Healthy Eating

The short-term benefits of a healthy diet are that it:

* helps you stay in good shape
* maintains healthy skin, hair, eyes and nails
* gives you the energy for day-to-day living, and for exercise
* helps concentration, memory and mood
* supports your immune system, to help keep infections at bay
* and allow you to recover more quickly from illness
* promotes a healthy and regular bowel



The long-term benefits of a healthy diet are that it:

# reduces your risk of health problems such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease, various cancers, high blood pressure, stroke, cataracts and osteoporosis
# helps you stay fitter and healthier as you age



There are a number of dietary related risk factors which will lead to problems such as heart disease. These include high blood cholesterol and being overweight

High cholesterol levels:-Cholesterol is a fatty type substance in the blood. It is produced by your liver or absorbed from some foods you eat. It is needed to make cell walls and some hormones.

There are two types of cholesterol:

Bad cholesterol ( LDL), and good cholesterol ( HDL). Bad cholesterol dumps itself inside your blood vessels. This allows cholesterol to build up and can result in a blockage. The job of good cholesterol ( HDL) is to pick up the cholesterol from your blood vessels and remove it from the body.


What affects your cholesterol level

1. Eating too much, especially saturated fat
2. Being overweight
3. Eating too many foods that are high in cholesterol
4. Having a family history of high cholesterol

Being overweight

If you are overweight, it means that your heart has to work harder to pump the blood around the body

What affects your weight?

1. Eating too much fat
2. Eating too many sugary foods
3. Drinking too much alcohol
4. Mot eating enough high fibre foods
5. Not exercising enough

Handy tips of how to improve your diet

1. Cut down on foods that contain a lot of fat
2. Eat plenty of fruit and vegetables, wholegrain breads, and cereal foods that are high in fibre
3. Limit the amount of sugary foods you eat such as cakes, biscuits, sweets, soft drinks, jams, syrups and toppings.
4. Cut down on the amount of salt that you eat
5. If you drink alcohol, limit the amount you drink
6. Don’t forget to drink plenty of water