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Living healthily

 

Making changes to your eating habits and becoming more active can get you on track to achieving a healthy weight.

To achieve a healthy weight, it is recommended you enjoy a balanced diet and regular physical activity.  The ‘Eatwell plate' gives you a guide when planning what to eat.

All foods can be part of a healthy diet, but it’s the right balance and variety that is important for health. The 'Eatwell plate' shows the proportions needed for a healthy balanced diet.  Foods from the largest groups should be eaten most often.

 

 

Fruit and vegetables

These are low in fat and calories. Aim for a variety of 5 portions a day.

• They make a quick, low-calorie snack.
• Fresh, frozen, dried and canned all count towards your 5-a-day, as does fruit juice.
• Fill up on vegetables or salad and limit dressings and sauces.
• Look out for the 5-a-day symbol on the packaging.

What’s a portion?

1 whole fruit (eg apple); a handful of grapes; a cereal bowl of salad; 2 small fruits; 3 heaped tablespoons vegetables; 150ml glass of 100% juice; 1 heaped tablespoon dried fruit. Dried fruit and fruit juice are a concentrated source of calories so keep to 1 portion a day.

 

 

Meat, fish and alternatives (lentils, pulses, eggs, nuts)

These are a great source of protein, iron and other minerals. Eat in moderation.

• Take the skin off chicken and trim any visible fat off meats before you cook them.
• Use low-fat cooking methods such as grilling, stir-frying, boiling or steaming.
• Include lentils and pulses in curries and stews as an alternative to meat as they are a great source of fibre and are low in fat.
• Limit high-fat meat products such as sausages, burgers and processed meats.
• Choose canned fish in brine, spring water or tomato-based sauces instead of oil.

What’s a typical portion?

50-100g cooked lean red meat or poultry or oily fish*; 100-150g cooked white fish; 1-2 eggs; 3 tablespoons beans, pulses orlentils; 2 tablespoons peanut butter or nuts.

 

 

Bread, other cereals and potatoes

These foods provide you with energy, are low in fat and should be included at each meal. To keep these foods low in fat:

• use skimmed or semi-skimmed milk on wholegrain cereals or porridge oats
• use spreads sparingly on bread and toast
• try tomato-based sauces instead of creamy sauces to serve with pasta
• enjoy potatoes, sweet potatoes, yams and plantain in their jackets, boiled or mashed rather than chipped or roasted in oil.

Should I be cutting out potatoes, rice, pasta and bread?

No.  Foods such as bread, potatoes, pasta and rice are relatively low in calories and can fill you up.  But adding creamy sauces, lots of butter, margarine or oil, or deep-frying potatoes, increases their fat and calorie content, which could result in weight gain.

 

 

Milk and dairy foods

These are a rich source of calcium and one of the easiest ways to achieve your daily calcium requirements is to consume 3 portions.

• Choose low-fat varieties – look out for our Be good to yourself range.
• Try skimmed or semi-skimmed milk.
• Try lower-fat cheeses such as ricotta or cottage cheese.
• Snack on low-fat yogurt with chopped fruit.

What’s a typical portion?

200ml glass of milk; 150g pot of yogurt; 40g hard cheese; 2 tablespoons cottage cheese.

 

 

Foods containing fats and foods containing sugars

Reducing foods high in fat and sugar, such as crisps, biscuits, cakes, pies, chocolate, sweets and soft drinks, can help you manage your weight.

• Swap mayonnaise, salad cream and oil-based dressings for fat-free or reduced-fat varieties – try vinegar with lemon or lime juice.
• Snack on fruit, low-fat yogurt or a currant bun.
• Use less oil in cooking – try using oil sprays and non-stick frying pans.

 

 

Alcohol and weight loss

Alcohol contains a lot of calories and provides you with few nutrients, so be aware of how much you are drinking.

Many alcoholic drinks will state on the label exactly how many units of alcohol 1 measure contains (by the end of 2009 all Sainsbury’s own-label alcoholic drinks bottles will have this information on the label).

• Find out more about responsible drinking

 

 

Label reading

Look out for Sainsbury’s traffic-light labelling on the front of food and drink.  You can see at a glance if the food you’re looking at has high (red), medium (amber) or low (green) amounts of fat, saturated fat, sugar, salt and calories.  To make a healthier choice, just try and go for more greens and ambers, and fewer reds. We have also added our traffic-light labelling to the recipes on our tip cards.

 

Our Be good to yourself range is all about balance.  We’ve controlled the amount of fat, sugar and salt in all food and drinks in this range. 

The nutrition panel on the back of pack can help you make sure you are eating a balanced diet.

It shows the amount of different nutrients per 100g – where space permits, we also give this information per serving.

We have used the traffic-light colour coding for the nutrition panel.  You’ll also find Guideline Daily Amounts (GDAs) on products.

These are a guide tothe daily amount of nutrients the average adult or child (5–10 years) should have.  They show what percentage of your GDA is in a portion of a product, so you can see the nutritional contribution it makes to your overall diet.

 

 

 

Cutting the calories and fat

By swapping existing foods for lower-fat alternatives, you can reduce the amount of calories and fat you eat, which can help you lose weight.  For example:

	Swap this	For this	Save
	60g (2oz) Cheddar cheese	60g (2oz) Edam cheese	50 calories, 5g fat
	2 digestive biscuits	1 medium banana	65 calories, 3g fat
	200ml glass full-fat milk	200ml glass semi-skimmed                milk	40 calories, 4.6g fat
	65g slice of choc fudge cake	hot cross bun	263 calories, 17.2g fat
	(Based on Sainsbury’s own-label products)

 

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