Healthy Eating Tips
Get your seven to ten-a-day:
Eat a variety of fruit and vegetables to help get the vitamins, minerals and fibre you need. The more colourful your meals are, the more likely you are to be getting the nutrients you need.
Swap white starches for brown ones:
Whole grain pasta, brown rice and whole grain breads. They’re higher in fibre than white, refined versions.
Know your good fats from your bad:
Good fats (unsaturated fats) help lower your cholesterol while bad fats (saturated and trans fats) increase both your bad cholesterol (LDL) and decrease your good cholesterol (HDL).
Good fats: oily fish, veggie or seed oils, nuts, avocados.
Bad fats: commonly found in high-fat cheese, butter, cakes, pastries, biscuits, full fat dairy products, fast food.
Easy ways to replace bad fats with good ones:
- Use a low in saturated fat and trans-free soft margarine instead of butter, hard margarine, lard and shortening.
- Use vegetable oils such as canola, olive and soybean for cooking and salad dressings.
- Eat skinless chicken, fish, lean meat and lower fat meat alternatives instead of high fat meat options.
- Drink skim, 1% or 2% milk or select lower fat milk alternatives.
Save sugary foods to eat as a real treat:
Reduce cakes, pastries, fizzy drinks and sweets.
Watch your salt intake:
Too much can raise your blood pressure, which is bad for your heart.
Avoid frying your food:
Bake, steam or boil it instead.
Healthy Shopping Tips
Know what’s in the food you buy:
Read food labels and check the nutrition facts table – especially the amount of saturated and trans fat (bad fats).
Be selective with your meat:
Buy lean cuts of red meat and skinless poultry.
Go for low-fat:
Choose low-fat yoghurt, milk products and lower fat cheeses.