Healthy Diet and Healthy Weight

Whether you're trying to lose weight, get in shape or just live a healthier life, eating well has lots of benefits. From improving your health to saving you money, there are lots of reasons to eat well.

If you eat too many foods that are high in fat and sugar, and you're not as active as you should be, you're more likely to put on weight.

You can still enjoy the foods you love, by making some small changes and food swaps to help you cut back. Switching from dairy products that are full fat and high in sugar to ones that are low fat and have less sugar can really help

Very Brief Intervention

Ask

How important is it for you to eat healthily?

  • Empathise that this not always easy to eat the recommended 5 portions of fruit and vegetables per day but we can all cut down on fat, salt and sugar whenever we can.
  • Eating healthily and the right amount can help you feel your best, stop you gaining weight and lower your risks of getting some diseases.
  • When it comes to watching your weight, it's not just food you need to watch out for as some drinks can also be high in calories.

How would you most like to improve what you eat, if you could?

  • If the answer indicates a desire to increase fruit and veg into the diet then you may wish to signpost them to the NHS Choices '5 a day top tips' (in ACT section). 
  • If the answer indicates a desire for healthy food recipes then you may wish to signpost them to the Change for Life website which has some useful resources in for healthy meals and lunchboxes (in ACT section).

Do you check the labels on food packaging when you are out shopping to help you make healthier choices?

What types of drinks do you have in a typical day?

Assist

Explain the some food manufactures and supermarkets display nutritional information on packed foods and this can be useful when comparing different food products

  • Front-of-pack labels, such as the label in the above image, usually give a quick guide to: 
    • energy 
    • fat content 
    • saturated fat content 
    • sugars content 
    • salt content

  • Some front-of-pack nutrition labels use red, amber and green colour coding
  • Colour-coded nutritional information, as shown in the image above, tells you at a glance if the food has high, medium or low amounts of fat, saturated fat, sugars and salt 
    • red means high 
    • amber means medium 
    • green means low 
  • In short, the more green on the label, the healthier the choice. If you buy a food that has all or mostly green on the label.

Explain that the Eatwell guide below shows how much of what you eat overall should come from each food group

  

A balanced diet contains foods from all the five major food groups. The Eatwell Guide above encourages us to: 

  • eat at least five portions of a variety of fruit and vegetables every day 
  • base meals on potatoes, bread, rice, pasta or other starchy carbohydrates; choosing wholegrain versions where possible have some dairy or dairy alternatives (such as soya drinks); choosing lower fat and lower sugar options
  • eat some beans, pulses, fish, eggs, meat and other proteins (including two portions of fish every week, one of which should be oily) 
  • choose unsaturated oils and spreads and eat in small amounts 
  • drink 6-8 cups/glasses of fluid a day If consuming foods and drinks high in fat, salt or sugar, have these less often and in small amounts.

Would you consider swapping some high sugar drinks for low sugar alternatives?

  • Did you know that swapping one sugary soft drink with water can have huge benefits to your health.  One typical can of regular soft drink can have around 7-10 teaspoons of sugar which is around the 39 grams of sugar which itself exceeds the recommended maximum sugar intake for an average adult for a whole day
  • Did you know that tooth decay from high sugary food is the biggest cause of hospital admissions among young children, would you be interested in some information on sugar swaps for food and drink?

Act

Self Care

NHS Better Health - Lose Weight

Lose weight - Better Health - NHS (www.nhs.uk) – information and advice, and links to offers from approved partners

NHS Weight Loss Plan app, a 12-week programme following NHS advice on losing weight safely. Available from the App Store and Google Play. To find out more you could watch our app demo

Healthy Steps email programme:

Healthy Steps is a budget-conscious email programme designed to encourage families to take steps to improve their health and wellbeing. ​It provides regular reinforcement and feedback to help families set and achieve goals. Particular focus on lower income families with children aged 5-11​.

The programme invites families/parents/carers to complete a quiz, leading to a recommendation of the best NHS approved health options for your family. There are currently three on offer: sugar reduction, 5 A Day or planned cooking​. Those who sign up will get eight weekly emails with hints and tips on their chosen theme, as well as weekly challenges. Built-in feedback loops means that they will also be provided reinforcement and encouragement after set-backs to help them in their journey through Healthy Steps.

Local Support and Contact Details