Nutrition

Healthy Living

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Nutrition

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Poor eating has a direct impact on our health and can stop us from functioning at our best. If you’re not eating well, it will have a direct and important effect on your ability to fight disease, heal from injuries, produce new blood cells and products, it affect the skin hair and eyes, your thinking and memory, protection from disease and general feeling of energy, mood and wellbeing.

A poor diet is one where intake of one or more of the important food groups is inadequate or missing. Not eating enough fruit and vegetables, having a high fat diet by regular take-away meals or frequent eating out, avoiding breads and cereals particularly wholegrain cereals, eating a vegetarian diest where the protein foods are not replaced adequately are all examples of poor diet. You don’t have to be overweight to have a poor diet in fact many people of healthy weight eat poorly and are at greater risk of long term ill health.

Some health problems linked with poor diet

type 2 diabetes
gall bladder disease
high blood cholesterol and triglycerides
high blood pressure
osteoarthritis
some cancers
impaired fertility
lower back pain.

If you’re serious about improving your lifestyle, now is the time to improve what and how much you eat. Healthy eating helps you keep up your energy, gives you a stronger immune system, improves your state of mind, decreases your risk of disease and, helps you lose weight, which in turn will help lower your blood pressure, blood fats such as cholesterol and triglyceride and reduce your type 2 diabetes risk.

Eating on a budget

Fast-paced lifestyles have become an accepted reality for many people. ‘Moderate eating’, ‘healthy living’ and ‘balanced diet’ are familiar phrases, but how many of us are walking the talk? Quick-fixes such as convenient fast food are often nutritionally-poor, calorie-high and expensive. Healthy eating takes more thought and planning, but once you’ve developed the habit, your body and your bank account will thank you for it! More...

Food choices

Bread - what's best for my health? Milk - which one's right for you? Nutrition labelling: what does it mean? Find out...

Nutrition FAQs

Answers to the top 50 commonly asked questions from nutritionist Catherine Saxelby. More...

Phytoestrogens

The ideal diet is high in fibre, vegetables, fish protein, unprocessed cereals and grains, and mono-unsaturated fat, not saturated (animal) fat. Where do phytoestrogens fit in? Find out...