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Activity FiveThis activity concentrates on the physical aspects of health and well being, particularly healthy eating. By the end of this activity you will be able to:
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Activity Four
This activity mainly concentrates on the physical aspects of health and well being, with a particular focus on healthy eating.
Please note that the advice in this activity is general advice and is not for people with specific dietary needs.
Exercise 18 -Healthy Eating Quiz
To test your own knowledge of food, complete the Healthy Eating Quiz. This is just for fun but will also help you gain knowledge about good food.
1 What are the seven essential components (including nutrients) of a healthy diet? (1 point for each answer) A _____________________________ B _____________________________ C _____________________________ D _____________________________ E _____________________________ F _____________________________ G_____________________________
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How well did you do? (Answers to the quiz are in Appendix 2)
(You can mark your quiz yourself. You do not need to share your score with the group.)
| Your score: | |
| 0 to 8 | Never mind, the next section should help to improve your knowledge |
| 8 to 14 | Not too bad, but it looks like you are still unsure about some things |
| 15 to 20 | Excellent, you certainly know about nutrition in food and healthy eating |
Healthy Eating Platter
Many people do not know what makes up a healthy diet. With busy lifestyles, many people neglect their diet and turn to high fat, high sugar and processed convenience foods as an easy option.
A healthy diet provides a balance of all the nutrients which play a role in keeping us healthy. If any of the nutrients are missing from our diet, this has a negative effect on our body. This activity will help you identify the essential nutrients which are needed in a well balanced diet. The seven components including nutrients of a healthy diet are carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins, minerals, fibre and water. Examples of foods containing these are illustrated in the food platter shown below. Your meal should consist of food from all the categories shown.
Below the table provides some examples of the foods in the categories shown in the platter. This will help you choose the right kind of food and drink in your daily meals.
| Vegetables, fruits and fibreCereal, bread, roti, rice, pasta, potatoes | |
| Pear Apple Banana Orange Kiwi Mango Tomato Peas, Carrots Green beans Onions, Radish Broccoli, Aubergine, Mushroom Homemade vegetable soup (not tinned) |
Cereals Oats Bread Bread roll Pitta bread Roti Naan Chapati Rice Potato Scone Pasta e.g. macaroni, noodles, spaghetti |
| Meat, fish and alternatives | Milk and dairy foods |
| Tinned fish, e.g. tuna Eggs Baked beans Lentil Daal, Nuts, Tofu |
Milk Yoghurt Butter milk Lassi Cheese Paneer Ice cream |
| Foods containing fat and foods containing sugar | Water |
| Pastry Fried foods e.g. chips, fried eggs Biscuits e.g. digestives, jaffa cakes Crackers Sugary ice cream Fruit juice (especially if not fresh) Fizzy drinks, Mousse Sweets, Chocolates Laddoo, Barfi Rasgulla, Baklava Butter and margarine, Malai, Oil, Ghee |
Tap water Mineral water Sparkling water |
Exercise 19 -Thinking about healthy eating
To help you to start thinking about eating healthy food, complete the exercise over the page, it will tell you what you are currently eating.
What Do You Eat?
Please record everything you ate and drank yesterday (if you were fasting, then record what you ate at the meals when you did eat)
Breakfast
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Mid morning
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Dinner
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Mid afternoon
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Tea
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Supper
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Extra’s
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You should use Exercises 19 & 20 (see previous page and page 64) once again in 3 months to see whether you are eating better as time goes on (6 copies of the Exercises have been provided for you, but make photocopies if you need more.)
Guidelines on Healthy Food and Drinks
A healthy diet is one that contains all the necessary nutrients to keep your mind alert and your body healthy and at low risk from illness. Your body needs a regular input of all the nutrients, including fats, to achieve this.
The main nutrients are carbohydrates, proteins, fats and oils, vitamins, minerals and fibre. Water is also important to help digestion and to help the body remain hydrated. It is recommended that people drink at least 1.2 - to 2 litres or six to eight glasses of water a day.
Food containing Carbohydrates - such as bread, cereal, rice, pasta, chapatti, roti, naan
Most of the items in this group are high in carbohydrates, low in fat, and are important because they provide energy. Some of them are also high in fibre. 6-11 servings are recommended per day.
One serving (35g or 1oz) may include one of the following:
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Food containing Vitamins and Minerals - such as Vegetables and Fruit
Fruit and vegetables provide important vitamins and minerals which help to prevent disease and infection. They also provide fibre which helps to prevent digestive problems and reduces the risk of colon cancer. Fruit and vegetables also contain cancer fighting antioxidants. It is important to eat 2 - 4 portions of fruit and 3 - 5 portions of vegetables per day i.e. 5 - 9 portions per day.
