With so much convenience and fast food about many of us don't eat as well as we used to, opting for pre-prepared foods instead of cooking from scratch. If we carry on like this, nine out of ten of our kids risk growing up with dangerous amounts of fat in their bodies and this can contribute and increase the risk of life-threatening diseases like cancer, type 2 diabetes, stroke and heart disease - so it's really important we do something about it! With nearly two thirds of the adult population overweight or obese in England, the risks to health are huge, therefore everyone needs to eat well and move more to live longer.
Diet and physical activity levels can significantly impact both positively and negatively on overall health. Top tips for a healthy lifestyle sets out eight simple steps to a healthy life. Many people opt for diets as a quick fix to losing weight but fad diets do not work long-term and in fact can lead to more weight gain. Healthy eating means eating a varied diet containing foods from all the main food groups as part of your daily lifestyle to ensure your body gets the goodness it requires from birth to adulthood. Check out the age-appropriate sections for more detailed healthy lifestyle advice for early years, children/ young people, adults and older people
It's not just diet that's essential as part of a healthy lifestyle, being active is equally as important. Adults should aim for a minimum of 150 minutes per week of moderate-intensity aerobic activity to maintain an increased heart rate, which brings about important health benefits. For children of walking age and above, a minimum of 3 hours per day of being active is recommended. More information on importance of being active and links to local initiatives can be found under physical activity section
Remember – Eat well, move more, live longer!
There are a range of services available in Portsmouth and some very useful national resources if you want to make healthy changes to the way you eat or if you want to lose weight.
Services in Portsmouth
We have information on healthy eating on our eat well for adults and eat well for children pages where you can find out more about healthy choices.
We also have a weight management iphone app under development - this will provide information on healthy eating and weight loss, and help you set goals for your eating habits, activity and weight loss, keeping track of your progress.
Locally, there are a number of free services that can help you with healthy eating and losing weight. Please see adult weight management for more information.
Services across England
Change4Life gives advice and tips on making small changes to the way you eat and the amount of activity that you do. Visit the website for more information: http://www.nhs.uk/change4life/
NHS Choices has lots of information on healthy eating and losing weight, and some great tools to help you work out your BMI and what should be on your food shopping list – Visit the website for more information http://www.nhs.uk/livewell/healthy-eating/Pages/Healthyeating.aspx
Please see seperate information on each service to find out how to access them.
More information about adult weight management services can be found here adult-weight-loss-services
More information on healthy eating for adults can be found here eating well for adults
More information about healthy eating for children under 5 can be found here eating well for the early years
More information about healthy eating for children over 5 can be found here eating well for children
Portion and snack swaps - we were all brought up to finish the food on our plates, but sometimes it’s more than we really need. These days larger portion sizes are also more readily available, which does mean that it’s very easy to eat too much.It can also be easy to eat food that contains too much fat and sugar. So we can eat more calories than we need, without even realising we’re doing it.
The links below provide tips to help you avoid accidentally eating too many calories - sticking to these simple changes will help you towards a healthy weight.
