It’s so important in setting you up for the day, it will fill you up, prevent you snacking on foods high in fat/sugar and can kick you off with a boost of micronutrients.
Eat the rainbow, mixing up your choices with the seasons and aiming for at least five 80g portions of fresh, frozen or tinned veg and fruit every day of the week.
Starchy carbs are wonderful and provide a large proportion of the energy we need to move our bodies, and the fuel our organs need to function. Choose fiber-rich wholegrain and wholewheat varieties when you can, which take longer to break down, are slow-releasing, and give us a more sustained level of energy.
Found mainly in plant-based foods, and also classed as a carbohydrate, most of us need to up our fiber intake.
While protein is an integral part of our diet, it does, like everything else, need to be eaten in the right amounts. Think of protein as the building blocks of our bodies – it’s used for everything that’s important to how we grow, repair, feel, break down and absorb things, and how we fight disease and infections.
Whenever you can, trade up to organic food, both for your own health and for the good of the planet. If we start to readdress what we buy, cook and eat, gradually buying better and wasting less, that’s only going to help to move our food system forward in a positive and more sustainable way.
Dairy foods, milk and dairy alternatives (such as fortified almond or oat milk) offer us an amazing array of nutrients. Just remember that it’s organic milk, yoghurt and small amounts of cheese, rather than butter and cream, that we should generally be favouring as the portion of dairy in our meals, to maintain a healthy diet.
Of course, fat consumption needs to be controlled, but a healthy diet does require good fats, so choose unsaturated sources where you can, such as olive and liquid vegetable oils, nuts, seeds, avocado and omega-3 rich oily fish.
If you’re veggie or vegan there are wonderful ways of getting your omega-3 from plants. Check out chef and plant-based food blogger, Bettina Campolucci-Bordi’s ideas to get inspired.
To be the very best you can be, staying hydrated is absolutely key. After all, water is essential to life.
It sounds simple, but getting enough sleep is absolutely essential. It’s one of the biggest contributors to good health, giving our bodies that crucial time they need to grow, heal and repair.
Movement is incredibly important, and being active should be a natural habit in all aspects of daily life – let’s all challenge ourselves to be more naturally active each day, and quite simply to move a bit more!
And do this every week to give your liver a break. Regardless of quality, alcohol, as far as your body is concerned, is not nutritious and is toxic, and it’s very high in calories, too. It’s also been responsible for some of the worst behavior on the planet!