Guide to Healthy Eating: What should we be eating?

With advertisements and food fads constantly bombarding us, we have provided the following healthy eating guidelines to assist with what to and what not to eat. 

Food plays such a major part in our way of life you’d think it would be easy to develop and stick to healthy eating habits. Not so. There is so much temptation everywhere to include “bad stuff” in our diet that working out how to start eating healthy requires a determined mindset. You only have to look around to see the evidence of bad food choices – a growing number (get it?) of overweight adults and children.

What we don’t see, however, are the underlying health conditions caused by wrong food choices. Things like high blood pressure and heart disease, muscle and bone disorders, respiratory conditions, type 2 diabetes, stroke, and cancers such as breast cancer, colon cancer, kidney cancer, and more. Being underweight also carries health risks, so being anorexic is no better.

To keep our body running at optimum warp speed, we need to feed it the right fuel. After all, we wouldn’t fill a diesel car up with unleaded petrol and then whinge about engine sluggishness, backfiring, or sudden stopping. With food or fuel for our own bodies, healthy eating habits are essential in making us “run” better on a daily basis and they are very much a preventative health measure for the future.

Confusion is our biggest problem. Every day we see conflicting information on some food or other – one day, something’s good for you and the next, we’re told it will lead you to an early grave. How can you cut through the fog and settle on a nutritious diet that will work for you and keep you in a clear mind about the differences in healthy and unhealthy food choices?

Our guide to healthy eating

Help is at hand, with health insurers and the Australian government stepping in to provide all the information you need for healthy eating guidelines. The National Health and Medical Research Council’s (NHMR) Australia Dietary Guidelines (www.eatforhealth.gov.au) provides recommendations for healthy eating that are realistic, practical, and – most importantly – based on the best available scientific evidence.

Diets: What’s really in your diet?

Clear the clutter in your mind – whether it’s the latest celebrity food fad or that advertised convenience snack – and you’ll learn to identify what’s really in that food source and where it rates on the nutrition scale.

There’s an old saying that if your grandmother wouldn’t understand what the ingredients on the packet are, don’t touch it. There is a plethora of artificial colours, flavours, and preservatives in everything these days – not to mention the silent assassins of sugar, salt (sodium), saturated fats, and alcohol.

Too much of these foods and drinks on a daily basis is a shaky foundation to a long-term, nutritious diet. Keep it simple and stick to the basic good food guidelines for the majority of your healthy eating habits.

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What to eat regularly

Enjoy a wide variety of nutritious foods from these 5 groups every day, says the NHMRC:

1. Vegetables – including different types and colours, and legumes/beans
2. Fruit
3. Grains and cereals – mostly wholegrain and/or high cereal fibre varieties, such as breads, cereals, rice, pasta, noodles, polenta, couscous, oats, quinoa, and barley
4. Protein – including lean meats and poultry, fish, eggs, tofu, nuts and seeds, and legumes/beans
5. Dairy – including milk, yoghurt, cheese and/or their alternatives – mostly reduced fat (but note that reduced fat milks are not suitable for children under the age of 2 years)

And drink plenty of water. It is essential for life. All biochemical reactions occur in water. It fills the spaces between the cells and helps form structures of large molecules such as protein and glycogen. Water is also required for digestion, absorption and transportation, as a solvent for nutrients, for elimination of waste products and to regulate body temperature.

But, I hear you protest, water is part of soft drinks, cordials and fruit juices, so you’re already getting “enough water”. Yes water is in those cocktails, but so are added caffeine, sugar, and artificial colours and flavours that you don’t need.

What to eat only occasionally

Limit intake of energy-dense, nutrient-poor foods containing saturated fat, added salt, added sugars, and alcohol.

Saturated fats

Foods high in saturated fats include biscuits, cakes, pastries, pies, processed meats, commercial burgers, pizza, fried foods, potato chips, crisps, and other savoury snacks.

Replace these with – foods that contain predominantly polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats such as oils, spreads, nut butters/pastes and avocado. Once again, be mindful that low fat diets are not suitable for children under the age of 2 years.

Salt

Foods containing added salt are everywhere so always read labels to choose lower sodium options among similar foods. Another tip is to avoid adding salt to foods as you cook or at the table. There is so much “hidden” sodium in our daily diets, it’s highly unlikely you’ll end up salt deficient as a result.

Sugar

Food and drinks high in added sugars include lollies and chocolates, sugar-sweetened soft drinks and cordials, fruit drinks, vitamin waters, energy drinks and sports drinks. Look out for so-called heathy foods such as yoghurt which often has a high sugar content to make it more palatable. Do you know how much sugar you’re eating?

Replace these with – low or no sugar options. Making your own cakes/biscuits/sweets at home means you can halve the sugar content without compromising taste – I know because I do it. Soft drinks, cordials and fruit juices heavily laced with teeth-corroding sugars can be replaced with water (yes, it can be done!). And as for energy and sports drinks, don’t get me started.

Alcohol

If you choose to drink alcohol, limit your intake. Here’s what alcohol really does to your body. For women who are pregnant, planning a pregnancy or breastfeeding, abstaining from alcohol is the only recommended option to prevent health problems for your baby.

Change your diet one step at a time

It can be overwhelming trying to make too many changes at once, so break it down into something that will work with your lifestyle. Setting yourself up for failure is not what you want to do.

Maybe start by writing down what you honestly eat each day, then substitute some of that food and drink with different choices. One or two changes of dietary choices followed consistently are better than a dozen tried only once before reverting back to old habits. Being successful at healthier eating in a small way will encourage you to keep going and expand your nutrition horizons.

Let’s get physical

How much, or how little, exercise you and your family get has a great bearing on nutrient requirements. It’s highly likely that you need to move more – computer screens, office jobs, TVs, games, car travel all contribute to a sedentary existence. We don’t necessarily like it, but it is a trend our culture seems to be caught up in. This article provides many, many tips for slowly and easily increasing the amount of exercise you do every day. And many gyms offer discounts on passes to their partner gym.

Maintaining muscle strength and a healthy weight is only dependent on two things – diet and exercise. If one is out of kilter with the other, problems will follow.

So think about how much physical activity you really do on a daily basis and work out how you can improve on that. Once again, a little bit at a time to ensure success and you’re on the road to a healthier you.

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