Instead, prepare lunches at home, and pop some nuts, fruit or carrot sticks in your bag to resist the lure of the vending machine. Be wary that your late-night trip to a fast food joint or family-sized tub of ice cream could mean you exceed your daily calorie allowance in one hit.
Aim for less-processed varieties of carbohydrates, such as wholemeal pasta. Keep the skins on potatoes for added fibre and ensure you also eat plenty of fruits and vegetables and protein.
Healthy eating 26 Aug Meal schedule. Every day, you need to eat different foods from the five food groups. Fresh food is best. Foods that are processed and contain unhealthy fats and sugar, which is why cake, lollies and soft drinks are not recommended. If you eat lots of these your body can get sick. The food you eat starts a journey in your mouth where your teeth and tongue chew it into smaller parts. When you swallow, the chewed food passes into a long tube called your digestive system.
Here, the food is broken down into tiny pieces that can be used by your body. This is called digestion. Foods like wholegrain bread, vegetables and fruit contain carbohydrates and fibre, whereas nuts, oils and spreads contain healthy fats. Your body uses the carbohydrates and fats as energy so you can run and play games. Eating a varied, well-balanced diet means eating a variety of foods from each of the five food groups daily, in the recommended amounts. Because different foods provide different types and amounts of key nutrients, it is important to choose a variety of foods from within each food group.
Some foods do not fit into the five food groups because they are not necessary for a healthy diet. They tend to be too high in saturated fat, added sugars, added salt or alcohol, and have low levels of important nutrients like fibre. These foods and drinks can also be too high in kilojoules energy. Regularly eating more kilojoules than your body needs will lead to weight gain.
But if these foods regularly replace more nutritious and healthier foods in your diet, your risk of developing obesity and chronic disease, such as heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, and some forms of cancer, increases. The Australian Dietary Guidelines include a small allowance for healthy fats each day around 1—2 tablespoons for adults and less for children.
Consuming unsaturated healthy fats in small amounts is an important part of a healthy diet. It helps with:. The best way to include healthy fats in your diet is to replace saturated fat that you may currently be eating such as butter and cream with a healthier, unsaturated fat option such as olive oil or a polyunsaturated margarine. Learn more about fats and oils. How much you need from each food group each day depends on your age, gender and activity levels.
The Australian Guide to Healthy Eating outlines how many serves you and your family need each day, and standard serve sizes for foods and drinks. If you do not eat any foods from this group, the following foods contain about the same amount of calcium as a serve of milk, yoghurt, cheese or alternatives:.
This page has been produced in consultation with and approved by:. Children who skip breakfast may lack sufficient vitamins and minerals including iron, calcium, zinc and vitamin B2. These provide energy for the brain, muscles and other organs. Wholegrain carbohydrates are the preferred choice since they also provide fibre and vitamin B. Fibre is essential to keep your bowels working smoothly, and vitamin B allows the body to utilize the energy it received from carbohydrates.
The more active we are, the more carbohydrates we require. Protein-rich food includes eggs, seafood, poultry, red meat, pulses, milk, yoghurt, cheese , tofu, nuts and insects. This group is vital for maintaining muscle tissue, red blood cells, and hormone and enzyme production. We need more of these kinds of food in periods of growth i. A lot of high-protein foodstuffs also contain fats and fat-soluble vitamins; fish and eggs are two good examples.
Vegetables and other plants, such as pulses, fruit, nuts, seeds and herbs are rich in vitamins, minerals, fibre and phytonutrients 4 , such as antioxidants. Vitamins and minerals keep our metabolism and organs running efficiently, which is essential for staying healthy. A number of vitamins act as antioxidants. These repair tissue damage caused by metabolic processes or some environmental pollutants. Vegetables, herbs and fresh fruit are also satiating while relatively low in energy, meaning they help maintain a healthy weight.
There can never be too many vegetables on the plate provided there is a variety. A balanced meal definitely does not need to be split up like the plate shown here.
This is a guide to give an idea of the proportions of each food group that make up an ideal meal.
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