Smart Facts On Healthy Diet
Ten things you never knew about healthy diet – share these fascinating facts with your KS3 science students
- A healthy diet is a balanced one. This means eating a wide variety of foods in the right proportions
- A healthy diet helps protect against malnutrition including obesity and deficiency diseases
- Most people in the UK take in too many calories and the food and drink we eat contains too much fat, sugar and salt, and not enough fruit, vegetables, oily fish and fibre
- There is evidence that people who eat at least five portions a day of fruit and vegetables have a lower risk of heart disease, stroke and some cancers
- Evidence indicates that, to avoid unhealthy weight gain, total fat should not exceed 30% of total energy intake
- A healthy diet contains more unsaturated fats (found in plants) and less saturated fats (found in animal products)
- Keeping salt intake to less than 6 g per day helps prevent high blood pressure and reduces the risk of heart disease and stroke
- Nutrition labels on food tell us if a food is high in energy, salt, fats and sugar and can help us make healthy choices
- When it comes to drinks, water is a good choice as it hydrates you without adding extra calories to your daily intake. Fruit juices should be drunk in moderation because they contain free sugars
By Gemma Young (@snapshotscience) for Smart Learning.