Do you know the benefits of eating a healthy diet?
Eating a healthy, balanced diet is an important part of maintaining good health and can help you feel your best.
Eating a balanced healthy diet can reduce the risk of chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity and some cancers, such as bowel, breast and pancreatic cancer.
Would you like to improve what you eat?
You should check labels on food packaging to help you make healthier choices. Look for the colour-coded guide - the more green on the label the healthier the choice.
A balanced diet contains food from all five major food groups:
- try to eat at least 5 portions of a variety of fruit and veg a day
- choose wholegrain or higher fibre versions of carbohydrates like brown rice, bread and pasta instead of white
- eat more beans and pulses
- eat two portions of fish per week, one of which should be oily
- choose lower fat and sugar dairy options or alternatives
- choose unsaturated oils and spreads and use in small amounts
Swapping one sugary soft drink with water can have huge benefits to your health over time.
The Eat Well Guide shows how much of what we eat overall should come from each food group to achieve a healthy, balanced diet.
The proportions shown are representative of your food consumption over the period of a day or even a week, not necessarily each meal time. Click Here
Do you check the labels on food packaging when you are out shopping to help you make healthier choices?
The NHS Food Scanner app is a great resource to help bring food labels to life. A quick scan of the barcode on the products packaging using your phone’s camera and you can see:
- If it’s a good choice
- See at a glance whether the product is high, medium r low in sugar, salt and fat
What types of drinks do you have in a typical day?
Aim to drink 6-8 glasses of fluid every day. Water, lower fat milk and sugar-free drinks including tea and coffee all count. Fruit juice and smoothies also count towards your fluid consumption, but you should limit consumption to no more than a combined total of 150ml per day.
Sugary drinks are one of the main contributors to excess sugar consumption amongst children and adults in the UK. Swap sugary soft drinks for diet, sugar-free or no added sugar varieties to reduce your sugar intake in a simple step.
Alcohol also contains lots of calories (kcal) and should be limited to no more than 14 units per week for men and women. The calorific content of an alcoholic beverage depends on the type of alcohol, the volume served and the addition of mixers. As an example, 1 pint of standard strength lager contains approximately 136kcal, a 175ml medium glass of wine contains approximately 135kcal and a 25ml shot of spirit (40% vol) contains approximately 56kcal.
Other useful regional services:
Eating a balanced diet
- Try to eat at least 5 portions of a variety of fruit and veg a day
- Choose wholegrain or higher fibre versions of carbohydrates like brown rice, bread and pasta instead of white
- Eat more beans and pulses
- Eat two portions of fish per week, one of which should be oily
- Choose lower fat and sugar dairy options or alternatives
- Choose unsaturated oils and spreads and use in small amounts
5 A Day - tips to eating well
Getting your 5 A Day is easy. There are plenty of ways to add more fruit and vegetables to your daily meals. Here are some ideas to get you started.
5 A Day at breakfast
- Add fruit to cereal, porridge or lower fat natural yoghurt. Try a handful of berries or a chopped banana.
- Add grilled mushrooms or tomatoes to scrambled eggs.
- A glass (150ml) of unsweetened 100% fruit juice, vegetable juice or smoothie combined counts as a maximum of 1 portion of your 5 A Day.
5 A Day at lunch
- Add some crunch to your sandwiches with lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber or grated carrots.
- Sticks of cucumber, peppers and carrot, and cauliflower or broccoli florets are delicious with dips such as salsa or lower fat cheese spread.
- Add fruit and veg to your favourite meals. Try adding chopped carrots to bolognese sauce, sprinkle chopped red peppers on your pasta, or mix veg such as peas into mashed potato to make it even tastier. Add tomatoes to your omelette or mushrooms to your next stir-fry.
- Add beans, lentils and pulses to stews, soups, bakes and salads. However much you eat, beans and pulses count as a maximum of 1 portion a day.
5 A Day at dinner
- Have a salad or vegetable side dish with your main meal. If you're having shepherd's pie, have some peas, too. If you're having a roast dinner, add some carrots or broccoli to your plate.
- Frozen fruit and veg count towards your 5 A Day. It only takes a couple of minutes to microwave some frozen peas, mixed vegetables or mini corn on the cob.
- Canned fruit and veg also count. It's healthier to choose fruit canned in juice rather than sugary syrup, and veg canned in water without added salt or sugar.
- It's easy to add fresh, frozen or canned fruit and veg to meals. Sprinkle sweetcorn or pineapple chunks on top of a thin-base pizza, or liven up soups and sauces with a handful of kidney beans, peas or sweetcorn.
- Try making or choosing tomato or vegetable-based sauces as these are usually lower in fat than cream or cheese-based sauces.
Quick facts on a healthy, balanced diet...
Healthy eating is about having a balance of different foods and nutrients in the diet for good health and wellbeing.
No single food or food group can provide everything we need to be healthy. Eating a variety of different foods from each of the food groups can help us get the full range of nutrients our bodies need.
Fruit and vegetables are a key part of a healthy diet, and we should aim to get our 5 a day or more if we can. This can be from fresh, frozen, dried or canned fruit and vegetables.
