1. Base your meals on starchy foods

Starchy foods such as bread, cereals, rice, pasta and potatoes are a really important part of a healthy diet. Try to choose wholegrain varieties of starchy foods whenever you can.

Starchy foods should make up about a third of the food we eat. They are a good source of energy and the main source of a range of nutrients in our diet. As well as starch, these foods contain fiber, calcium, iron and B vitamins.

Most of us should eat more starchy foods - try to include at least one starchy food with each of your main meals. So you could start the day with a wholegrain breakfast cereal, have a sandwich for lunch, and potatoes, pasta or rice with your evening meal.

Some people think starchy foods are fattening, but gram for gram they contain less than half the calories of fat. You just need to watch the fats you add when cooking and serving these foods, because this is what increases the calorie content.

Why choose wholegrain foods?
     Wholegrain foods contain more fiber and other nutrients than white or refined starchy foods.
     We also digest wholegrain foods more slowly so they can help make us feel full for longer.
     Wholegrain foods include:
     Whole meal and wholegrain bread, pitta and chapatti
     Whole wheat pasta and brown rice
     Wholegrain breakfast cereals

2. Eat lots of fruit and veg

Most people know we should be eating more fruit and veg. But most of us still aren't eating enough.
Try to eat at least 5 portions of a variety of fruit and veg every day. It might be easier than you think.
You could try adding up your portions during the day. For example, you could have:
  • A glass of juice and a sliced banana with your cereal at breakfast
  • A side salad at lunch
  • A pear as an afternoon snack
  • A portion of peas or other vegetables with your evening meal
You can choose from fresh, frozen, tinned, dried or juiced, but remember potatoes count as a starchy food, not as portions of fruit and veg.

Most of us should be eating more fish - including a portion of oily fish each week. It's an excellent source of protein and contains many vitamins and minerals.
Aim for at least two portions of fish a week, including a portion of oily fish. You can choose from fresh, frozen or canned - but remember that canned and smoked fish can be high in salt.

What are oily fish?

    Some fish are called oily fish because they are rich in certain types of fats, called omega 3 fatty     acids, which can help keep our hearts healthy.

How much oily fish?

    Although most of us should be eating more oily fish, women who might have a baby one day should     have a maximum of 2 portions of oily fish a week (a portion is about 140g). And 4 is the     recommended maximum number of portions for other adults.

Examples of oily fish
       Salmon, mackerel, trout, herring, fresh tuna, sardines, pilchards, eel

Examples of white or non-oily fish
     Cod, haddock, plaice, coley, tinned tuna, halibut, skate, sea bass, hake

     Shark, swordfish and marlin
     Don’t have more than one portion a week of these types of fish. This is because of the high levels of      mercury in these fish.

4. Cut down on saturated fat and sugar

      Fats

       How do I know if a food is high in fat?

Look at the label to see how much fats a food contains. Generally the label will say how many grams (g) of fat there are in 100g of the food.

Some foods also give a figure for saturated fat, or ‘saturates’. Use the following as a guide to what is a lot and what is a little fat per 100g of food.

      This is A LOT of fat

20g fat or more per 100g
5g saturates or more per 100g

      This is A LITTLE fat

3g fat or less per 100g
1g saturates or less per 100g
If the amount of total fat is between 3g and 20g per 100g, this is a moderate amount of total fat. Between 1g and 5g of saturates is a moderate amount of saturated fat.

Try to choose more foods that only contain a little fat (3g fat or less per 100g) and cut down on foods that contain a lot of fat (20g fat or more per 100g).

        Sugar

We should all be trying to eat fewer foods containing added sugar, such as sweets, cakes and biscuits, and drinking fewer sugary soft and fizzy drinks.

Having sugary foods and drinks too often can cause tooth decay, especially if you have them between meals. Many foods that contain added sugar can also be high in calories so cutting down could help you control your weight.

        How do I know if a food is high in added sugar?

Take a look at the label. The ingredients list always starts with the biggest ingredient first.

But watch out for other words used to describe added sugar, such as sucrose, glucose, fructose, maltose, hydrolyzed starch and invert sugar, corn syrup and honey. If you see one of these near the top of the list, you know the food is likely to be high in added sugars.

Another way to get an idea of how much sugar is in a food is to have a look for the 'Carbohydrates (of which sugars)' figure on the label. But this figure can't tell you how much is from added sugars, which is the type we should try to cut down on.

10g sugars or more per 100g is A LOT of sugar
2g sugars or less per 100g is A LITTLE sugar

If the amount of sugars is between 2g and 10g per 100g, this is a moderate amount.

Sometimes you will only see a figure for total 'Carbohydrates', not for 'Carbohydrates (of which sugars)', which means the figure also includes the carbohydrate from starchy foods.

Lots of people think they don't eat much salt, especially if they don't add it to their food. But don't be so sure!

Adults - and children over 11 - should have no more than 6g salt a day. Younger children should have even less.

Three-quarters (75%) of the salt we eat comes from processed food, such as some breakfast cereals, soups, sauces, bread, biscuits and ready meals. So you could easily be eating too much salt without realizing it.

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.

      How do I know if a food is high in salt?

  Salt is often listed as sodium on food labels.
  Salt = sodium x 2.5.

  Use the following as a guide to what is a lot and what is a little salt (or sodium) per 100g food.

  This is A LOT of salt
  1.25g salt or more per 100g
  0.5g sodium or more per 100g

  This is A LITTLE salt
  0.25g salt or less per 100g
  0.1g sodium or less per 100g

  Try to choose foods that are low in salt (0.25g salt or less per 100g).

6. Get active and try to be a healthy weight

It's not a good idea to be either underweight or overweight. Being overweight can lead to health conditions such as heart disease, high blood pressure or diabetes. Being underweight could also affect your health.

If you’re worried about your weight, ask your GP or a dietitian for advice. But if you think you just need to lose a little weight, the main things to remember are:
Only eat as much food as you need, Make healthy choices - it’s a good idea to choose low-fat and low-sugar varieties, eat plenty of fruit and veg and whole grains and Get more active It’s also important to eat a variety of types of food so you get all the   nutrients your body needs.

Physical activity is a good way of using up extra calories, and helps control our weight. But this doesn’t mean you need to join a gym.

Just try to get active every day and build up the amount you do. For example, you could try to fit in as much walking as you can into your daily routine. Try to walk at a good pace.

Whenever we eat more than our body needs, we put on weight. This is because we store any energy we don't use up - usually as fat. Even small amounts of extra energy each day can lead to weight gain.

But crash diets aren't good for your health and they don't work in the longer term. The way to reach a healthy weight - and stay there - is to change your lifestyle gradually. Aim to lose about 0.5 to 1kg (about 1 to 2lbs) a week, until you reach a healthy weight for your height.

We should be drinking about 6 to 8 glasses (1.2 liters) of water, or other fluids, every day to stop us getting dehydrated.

When the weather is warm or when we get active, our bodies need more than this. But avoid drinking soft and fizzy drinks that are high in added sugar.

8. Don’t skip breakfast

Breakfast can help give us the energy we need to face the day, as well as some of the vitamins and minerals we need for good health.

Some people skip breakfast because they think it will help them lose weight. But missing meals doesn't help us lose weight and it isn't good for us, because we can miss out on essential nutrients.

Research shows that eating breakfast can actually help people control their weight. This is probably because when we don't have breakfast we're more likely to get hungry before lunch and snack on foods that are high in fat and sugar, such as biscuits, doughnuts or pastries.

So why not go for a bowl of wholegrain cereal with some sliced banana and a glass of fruit juice for a healthy start to the day?