Chapter 4 - Putting It Into Practice: What Does a Healthy Diet Look Like?
What does a diet look like considering the WCRF recommendations? What sort of proportions should we be aiming for in a meal or across a day? What does a healthy portion size look like? In this article aims we'll answer these questions.
Putting it into practice - what does a healthy diet look like?
In the UK, we have the Eatwell guide - a visual representation of the types of foods and drinks that make up a healthy diet. However, Perci’s expert dietitians prefer to refer to the Canadian food guide shown below, which they feel more accurately describes the current global dietary recommendations.
For portion sizes, we prefer to use a hand as a guide rather than weighing out foods. The British Heart Foundation has a useful article and infographic to help you learn more about this.
Five principles of a healthy diet
A healthy diet is about balance and variety. It includes a wide array of nutrient-rich foods that provide our bodies with the essential macronutrients, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants that we need to thrive. Here are some key principles to keep in mind:
1. Fill at least half of your plate with colourful fruits, vegetables, and salads, to provide fiber for digestive health as well as a range of micronutrients.
2. Choose wholegrains over refined white grains for sustained energy and gut health benefits. These should make up about a quarter of your plate.
3. Opt for lean proteins like fish, poultry, tofu, beans, chickpeas, and lentils. Aim for a quarter of your plate to be protein, which is important for building and repairing tissue, supporting muscle health, and keeping you feeling full and satisfied.
4. Include healthy fats from sources like oily fish, nuts, seeds, avocados, and olive oil. These are essential for brain function, hormone production, and overall health.
5. Cook with ingredients that are additive and preservative-free wherever possible, to minimise the number of processed foods you eat.
By aiming for a rainbow of colour and variety across your day and week, you can nourish your body, support your recovery, and enhance your overall quality of life.
You may also find it useful to look at the British Heart Foundation information on sugar, salt, and fat.
Ultimately, eating healthily is about balance. If you aim to make healthier choices 80% of the time, use the remaining 20% to have more food freedom to find a balance where you can enjoy all the foods that you love within your diet.