One serving or portion of fruit and vegetables = 80g or 2oz may include one of the following:
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A well balanced diet with vegetables and fruits will give all the vitamins and minerals you require, so you do not need to take any further supplements. Minerals are required for the growth and maintenance of bones, cells and tissues. Minerals include zinc, selenium, iron, iodine, potassium, calcium and sodium.
Salt
Below is some helpful information on salt and sodium from the Foods Standards Agency:
Adults should have no more than 6 grams of salt a day. On average people are actually having about 9.5g of salt a day. This means we are eating nearly 60% more salt than we should. Eating too much salt can raise your blood pressure and people with high blood pressure are three times more likely to develop heart disease or have a stroke than people with normal blood pressure. When most people think of salt, they think of shaking it on their food, or adding a pinch to cooking. But the salt we add ourselves makes up just a quarter of the salt we eat. Three-quarters (75%) comes from processed food, such as some breakfast cereals, soups, sauces, biscuits and ready meals. Lots of people think they don’t eat a lot of salt, especially if they don’t add it to their food. But don’t be so sure! In the UK, 85% men and 69% women eat too much salt. And remember that three-quarters of the salt we eat comes from foods that already contain it. So you could easily be eating too much salt without realising it. Find out more about salt at www.salt.gov.uk |
| Sodium |
Salt is made up of sodium and chloride and it’s the sodium in salt that can be bad for your health. You will usually see sodium included in the nutrition information on food labels. Some products also say how much salt they contain. Adults should have no more than about 2.5g of sodium a day, which is about 6g of salt. See over the page for advice on checking labels. |
| Checking labels |
If you look at the nutrition information on a food label, there will usually be a figure for how much sodium is in 100g of the food. Sometimes, you will see information about a portion/serving too. What’s a lot and what’s a little sodium? 0.5g sodium or more per 100g is a lot of sodium. 0.1g sodium or less per 100g is a little sodium. This means if you have a 500g ready meal that contains 0.5g sodium per 100g, you will be getting 2.5g sodium from the meal. This is the maximum we should be having in a whole day. If the amount of sodium is between 0.1g and 0.5g per 100g, this is a moderate amount of sodium. Sometimes sodium is listed in milligrams (mg). This means you need to divide the milligrams by 1000 to work out the number of grams. Try to avoid eating lots of foods that contain 0.5g sodium or more per 100g. If you eat a lot of foods that are high in sodium, it can be very easy to have too much. Try to choose foods that are lower in sodium when you can. |
Food containing Proteins - such as meat, poultry, fish, eggs, pulses (beans, chickpeas, lentils and daals
Foods from this category contain important nutrients such as protein, calcium, iron and zinc. These are particularly important for healthy tissue and muscles, for promoting healthy teeth and bones and for preventing anaemia, tiredness, irritability and headaches. Each day you should have two to three portions or servings of meat, poultry, fish, eggs or pulses/daals and two to three servings of milk, yogurt and cheese groups.
One serving or portion may include one of the following:
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Fats
Fat is an essential part of our diet as most of our nervous system, including the brain, depends on fat for healthy growth and development. However, fat should be used only sparingly, as too much fat is linked to a higher risk of heart disease, blood pressure and strokes. Fats can be divided into two main types, saturated and unsaturated.
- Saturated fats are considered ‘bad’ fats as they increase the amount of bad cholesterol in the body. These fats can only be used for energy and any that is not used is stored in tissue and around major organs in the body. Foods that are high in saturated fats include red meats, cheese, butter, eggs, milk, biscuits, crackers, cakes and pastries. You should not eat too much of these foods.
- Unsaturated fats are good fats as they can be digested easily and they help the body to absorb essential vitamins, such as A, D, E, and K. Our bodies need about 30g of polyunsaturated fats to repair body cells. Unsaturated fats are found in olive oil, soya oil, sunflower oil, pistachio nuts, almonds, walnuts, cashews, oily fish like tuna, salmon, sardines, herring, trout and mackerel. These fats should be included in your diet on a regular basis.
Reading nutritional labels
By looking at the nutrition facts label displayed on food packaging, you’ll be able to see what type of fat foods contain and also what proportion of the food is made up of sugar and salt. If you can get into the habit of choosing foods low in these nutrients, you can make healthier choices about the foods you eat. The Food Standard Agency has set a ‘threshold’ limit on the percentage of these nutrients foods should contain. What this means is the maximum amount that is considered healthy and the nutritional content will be found on the back of most food packs. The grid over the page may help you to make healthier food choices.
| Nutrient | This is a little | Threshold per 100g | this is alot |
| Saturated Fat | 3g | 5g | 20g or more |
| Sugar | 2g or less | 10g | More than 10g |
| Salt* | 0.25g | 1.25 g | 1.25g |
| Sodium | 0.1g | 0.5 g | 0.5g |
* Salt = sodium x2.5
Water
The average person will lose 1.5 litres of water a day through sweat, breathing and urine. It is important to drink 2 litres of water a day to replace these fluids. Tiredness, headaches, indigestion and joint pain can be caused by dehydration. Water is the quickest and safest way of flushing out toxins in the body. Drinking water will improve your skin and the condition of your hair, improve your blood circulation and digestion, increase energy levels, slow down the signs of aging, reduce anxiety and nervousness, and help lose weight.
