By Naseerah Nanabhai
09:02:2022

Healthy eating starts with eating patterns and adopting healthy habits for your meals. It is about making beneficial choices when deciding what to eat and creating sustainable modifications to your regime.

What is a balanced meal?

A balanced meal is a combination of different food groups in moderate portions. Which typically consist of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, protein and healthy plant oils. These food groups have many varieties, which allow you to create various combinations for each meal.

What your plate should look like, i.e., portion sizes?

Fruits and vegetables are an essential food group and should fill up half of your plate. A quarter of the plate should consist of wholegrain, and the remaining quarter should be filled with protein. A few drops of healthy plant oils (or maximum a tablespoon’s worth) can be sprinkled anywhere.

What to drink?

While avoiding sugary drinks as part of following a healthy eating approach might be obvious, milk and juices should also be limited to one or two servings per day, and these can be replaced with water, coffee or tea.

Food to avoid

Foods that provide mainly calories and very little nutrition are considered empty-calorie foods and should be avoided. These include cakes, biscuits, doughnuts, processed meats, ice cream, chips, fries, pizza. Avoiding or limiting the consumption of these is vital in maintaining good health. Instead, aim to get your calories from foods rich in other nutrients as well.

In essence, a varied and healthy diet usually contains plenty of fresh, plant-based foods and limits the intake of processed foods. It should provide you with enough nutrition and help improve your overall health.