A Healthy Lifestyle

Parents cooking healthy meal of vegetables and fresh bread with their children

Eating healthily, which includes eating your five-a-day of fruit and vegetables, can help you towards a healthier lifestyle. And if you are looking after a family, making time for mealtimes can make it easier for you to encourage your family to eat more healthily.

Here are some tips to help with mealtimes:

  • Try to organise the day around three regular mealtimes. It’s easier to keep children from pestering for snacks if they know when their next meal is coming.
  • Start at breakfast. It is often described as the most important meal of the day and it’s a great way to make sure that your kids get the energy they need early on in the day so that they are less inclined to snack on sweet foods during the morning. Try low sugar cereals or toast and if you add chopped fruit or a glass of unsweetened fruit juice then that counts toward their 5-a-day too!
  • Eat together when you can. Children like to copy their parents, brothers, sisters and friends, so if you can get them to eat together or you can eat with them, they can see and copy others eating a variety of foods.
  • Make meals fun! Get the children involved and make a real occasion out of your meals so they look forward to sitting down together and eating.
  • Make a date. If you don’t have time to eat as a family all the time, try setting aside particular days that suit everybody and make it a time you all keep free.
  • One-pot meals such as stews, casserole or healthy curries are great for sharing and easy to prepare.
  • Eat More Fruit and Vegetables. On average, people who eat lots of fruit and vegetables tend to be healthier and live longer.

 

Parent encouraging kids to eat healthy at mealtime

What are the health benefits if I eat plenty of fruit and vegetables?

  • You have a lower chance of developing cardiovascular diseases or of having a stroke. 
  • You have a lower chance of developing some cancers such as bowel and lung cancer.

Fruit and vegetables also:

  • Contain lots of fibre which helps to keep your bowels healthy.
  • Contain plenty of vitamins and minerals, which are needed to keep you healthy. 
  • Are naturally low in fat.
  • Are filling but low in calories -  helping you to keep your weight under control.