Healthy Eating

It’s well known that our aim should be to enjoy a healthy balanced diet.  Dieting advice is a hot topic for the government – ably assisted by celebrities like Jamie Oliver – who want a healthy, balanced diet to be on everyone’s lips – quite literally!

There’s plenty of small print about the effectiveness of certain weight loss products and a healthy, balanced diet: “will only aid weight loss as part of a healthy, balanced diet”. And it’s a common theme in the media:

• “We recommend people with diabetes eat a healthy, balanced diet…” From The Guardian, 3-9-07

• It's tempting to think [vitamin supplements] offer additional protection against catching colds, coughs and other viruses… over and above that offered by a healthy, balanced diet.” From Times Online, 31-8-07

• “…half of school lunch boxes will not contain any fruit, despite the wealth of information about the importance of a healthy, balanced diet for children...” From IC Wales, 3-9-07
  
  

So what is a healthy, balanced diet?

The Food Standards Agency’s healthy, balanced diet page says: “Healthy eating is about getting the balance right... this means having a variety of foods, basing meals on starchy foods and eating at least five portions of fruit and veg a day…It also means having moderate amounts of meat, fish and alternatives; having moderate amounts of milk and dairy foods; having small or only occasional amounts of foods high in fat, especially saturated fat, or foods and drinks high in sugar, or foods high in salt.”

It’s Food Optimising!  In fact, Food Optimising follows all eight of the Government guidelines for a healthy, balanced diet:

1. enjoy your food
We encourage you to eat Free Food to satisfy your appetite so you need never go hungry, and we strongly recommend you don't deprive yourself of your favourites!

2. eat a variety of different foods
No food is banned, no food group is left out, and eating a wide range of different foods is actively encouraged.

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3. eat the right amount to be a healthy weight
Based on a scientific understanding of appetite and how to satisfy it, Food Optimising helps you learn to make healthy food choices, which naturally limit your calorie intake without counting a single calorie.

4. eat plenty of foods rich in starch and fibre
Whether you choose a Green day, where pasta, potatoes, rice and pulses are unlimited, or an Original day where potatoes, cereals, bread, pasta and pulses are called Healthy Extras, Food Optimising ensures that your body receives the recommended daily amount of fibre to keep your body healthy.

5. don't eat too many foods that contain a lot of fat

6. don't have sugary foods and drinks too often

7. if you drink alcohol, drink within sensible limits
Fatty foods, alcohol and sugary drinks aren’t banned when Food Optimising, however you are asked to limit them by keeping track of your Syns.

8. look after the vitamins and minerals in your food
Food Optimising encourages us to include foods high in essential vitamins and minerals. Those foods with a low energy density are Free Food. Medium energy dense foods that are high in essential vitamins and minerals are available in a controlled way in the form of Healthy Extras.

So the next time you hear those words on the news, or read them in the paper… healthy, balanced diet, you can relax in the knowledge that, at Slimming World, you’re already enjoying one!

Would you like to find out more? Find your nearest warm and friendly Slimming World group!

 

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