Healthy Eating Week

Healthy Eating Week takes place from 14 to18 June and focuses on five key themes to find a healthier you. The themes are:

1. Know the facts
2. Make a healthier choice
3. Plan for success
4. Be the chef
5. Keep moving

So let’s have a look at them and see how they can support us to lead healthier lives.

Why not have a look at the British Nutrition Foundation website

Know the facts

So let’s start at the basics, after all knowledge is power.

• Follow a balanced healthy diet. The easiest way to do this is to base your food intake on the Eatwell guide, having a varied diet in the proportions shown will ensure you get all the nutrients your body needs to grow and function.

Top tips for healthy eating

• Get your 5 A DAY – and try and eat a rainbow of colours. Fruit and vegetables provide a range of different vitamins and minerals needed for health, as well as fibre which is important for the digestive system and can help reduce the risk of developing heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and bowel cancer in adulthood.
• Go for wholegrains as these will have more fibre and provide some essential vitamins and minerals. Wholegrain foods include wholemeal breads, whole wheat pasta, brown rice, wholegrain breakfast cereals, porridge oats and grains, such as bulgur wheat or quinoa.
• Try to have two portions of fish each week, one should be oily fish such as salmon, mackerel or herring.
• Eat more beans and lentils and other plant-based proteins.
• Use unsaturated oils and spreads.
• Keep foods high in fat, salt or sugar to small portions and have them less often.
• Drink at least 6-8 glasses of water

Make healthier choices

We can make healthier choices by:

• comparing labels to make healthy choices
• selecting the right portion sizes for you
• making sugar swaps.

Here are some ways to help you make those healthier choices

Visit the NHS website to find out more information about reading food labels

Have a look ay the Change for Life sugar smart app. Just zap the barcode of a product and it will tell you how much sugar, salt and fat is in the product.

Why not try the sugar calculator on the Change 4 Life website to see what your daily intake is or visit our sugar game on the diet page to test your sugar knowledge?

Portion size is a personal thing! Your portion size is your hand size, easy to remember, no measuring and something you can use on the go

Use individual hand size to work out portion size, this works for both adults and children. To find out more about portion size visit the British Heart Foundation website.

Plan for Success

Sometimes the best way to make healthier lifestyle choices is to plan ahead and be organised. Here are some ideas:

• Take your lunch to school so you have it ready
• Wake up to give yourself enough time for breakfast
• Arrange to walk or cycle to school with a friend
• Plan to do your homework so that you have some time to get outside and walk the dog, play football or smash that latest dance routine
• Plan your meals for the week so that you can buy the right foods

Be the chef

Why not get involved with cooking food, you might find it fun. For some great healthy recipe ideas visit the NHS website

We hope you found this blog helpful and if you would like to talk to the school nurses about your health or support in making some healthier choices you can contact us through Chat health