The food you eat is a very important part of keeping yourself healthy and well. A healthy diet can help to protect you from many diseases, such as heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.
Eating in a healthy way does not mean striving for perfection or banning certain foods or food groups altogether. Instead, it should be about balance, and includes developing a healthy and positive relationship with food.
Eating a healthy, balanced diet is an important part of maintaining good health and can help you feel your best. This means eating a wide variety of foods in the right proportions.
What does it mean to eat healthily?
Eating a healthy, balanced diet is an important part of maintaining good health and can help you feel your best. This means eating a wide variety of foods in the right proportions.
There is no such thing as a ‘good’ or a ‘bad’ food – it is all about the balance of what you eat. In the UK, most people eat and drink too much saturated fat, sugar and salt and don’t eat enough fruit, vegetables, oily fish, or fibre.
Eatwell Guide
The Eatwell Guide is Public Health England’s guide to help us eat a healthy and balanced diet. It recommends that you:
Remember! The Eatwell Guide is just a guide – it is meant to show us an ‘ideal’ way of eating for the regular person. Making small changes towards these guidelines is a fantastic way to continue on your sustainable food journey!
The Eatwell Guide also may not apply to everyone, including people with certain long-term health conditions. If you need more tailored nutrition advice, it is recommended that you contact your GP.
What is ultra-processed food?
Ultra-processed food is food and drink products that have been changed from their original state to contain many added ingredients such as sugar, salt, fat, and artificial colours or preservatives. You can usually spot ultra-processed foods as they typically contain lots of different ingredients – some of which you probably won’t recognise.
Common examples of these foods are soft drinks, hot dogs, cakes, and crisps. Examples of the difference between unprocessed, processed and ultra-processed foods are included below.
Ultra-processed foods tend to be high in salt, sugar and saturated fat, so if these foods make up a large portion of your diet, you are less likely to be eating in a balanced way and may face higher risks of heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.
This does not mean that you need to eliminate ultra-processed foods altogether – but it is beneficial to be aware of how much salt, sugar, and saturated fat you are eating so that these foods can be enjoyed in moderation as part of a balanced diet.
Some products that may seem healthy at first glance or that are advertised or marketed as being ‘healthy’ such as breakfast cereals, bread, and pre-packed meals can often contain chemicals, colourings, sweeteners, and preservatives. It is worth checking food labels for more information when buying food.
How to read food labels
What is a calorie?
Calories are a measure of how much energy food or drink contains. The amount of energy you need will depend on:
Other factors can also affect how much energy you burn. For example:
Foods being high-calorie or low-calorie does not make them healthy or unhealthy – it just means that they have higher or lower amount of energy. For example, a handful of unsalted, unprocessed nuts are likely to contain more calories than a couple of chocolate biscuits. But nuts contain healthy unsaturated fats, protein, B vitamins, vitamin E and minerals including iron, potassium, selenium, magnesium, zinc and copper. In contrast, chocolate biscuits are higher in sugar and in unhealthy saturated fats and generally have lower nutritional value.
What is the difference between saturated and unsaturated fat?
A small amount of fat is an essential part of a healthy, balanced diet. Fat is a source of essential fatty acids, which the body cannot make itself.
Fat helps the body absorb vitamin A, vitamin D and vitamin E. These vitamins are fat-soluble, which means they can only be absorbed with the help of fats.
Saturated fats are found in many foods, both sweet and savoury. Most of them come from animal sources, including meat and dairy products, as well as some plant foods, such as palm oil and coconut oil. Eating too much saturated fats in your diet can raise “bad” LDL cholesterol in your blood, which can increase the risk of heart disease and stroke.
Mostly found in oils from plants and fish, unsaturated fats can be either monounsaturated or polyunsaturated. Monounsaturated fats help protect your heart by maintaining levels of “good” HDL cholesterol while reducing levels of “bad” LDL cholesterol in your blood. Polyunsaturated fats can also help lower the level of “bad” LDL cholesterol in your blood.
If you want to reduce your risk of heart disease, it’s best to reduce your overall fat intake and swap saturated fats for unsaturated fats.
What does the red, amber, and green colour coding mean?
Some front-of-pack nutrition labels use red, amber, and green colour coding.
Colour-coded nutritional information tells you at a glance if the food has high, medium or low amounts of fat, saturated fat, sugars and salt:
In general, a food or drink that has all or mostly green on the label is a healthier choice.
Amber means neither high nor low, so you can eat foods with all or mostly amber on the label most of the time.
Any red on the label means the food is high in fat, saturated fat, salt, or sugars. This means you should eat these foods less often or in smaller amounts. This does not mean that you need to eliminate these foods altogether – but should enjoy them in moderation as part of a balanced diet.
What is the difference between a use-by date and a best-before date?
The difference between best before and use-by dates is really important. Some foods deteriorate over time in a way that may present a food safety risk. On most packaged food, depending on the product, you will see either:
Is it healthy to eat a vegan/plant-based diet?
