Healthy Eating

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Published on Monday, 10 July 2006

Being overweight is usually a result of an imbalance in the energy taken in (food & drink) and energy used (activity). Typically this imbalance is only small (50-100 extra calories daily), but over time this adds up and leads to obesity.

 

Successful weight control (management) is about learning new healthy eating habits for life, not as a short term solution. Managing your weight means developing new habits, changing behaviour is key.

Use of a food and activity diary should be encouraged as a simple way for patients to start really understanding what they doing well and where improvements to a healthier lifestyle could be made.

Healthy Eating Advice can in the main be kept to a simple 3-point plan:

1.	establish regular meals ¬ñ including  breakfast
2.	balance food groups - all foods can be  part of healthy eating, just keep to the  right balance
3.	reduce portion sizes ¬ñ eating too much of  any food group can lead to weight gain