The food you eat can make a big difference to your wellbeing - eating a healthy diet means you're more likely to keep your body healthy. Otherwise, you risk various health disorders such as obesity, diabetes or cancer.
Following a healthy diet and staying physically active can help you keep your weight healthy. Don't follow crash diets - it is much better to make small, permanent changes to the food you eat.
The Eatwell Guide now replaces the Eatwell plate as the main tool showing you a healthy balanced diet. It no longer represents a 'plate', but still shows the proportions of the foods and drinks that make up a healthy diet. These food groups have been updated to take into account the new dietary recommendations to eat more fibre and less sugar.
Although some of the proportions of the plate have slightly changed, the general principle is still the same: eat plenty of fruit, vegetables and plain starchy carbohydrates (particularly wholegrains), some dairy, meat, fish, pulses and other sources of protein, and foods that are high in fat, salt and sugar should be eaten less often and in smaller amounts.
The Eatwell Guide also provides information on hydration, calorie guidelines and front-of-pack nutrition labelling.
Follow our top tips for a healthy diet:
· base your meals on starchy foods
· eat lots of fruit and veg
· eat more fish - including one portion of oily fish a week
· cut down on saturated fats and sugars
· try to eat less salt - no more than 6g a day for adults
· get active and try to be a healthy weight
· drink plenty of water
· don't skip breakfast.
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