You can get all the nutrients you need from eating a varied and balanced vegan diet including fortified foods and supplements. There are important benefits to a plant-based diet and having access to alternatives. These can include reduced carbon footprint and health gains such as reduced risk of cardiovascular disease or type 2 diabetes.
However, some plant-based alternatives such as burgers or sausages can be ultra-processed, and therefore tend to be of lower nutritional quality than animal products because they can contain less protein and more fat and sugar for example. It’s therefore important to ensure you are still getting a balanced diet if consuming alternatives, which you can do by reading the label to check the nutritional content.
With good planning and an understanding of what makes up a healthy, balanced vegan diet, you can get all the nutrients your body needs. However, if you do not plan your diet properly, you could miss out on essential nutrients, such as calcium, iron, vitamin B12, iodine and selenium.
Further information about how to eat a balanced vegan diet is available:
What does it mean to have a healthy relationship with food?
For many people, food can be a pleasurable part of the day. However, many factors including mental health, diet culture, trauma, stress and body image can impact on our relationship with food. Having a healthy relationship with food is the foundation to having a healthy diet.
A healthy relationship with food may look like:
If you or people around you are worried that you have an unhealthy relationship with food, you could have an eating disorder.
Eating disorders are complex mental illnesses. Anyone, no matter what their age, gender, ethnicity or background, can develop one. Some examples of eating disorders include avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID), bulimia, binge eating disorder, and anorexia.
If you are worried that you may have an eating disorder, please visit our eating disorders section for advice and support:
How can I maintain good food hygiene?
Handwashing
Effective handwashing is essential to help prevent bacteria from spreading to food and help us not get sick. Please follow this guide to ensure safe food handling at home.
Preventing cross contamination
Cross contamination happens when harmful bacteria is spread from one item to another via hands, equipment or surfaces. It is always best to:
Store food correctly
Cooked foods must be cooled before storing in the fridge or freezer. They must be cooled as fast as possible to reduce bacteria growth. To do this break it down into smaller containers and fill as quickly as possible in the fridge then transfer to the freezer if required.
How can I reduce my food waste?
Reducing food waste can save you money and make your food shop go further.
There are five top tips for reducing food waste:
Planning your shop
Know your dates
Store your foods savvily
Perfect your portions
Love your leftovers
How can I eat more seasonally?
Eating seasonably means eating food – particularly fruits and vegetables – when they are at their harvest peak. This can make eating healthily less expensive and also helps the environment because you are buying foods with fewer ‘transport miles.’
The graph below provides a guide to eating seasonally within the UK:
Knowing where to start can be difficult, in this section we have information to support you with your journey to eating well.
I want some help and support to eat more healthily
Get Healthy Rotherham
If you register with Get Healthy Rotherham here or call 01709 718720, you can access free support and advice to help you eat more healthily and lose weight. Once you have registered an account, you will be able to choose from a range of apps and online tools that can help you to make healthy changes to your diet and weight. There are also free wellbeing walking groups alongside diet and nutrition sessions across several locations in Rotherham.
You can also get free access to 12 weeks of support to improve your diet and become more physically active with Slimming World through Get Healthy Rotherham.
Get Healthy Rotherham – coach programme
If you would like more support, our Get Healthy Coach programme is available to Rotherham residents with more complex medical needs. You will receive advice and guidance over a six-month period to help you improve your relationship with food and understand how you can lose fat sustainably for the long term. Register today to find out more.
I am finding it difficult to afford food
A range of support is available for those experiencing financial hardship including:
More information about ways to access this support is available via the Council website.
The Council’s website also includes information about getting wider financial support.
The debt section on RotherHive also includes other information about getting wider financial support.
Discussing food can be complex. The strong links it can have to issues such as weight or the cost of living may make it harder for someone to talk about.
What to say and what not to say
Discussing food can be complex. The strong links it can have to issues such as wellbeing, body image and financial stress may make it harder for someone to talk about.
If you are concerned about someone and want to talk them about eating well, it is important to:
What should I do if I think someone may have an eating disorder?
An eating disorder is a mental health condition where someone uses the control of food to cope with feelings and other situations. Unhealthy eating behaviours may include eating too much or too little or worrying about your weight or body shape. Anyone can get an eating disorder, but the majority start between the ages of 12 to 20. With the right and early treatment, most people do recover from an eating disorder.
It can be very difficult to identify that someone you care about has developed an eating disorder. It can also be very upsetting to see someone you care about suffering with an eating disorder.
Remember, you don’t need to be an expert on mental health to offer support. Often small, everyday actions can make the biggest difference:
What should I do if I think someone is struggling to afford food?
A range of support is available for those experiencing financial hardship including:
More information about ways to access this support is available via the Council website.
The Council’s website also includes information about getting wider financial support.
The debt section on RotherHive also includes other information about getting wider financial support.
Tips to eating well
Rotherham Council - Money Matters
Provides financial advice and support, including support with food. You can seek help & advice through their website.
GISMO
A directory of voluntary sector organisations. GISMO provides an online directory of not-for-profit organisations providing help and support to people in Rotherham.
Better Health
Provides advice and support around healthy eating.
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