healthy eating

Now that virtually all products display their nutritional content details is there any websites that I can check to see what levels I should be looking for. Its not much use to me being able to see how much fat/sugar is in something if I don't know whether its too high or not. I checked some of the healthy eating websites and they simply list items in a general sense rather giving you specific details to check against.

Re: heathly eating

I read somewhere years ago that below 3grams fat per portion (i.e. not per 100g) is considered low fat, so that's what I use as a guide.

Re: heathly eating

Try for loads of info on healthy eating... but there are loads of websites on nutrition out there. Here's another one I found through http://www.indi.ie . Here's another interesting link with lots of interesting info: [broken link removed]

Lots of foods also include a brief run-down of the RDA (recommended daily allowance) of the main food groups on their packaging along with the nutritional content of the product which is a useful reminder when you're shopping.

As a rough guide some maximum RDA for an average woman are as follows: calories (kcal) 2000, fat 70g, salt 5g, fruit and vegetables (more vegetables than fruit!) 400g (min.), about 70g protein. These figures are about 20% higher for men.

A few tips for getting started on healthy eating (from someone who isn't qualified to offer them but just passing on what I've picked up along the way!):

• Base your meals around wholemeal or wholefood carbs (brown rice, brown pasta, brown bread, spuds, etc.)
• Heap on the veg
• Cut back on meat, esp red meat (high in saturated fats) and cured meats (ditto and high in salts and other additives) (meat is not the only source of iron, protein and B-vitamins!)
• Choose unsaturated fats (rough guide: they're liquid at room temperature e.g. olive oil, sunflower oil) over saturated fat (solid at room temperature e.g. butter, fat in meat)
• Minimise salt, fat and sugar intake... beware of packaged, processed foods esp. for these. Take a look, you'll be shocked at the amount of these three items in such food. Its not just ready-meals either, bread, breakfast cereals, etc. can have a very high salt and sugar content. Don't be afraid to cook from scratch, it can be far quicker and easier than you might expect and almost always more economical than buying rubbish in a jar or packet. I'll throw a few of my favourite 'quick'n'easy' after-work recipes your way if you're interested.
• Grill, steam, bake or eat raw rather than roast or fry
• If you're trying to cut back on calories a really quick and painless way of cutting back is to choose water instead of other calorie-rich drinks such as fizzy drinks (a nutri-nightmare! Don't go there!), juices, milk and alcohol (oh, how difficult it is to refuse a glass of wine!)
• Watch out for compromising the nutritional value you get out of food from making inappropriate food choices or poor food combos e.g. if you want to increase your iron intake you could choose high-cocoa (>=70% cocoa) chocolate... yummy! ... because it contains iron (YAY!) but it also contains a bucket load of fat and sugar (BOO!) so its not such a good source to rely on for your iron requirements. Also on the subject of iron to maximise your absorption of iron include vitamin C-rich food (e.g veg and fruit) with your source of iron and avoid tannin-containing foods (e.g. tea, coffee, wine) when consuming your iron.
• If you don't have such a healthy diet right now it may take a little while for your taste pallet to adjust to new tastes. You might initially miss the saltiness or sugariness of foods you've eaten before. But stick with it and introduce lots of variety so you have a good chance of finding foods that are good for you that you like and you're pallet will adjust... Eventually you won't want to revert to saltier, sugarier foods (if you've ever given up sugar in your tea/coffee and after a while tasted tea/coffee with sugar in it you'll know what I mean!)
• Enjoy your grub!

I personally think that if you are sreious about healthy eating, you should buy food that you dont need a label to know what the fat or salt content is, you can see by looking at it like fresh veg / meat and fish.

The general rule of thumb is,

Less than 3g fat per 100g is considered low fat. Not per portion. Remember to look at the saturated fat content.
Less than 10g per 100g has a low sugar content. However, if there is higher sugar content look at the ingredients to check the type of sugar, sugar such as glucose and honey will be ok.

Healthy eating also depends on whether you are eating to lose weight or just want to feel better about doing it. So take this into consideration.
For example, eating potatoes might be considered healthy eating, but eat more than you should and they are as bad as everything else.

Please note I am not a dietician or anything, this is just advice I got recently and I am reaping the benefits big time.

Best of luck

huskerdu said:

I personally think that if you are sreious about healthy eating, you should buy food that you dont need a label to know what the fat or salt content is, you can see by looking at it like fresh veg / meat and fish.

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I very rarely eat processed foods so generally don't have labels to look at but if you drink a pint of full fat milk (around 3g fat per 100ml) that's over 15g fat just for that!!

Coolaboola - would be interested in those quick & easy recipies if you have time!

Icantbelieve, why not check out some of the health education websites like www.vhi.ie ? You could also check out the Food Safety Authority (sorry cant remember the link but you can google it i'm sure) site too.

New answer to old post. Joined since then so have not seen this thread before.
www.fitday.com
is the site that you may be looking for. You just put in what you have eaten today and they tell you what you are missing. It even allowes you to put in anything from McDonnalds or a bunch of other leading restaurant brands.

Oops! And I just saw my2leftfeet's request for quick'n'easy recipes - sorry for the delay. I'll post a couple. Here's one to start you off.

Backpacker's Pasta

So named because I learnt it from a fellow backpacker in a hostel in Australia.

Ingredients:

Pasta (wholemeal if you're feeling healthy, fresh if you're feeling decadent)
Tablespoon of olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
A couple of cloves of garlic, very finely chopped (adjust amount to taste)
1 courgette, chopped (I like chunky bits but chop to taste)
8 button mushrooms, chopped (again, I like to quarter mushrooms to make for chunky bits but slice them if you prefer)
1 tin chopped tomatoes
Basil (a couple teaspoons of dried or a couple of tablespoons of chopped fresh if you have it)
Salt
Freshly-ground black pepper
Freshly grated parmesan for serving

Method:

Heat olive oil in saucepan over a medium heat.
Add onions and garlic and cook gently over a medium heat for three minutes. Stir them and don't let them brown.
Add the courgette and mushrooms and cook for a further three minutes until the veggies are starting to become tender (they should start to reduce a little
Add the tin of chopped tomatoes, salt, pepper (to taste) and basil (if you're using fresh basil add it in later, towards the end of the cooking, as fresh basil is best not cooked for too long).
Simmer for as long as you can but try to get a minimum of 15 minutes. The longer the better.
Cook the pasta in well salted water and drain.
Stir the sauce into the pasta and mix.
Serve immediately garnished with a generous grating of parmesan.

This is a really handy basic recipe which can be tinkered about with easily by adding other ingredients in e.g. chopped peppers, olives, or leaving some out e.g. mushrooms, courgettes (which leaves a good basic tomato sauce).

The recipe above should serve four. If you're cooking for less than four you can keep the sauce in the fridge (once its cooled down!) for a couple of days and cook you're pasta fresh each night.