Healthy Shopping basket

The following tips will help you to make your shopping basket as healthy as possible.

Fruit and vegetables

Fruit and vegetables can help improve blood pressure, diabetes control, weight loss and cholesterol levels.  The more fruit and vegetables in your shopping trolley the better.

What is a portion?

• 1 large fruit e.g. apple, banana, large orange, pear
• 2 small fruits e.g. clementines, plums, apricots
• 1 small glass fruit juice
• 2 tablespoons of dried fruit or 3 apricots, dates or prunes.
• 3 tablespoons of cooked vegetables
• 1 dessert bowl of salad.

Starchy Foods e.g. bread potato, rice pasta

Starchy foods eaten regularly in moderation can help with controlling blood glucose levels.  Some starchy foods are broken down more slowly than others (low glycaemic index foods) these should be included regularly to help control blood glucose.

Low glycaemic index foods:

• Breakfast cereals based on oats, barley and bran e.g. porridge (not quick cook), no added sugar museli.
• Breads made with wholegrains e.g. pumpernickel, granary, pitta bread
• Basmati or quick cook rice
• Pasta
• Noodles
• Yams and sweet potatoes
• Fruit loaf (including malt loaf).

Dairy foods

Milk and dairy products provide a good source of calcium which is needed for bone health. Low fat dairy products included on a daily basis may help to maintain body weight.  They are also digested quite slowly therefore do not cause blood glucose levels to rise quickly.

Aim for 3 portions a day

1 portion=

• 1/3 pint milk (semi skimmed or skimmed)
• Match box sized piece of hard cheese
•  2 tablespoons low fat soft/cottage cheese
• 1 pot of diet or low fat yoghurt.
• 50g (2oz) milk pudding

 Meat, fish and alternatives.

This group provide protein which is needed for general health.  However due to the natural fat content it is worthwhile limiting how much is eaten.

How to make healthier choices;

• Buy lean varieties of red meat and remove any visible fat or skin.
• When cooking stews, casseroles, curries or chili reduce the meat portion and add peas, beans or lentils.  This will reduce the fat content but increase the fibre content of the meal.
• Fish is naturally low in fat and should be included twice a week, one portion should be oily fish e.g. salmon, trout, fresh tuna, sardines and mackerel.

Oils/margarines

Some fat is essential in the diet to provide vitamin A, D, E,and K.  However due to the high calorie content it should be eaten in small amounts.  Some fats are high in saturated fat which is linked with heart disease, so chosing the right type of fat is also important.

• Aim for only 1/2 a tablespoon oil per person in cooking
• Choose oil that is high in monounsaturated fat e.g. olive oil, vegetable oil or rapeseed oil.
• Choose margarines that are high in monounsaturated fat e.g. olive oil based margarine(Bertoli/supermarket own brand), Utterly Butterly, Olive Gold etc

Fatty/sugary foods

These foods can be included as part of a healthy diet but due to them being very high in calories and/or fat they should be limited to prevent unwanted weight gain.

Sugary drinks will cause your blood glucose to rise quickly, so stick to diet or no-added-sugar soft drinks.  If you add sugar to hot drinks try cutting it out or try using a sweetener e.g. Canderel, Sweetex, Hermasetas or Splenda.

Healthier snacks

• Plain popcorn
• Rice cakes
• Tea loaf
• Medium slice of malt loaf
• Fruit
• Plain/fruit biscuits e.g. garibaldi, fig rolls, rich tea, Hob Nobs
• crumpets
• current teacakes
• bagels

Alcohol

Alcohol can be included, however it should be drunk in moderation with 2 alcohol free days per week.  Alcohol contains a lot of empty calories and can contribute to unwanted weight gain.

Daily allowances: 2 units/day for women and 3 for men with 2 rest days per week.

1 unit=

• 1/2 pint ordinary strength beer, lager or cider
• 125mls 8% alcohol wine
• 100mls sherry or fortified wine
• 25mls spirit
• 200mls alcopop.

Reading food labels

When comparing food labels of similar products use the per 100g values and choose whichever is the lowest in total/saturated fat or salt or sugar.

When sugar is labelled it is not separated into added and natural sugar therefore the ingredient list needs to be looked at as well as the nutritional content list.  Look for sugar, glucose or glucose syrup, honey or maltose.  Items listed at the beginning means that there is quite a lot in the product, items at the bottom of the list are in small quantities.

Salt/sodium - to convert sodium to salt multiply the figure/100g by 2.5, to convert salt to sodium divide the figure/100g by 2.5.