Below is some helpful information on water from the Foods Standards Agency (www.eatwell.gov.uk/healthydiet\nutritionessentials/drinks/drinkingenough)
Water makes up about two-thirds of our body weight. It is important for this to be maintained because most of the chemical reactions that happen in our cells need water. We also need water for our blood to be able to carry nutrients around the body. As your body works it produces waste products and some of these waste products are toxic. The body gets rid of these toxins through the kidneys in urine and urine is mainly made up of water. We also lose water through evaporation when we breathe and sweat. As the temperature rises and as we do more activity, this increases the amount of water the body loses. To stay healthy, you need to replace the fluids you lose. And don’t forget, if the weather is hot or you are exercising, you will be losing even more water. |
| How much water do we need? |
| In climates such as the UK, we should drink approximately 6 to 8 glasses of fluid every day to stop us getting dehydrated. In hotter climates the body needs more than this. We also get some fluid from the food we eat. |
| Caffeine in drinks |
Drinks that contain caffeine, such as tea, coffee and cola, can act as mild diuretic which means they make the body produce more urine. This affects some people more than others, but it also depends on how much caffeine you drink and how often. It’s fine to drink these sorts of drinks, but we should also drink some fluids each day that don’t contain caffeine. |
Exercise 20 - Look at recommended amounts to see if what you eat is healthy and if necessary try to change your eating behaviour.
Now using the list you have from Exercise 19, plot the foods on the chart below this will help you develop a picture of what your eating habit seems to be at present and whether you can change it.
How healthy is you eating? |
The platter below gives daily recommended portions of a healthy balanced diet. A portion in each category is described in the handbook.
Date: _____________
Looking at your answers in the exercise about the food you ate, tick the number of boxes in the platter above (one tick per portion of the food you ate in a particular category). Now compare that with the recommended portions mentioned above and see how balanced your diet is.
If appropriate please give 6 possibilities of how you could make your diet more like the balanced diet indicated above.
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Alcohol
There are risks attached to drinking alcohol. Alcohol is bad for the nervous system and it can leave you feeling lethargic and low in energy. Alcohol can also lead to kidney and liver damage. It can also lower your immunity. Alcoholic drinks are high in calories but have no nutritional benefit. Your body cannot store the calories from alcohol in the same way it does the calories produced by food. This means that when you drink alcohol on top of a normal diet, the alcohol calories are used first by your body while the calories from food will be stored as fat. If you eat less to compensate for the alcohol you drink, you will not get the vitamins, proteins and other necessary nutrients that food contains.
Drinking moderate amounts of alcohol doesn’t often cause any problems, however, drinking too much can be harmful. The Department of Health advises that men should not drink more than three to four units of alcohol per day, and women should drink no more than two to three units of alcohol per day
So what is a unit of alcohol and how many units are there in my favourite drink? See over the page for more information.
Know your alcohol unitsONE unit of alcohol is equal to:
Some popular drinks
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What are the long-term and short-term effects of alcohol?
| Short-term effects | Long-term effects |
| Slowed reactions and responses | Overweight and Obesity |
| Drunkenness, hangover, dehydration, impotence | Increased risk of developing cancer of the throat, mouth, stomach and lungs |
| Decreased blood sugar levels leading to tiredness, irritability and fainting | Damage to the heart, liver, brain, stomach, and strained relationships |
| Vitamin B deficiency | Breathing problems |
| Loss of sleep, causing irritability and frustration | Depression and anxiety |
| Low blood pressure | High blood pressure |
Drinking and driving
The legal limit in the UK is 80 milligrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood (usually equivalent to approx 2 pints of lager for men but this is dependent on age and body weight). But there is no failsafe guide as to how much you can drink and stay under the limit. It can depend on many factors such as the amount and type of alcoholic drink, your weight, sex, age, food intake and metabolism.
The only safe option is not to drink any alcohol if you plan to drive and never offer an alcoholic drink to anyone else who is driving.
Alcohol affects your ability to drive safely as your reaction times are impaired and you’re unable to judge speed and distances. People who drive at twice the current legal alcohol level are at least 50 times more likely to be involved in a fatal car crash.
