Switch from things like sugary puddings to more refreshing ones like fruit, which also counts towards your 5 A DAY. It’s also a source of vitamins, minerals and fibre which are good for your health.
The NHS Change4life campaign has a new smart phone and tablet app featuring a Meal Mixer – with lots of quick, easy, healthier recipes with enough combinations to eat a different daily menu every day for 6 years – and a handy shopping list function to help people make healthy choices in the supermarket.
Good natural sources of the B Vitamins include meat, poultry, fish, dairy, nuts, pulses, whole cereals, potatoes, brown rice, and some vegetables.
The B Vitamins allow the body to store and use the energy from food, keep red blood cells and the nervous and digestive systems healthy, as well as skin, the eyes and muscles.
If you don’t eat meat, you need to get your protein and healthy fats from alternative sources e.g. nuts, seeds, beans, pulses and soya.
Good sources of vitamin A include cheese, eggs, oily fish such as mackerel, milk, fortified low-fat spreads and yoghurt. Liver is a particularly rich source of vitamin A but shouldn’t be eaten during pregnancy.
Vitamin A strengthens immunity against infections, helps vision in dim light and keeps skin and the linings of some parts of the body, such as the nose, healthy.
Shellfish such as prawns and mussels are low in fat and a good source of the minerals selenium, zinc, iodine and copper.
Vitamin D is naturally obtained through exposure to sunlight and from foods such as oily fish, eggs, fortified fat spreads and some fortified breakfast cereals.
White fish such as cod, haddock or plaice are very low in fat, making them one of the healthier, low-fat alternatives to red or processed meat, which tends to be higher in fat, especially saturated fat.