Starchy foods like bread, potatoes, pasta, rice and other grains are part of a healthy diet, but the quality of what we choose is important. It is a good idea to choose wholegrains like wholemeal or rye bread, wholewheat pasta, oats and potatoes with skins to help us get enough fibre and other important nutrients.
Plant-based protein foods like beans, lentils, chickpeas and other pulses provide protein and fibre and are naturally low in saturated fat. It is good to include these regularly in the diet
Animal protein foods like fish, eggs, meat and dairy (milk, yogurt, cheese) provide a range of vitamins and minerals and can be part of a healthy diet. It is best not to eat too much red and processed meat.
It is recommended that we have two portions of fish a week, one of which should be an oily fish like salmon, mackerel or sardines.
Dairy foods provide protein, calcium, B vitamins and iodine. It is best to go for lower sugar versions (for example natural yogurt) most of the time. If choosing plant-based dairy alternatives, then look for those that are fortified with calcium and ideally other vitamins and minerals.
It is best to choose healthier fats like vegetable, nut, seed or olive oils most of the time and to not to have too much of sources of saturated fat such as butter, coconut or palm oils.
We probably know that we should not have too many foods or drinks that are high in saturated fat, salt and sugar such as chocolate, cakes, biscuits, pastry, crisps and fried chips. If you include these, try to keep portion sizes small.
Better Health - Healthier Families
Welcome to the new home of Change4Life. We have a new name and look, but don't worry – we're still here to help you and your family eat better and move more.
Eatwell Guide
The Eat Well Guide shows how much of what we eat overall should come from each food group to achieve a healthy, balanced diet.
The proportions shown are representative of your food consumption over the period of a day or even a week, not necessarily each meal time.
Be Food Smart App
This app lets you scan barcodes on you phone to find out the nutritional information of different foods.
NHS Cook Together
Sign up to Cook Together and you'll have taken the first step to cooking healthier meals for yourself and your family or friends.
Every week for 4 weeks, we'll send you 2 tasty, healthy recipes with easy to follow instructions, and a shopping list of all the ingredients you'll need to cook a healthy meal. We'll also send you some handy tips about healthier eating and how to be food smart when you're out shopping.
After 4 weeks you'll know how to cook up to 8 different meals from scratch. How great is that!
NHS Digital Weight Management Programme
The NHS Digital Weight Management Programme supports adults living with obesity who also have a diagnosis of diabetes, hypertension or both, to manage their weight and improve their health.
It is a 12-week online behavioural and lifestyle programme that people can access via a smartphone or computer with internet access.
Who can be referred to the programme?
- You must be 18 or over.
- You must have a BMI greater than 30. The BMI threshold will be lowered to 27.5 for people from black, Asian, and ethnic minority backgrounds, as we know people from these ethnic backgrounds are at an increased risk of conditions such as Type 2 diabetes at a lower BMI.
- You must have diabetes, high blood pressure, or both.
- You must have a smartphone, tablet, or computer with internet access.
Speak to your GP practice or local pharmacist today to find out how the programme could benefit you.
Better Health - Lose Weight
If you're overweight, losing weight has many health benefits. Making small, simple changes to what and how much you are eating and drinking can really help you lose the pounds.
Healthy Steps - step this way
Take our short quiz to find out which one of our 8-week email journeys is right for you.
Whether it's healthier snacking, cutting back sugar, meal planning, or upping your 5 A Day, you'll get easy tips from nutrition experts and other parents, Disney themed games, fun challenges and budget-friendly recipes delivered to your inbox.
Food Labels
Nutrition information labels can help you choose between products and keep a check on the amount of foods you're eating that are high in fat, salt and added sugars.
Most pre-packed foods have a nutrition information label on the back or side of the packaging.
A Weight Off Your Mind (AWOYM)
A regional resource for those with a lived experience of serious mental illness and/or learning disability to achieve or maintain a healthy weight. A range of support materials are available in the North East and North Cumbria. AWOYM supports healthy eating, physical activity and behaviour change to improve health, life expectancy and quality of life. For further information please click the link below
Healthy Start Vitamins
Healthy Start is a government scheme to improve the health of low-income pregnant women and families with young children on benefits and tax credits.
For more information follow the link
Love Food Hate Waste
Love Food Hate Waste aims to raise awareness of the need to reduce food waste and help us take action. It shows that by doing some easy practical everyday things in the home we can all waste less food, which will ultimately benefit our purses and the environment too.
The Trussel Trust
We support a nationwide network of food banks and together we provide emergency food and support to people locked in poverty, and campaign for change to end the need for food banks in the UK.
British Nutrition Foundation
Connecting people, food and science, for better nutrition and healthier lives. We work with experts across the nutrition and food community to provide impartial, evidence-based information, education and expertise, motivating people to adopt healthy, sustainable diets – for life.
Guts UK
Guts UK is the only UK charity funding research into the digestive system from top to tail; the gut, liver and pancreas.
Allergy UK
Supporting people living with an allergy