.
Balanced Diet
To stay healthy it’s important to eat a balanced diet. This needs to include a combination of
- Carbohydrates (bread, pasta, rice, potatoes) for energy
- Proteins for building muscles etc (lean meat, chicken, eggs, fish, beans, low-fat cheese, semi-skimmed milk, yoghurt, soya)
- Fats in small amounts. Avoid hardened vegetable oils as they contain trans fatty acids that are unhealthy.
- Fibre (wholemeal bread, jacket potatoes) provides roughage for a healthy gut.
- Vitamins and minerals, best obtained in fresh fruit and vegetables through your 5 A Day
- Water, drink at least 7- 8 glasses a day to help remove waste from your body
It’s important to eat regular meals to keep up your blood sugar levels, otherwise you will feel tired and lacking in energy and your mood will drop as your brain doesn’t get enough feel good chemicals.
Five a day
About one in three young men are overweight in the UK and one in ten young people is obese. Combined with lack of physical activity this can lead to serious health problems in later life. To improve diets people are being encouraged to eat at least 5 potions a day of fruit or vegetables.
- Fresh, frozen, chilled, canned and dried fruit and vegetables and 100% juice, all count.
- One portion of fruit is equivalent to 80 grams (3 oz) could be half a grapefruit, slice of melon or 2 Satsuma’s.
- One portion of vegetables is also 80 grams and could be 3 heaped tablespoons of cooked carrots, peas or sweetcorn or 1 cereal bowl of mixed salad.
