The humble fruits and veggies have been credited with greatly improving our lives; according to most recent dietary research, eating fruit and vegetables gives us more energy, helps us keep healthier and fitter and may stave off illnesses ranging from the common cold to cancer.
Current guidelines advise you to:
· Try and eat five portions of fruit and vegetables every day.
· Buy fruit fresh as often as possible - the vitamin content drops dramatically if it is stored - although frozen is better than canned.
· Wash all fruits and veg carefully to remove sprays (like pesticides).
· If cooking vegetables, do it quickly! Steaming, microwaving or stir frying keeps more vitamins in; boiling or prolonged cooking kills off the vitamins. Frozen veg is high in vitamin C, often cheap and needs no preparation.
balanced diet
What's a well balanced diet?
Four basic food groups:
Proteins - fish, meat, pulses, nuts and beans, cheese, eggs N.B. Vegetarian proteins are better when mixed - nuts, beans and grains, or lentils and cheese. That's why beans on toast is a good meal - it combines two protein types.
Carbohydrates - energy food, staple diet should include pasta, bread, potatoes, rice, especially wholemeal variety and unprocessed sugar, flour and rice which is rich in fibre to avoid constipation.
Fats - milk, butter, chocolate and other dairy products. Avoid saturated fats as found in red meats, butter, crisps and junk food. It's better to use olive and vegetable based oils, rather than animal based oils (like butter and lard) while eating oily fish (kippers, mackerel, herrings, tuna) twice a week is good for you.
Fruit and vegetables - for your vitamins and minerals. Eat a wide variety - latest health research says that we should all eat five portions of fruit and vegetables every day. cheap eats -Getting your daily oats
Following reports of a Warwick student who bought an electric guitar with his student loan and a sack of oatmeal thinking he could survive on porridge, and then ended up with scurvy, we thought we'd find out what he needed to add to make the minimum healthy diet.
"Whether the porridge is made with milk or water makes a big difference" commented dietician Lyndel Costain from the British Dietetic Association. "Milk adds some protein and calcium and a range of vitamins and minerals. It doesn't have vitamin C and it's low on iron so he would need to add those.
"Eating oranges or drinking orange juice with the porridge would be ideal, though potatoes, tomatoes and other fruit and vegetables are high in vitamin C.
"To get iron quickly and relatively cheaply, beans on toast is a good bet, otherwise you get iron in meat, pilchards and beans and green vegetables. Buying a cheap pack of lentils or dried beans and soaking and cooking them is probably the cheapest way to get protein and iron. And don't forget the humble garden pea!
"Anyone eating just porridge is going to be low on calories - a male student needs about 2,500 calories a day; a meal of porridge (with milk) only gives about 250 calories. Full fat milk would be the best bet to give extra calories and marginally more vitamin A and D.
"Best of all - I'd change breakfast cereals every so often. Although porridge is intrinsically healthy, the processed varieties include a range of vitamins and iron."
It's best to have as varied diet as possible .... covering the four categories each day if possible (fruit/veg, carbohydrates, dairy and meat/alternatives). Besides not being good for the body nutritionally, a monotonous diet can make you lose interest in food and health, paving the way for eating disorders and leaving you lethargic and disinterested in other areas of your life too!
Have a look at these links:
This is what the food standards agency says
Advice from St Andrews Uni