Smoking
There are over 4000 chemicals in cigarette smoke, including carbon monoxide, arsenic, ammonia, nitric acid, nicotine, cadmium, acetone and tar. Smoking has been shown to kill half of the people who smoke regularly. The most common conditions caused by smoking are coronary heart disease, cancer of the throat, lung cancer, chronic bronchitis, emphysema and stroke. Smoking also prevents you from absorbing Vitamins B and C and can cause digestive problems. If you would like more information on how to stop smoking, visit the following websites:
www.givingupsmoking.co.uk
www.ash.org.uk
www.gasp.org.uk
Foods which help with minor ailments
When we are feeling unwell, this may be due to an imbalance of nutrients in our diet. We can start to feel better by making small changes to the foods we eat.
Here are some suggestions:
| Health condition | Foods that may help with the particular condition |
| Anxiety or Depression | Bananas, broccoli, oats |
| Cancer | Fruits and vegetables, oily fish, olive oil, soya, tofu |
| High Cholesterol | Apples, beans, lentils, garlic, soya, yogurt |
| Heart problems and anaemia | Beetroot, berries, garlic, tomatoes, cabbage, carrots, mangoes, spinach and liver |
| Digestive problems | Fruit and vegetables, olive oil, tomatoes, yogurts, high fibre foods such as oats |
| Low energy | Apples, pears, bananas, broccoli, spinach, yams |
| Eyesight | Carrots, spinach, sunflower seeds |
| Immune system | Garlic, honey, oily fish, fruits, vegetables, seeds, tomatoes |
| Premenstrual problems | Bananas, beans, lentils, carrots, nuts, oily fish |
| Coughs and colds | Apples, blackberries, honey, nuts, oily fish, garlic, olive oil, cranberries |
| Back pain, arthritis | Apples, beans, lentils, honey, nuts, oily fish (especially tuna), seeds, strawberries |
| Sleeping problems | Bananas |
| Strong teeth and bones | Carrots, oily fish, milk, cheese, spinach, mangoes, tofu, yoghurts |
| Thyroid problems | Cabbage, oats, vegetables |
*Please note that this is not scientifically proven however there is popular belief and consistent reports that these foods can help with these conditions.
Final tips for healthy eating
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Case Study - Healthy eating and exercise
Ten months ago Julie Mitchell weighed 20 stones and was a size 26. She had low motivation and low ability to self care. She has now lost 92 lbs. - this is her story:“When I was 20 stones I was lethargic, unhealthy, unhappy and had no selfconfidence. I frequently visited my doctor with a variety of aches and pains, always knowing that her advice would be to ‘lose weight’. I knew this would be the solution to many of my medical problems, but I couldn’t seem to do it. I’d tried unsuccessfully to diet many times before, but had always been left feeling disillusioned and bigger than ever. I had tried attending slimming clubs where I was told what I could eat, how much I could eat and how much I should weigh. I was introduced to ‘good foods’ and ‘bad foods’ and I was left feeling guilty if I strayed away from my diet sheet. Feeling let down I’d turn to food for comfort and the cycle repeated and my weight increased. I felt totally out of control of my own body. In September 2004 I started programme on self care of the problem of excessive weight. This was different from other diet programmes. I learnt that I had all the answers to solve my eating problems myself. All I needed was to be re-educated and the rest was up to me. I have been re-educated in aspects such as food groups and types, portion control, cholesterol and fats, exercise and the psychology surrounding my eating habits. |
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Since attending this programme I am now able to make healthier choices to fit in with my lifestyle. I don’t eat special ‘diet type’ foods, just a sensible healthy balanced diet. I have three normal meals a day and healthy snacks in-between. And I still enjoy meals out, but without feeling guilty. Now I make food choices which are very different to my old eating habits and I try to fit in as much physical activity as I can. More importantly I have re-educated my family and friends and their eating habits have changed as a result of my new learning. I have increased my level of activity and I cycle and walk everywhere and I swim with my daughter.
I now feel full of energy after losing 92 lbs and I am a size 12/14. I am a healthier, happier and more confident person and seven stones lighter!! I feel younger, more attractive and full of life. I now have the knowledge I need to put healthy eating into practice and I have the control back. When I finished the course I joined a self care maintenance group.
Once changes have been made it is very hard not to go back to old habits. Our self care group provides constant support and helps to keep motivation levels high. We share recipes and attend exercise classes together. We offer suggestions to each other when people get stuck, based on our own experiences and learning. I can now lead a full active healthy lifestyle and it’s all based on my own choices, which feels very empowering. Interestingly, since I have lost my weight I don’t have as many aches and pains and I don’t see my doctor as often now. Perhaps this is a good thing as I don’t think she would recognise the new me now even if I went back.” Educating people allows them to make better and more informed choices and gives the person more control over their life. Julie is an example of this. She scored her self care level at 20% before going to slimming clubs, which rose to a level of 40% while going to the clubs. After attending the self care programme Julie felt completely in control (100% self care) and realised that she was the only one who could make the changes to not only lose the weight, but to keep the weight off. Julie now uses her knowledge to help others. |
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