Healthy Eating

Why can’t healthy stuff taste nice, like chocolate?

I am sure you have thought this when you’ve been encouraged to eat up your vegetables. And you may have heard people talk about healthy eating.

What do they mean by healthy eating? And why, I hear you ask, is this important to me?

You are at a stage in your life where you are lucky enough to be still growing. And just as a gardener may give his plants feeds to ensure good strong growth for his plants, you too need a healthy diet to make sure that you continue to grow strong and stay well.

Healthy eating can also:

• Give you more ENERGY for doing things with your friends
• Help you CONCENTRATE and boost your memory – important for learning

Think about a car. Cars need a particular fuel to run properly. Cars don’t work very well when they don’t have enough fuel or when they are filled with the wrong sort of fuel. People are like this too; they need to be filled up with enough of the right sort of fuel so that their bodies work properly. The fuel that people need is food and the types of food that we eat are important for different reasons.

Nutrition experts often talk about a ‘balanced’ healthy diet. What does this mean?

You might imagine ‘balanced’ to be a plate of food spinning on the end of a pole – like those circus entertainers do.

A ‘balanced’ diet actually means eating a variety of foods each day, to provide all the essential bits and pieces needed for you to grow well and have energy.

Let’s look at this in more detail. Foods can be placed into one of 5 groups. Just like a group of friends, they all have things in common, but each member is a little bit different.

Foods for energy (also called carbohydrate or starchy foods)

This group of foods is packed with energy - they give us energy to do all the things we want to do in a day.

Members include bread, potatoes, rice, pasta, breakfast cereal and other starchy foods

Foods for repair and growth (also called protein foods)

This group of protein foods supplies building blocks. Imagine these building blocks to be like Lego bricks. Our body will use these building blocks to help us to grow and, if we hurt ourselves, or if we need an operation in hospital, these foods help us to heal and to get better.

Members include meat, fish, eggs, cheese, peas, pulses e.g. chickpeas, lentils, kidney beans etc., and other protein sources e.g. nut cutlets, soy mince, etc

Some of the foods in this group are also a good source of iron. Iron is important for keeping your blood healthy. Red meat is the best source of iron. Other foods such as pulses also contain iron, but it is more difficult for the body to use this iron. If you drink a glass of orange juice with these foods, it helps the body to use the iron in them more easily.

Foods for tools

This group of foods provides ‘tools’ for helping the body make things happen e.g. release energy from starch, and use protein properly.

Have you ever made up a picture by cutting out shapes and sticking them on paper, etc? You may have needed different ‘tools’ to help you put it together e.g. scissors, glue, stapler etc. Well, the body needs certain foods to use as ‘tools’ for making and doing things. These ‘tools’ are known as vitamins and minerals.

This group is called Fruit and vegetables and includes apples, bananas, pears, salad vegetables, peas, sweet corn, carrots, broccoli, peppers and many, many more.

Foods for healthy bones, teeth

These foods are a good source of an essential tool called calcium–needed by the body to promote strong bones and teeth.

This group is called Milk and dairy foods and includes milk, cheese, yoghurts and milky puddings.

Foods for treats

These foods are usually high in fat or sugar or both!

One of the reasons why chocolate tastes so nice is that one of its ingredients is fat. Generally fat makes our food taste nice. Although the body needs fat to work well, we only need a small amount.

Sugar is also part of this group. Like fat we don’t need as much as we normally eat. To keep well and full of energy, it is best to eat less sugar and sugary snacks.

Members include crisps, chips, fried foods, sweets, chocolate, cakes and biscuits.

Eating lots of fat is not good for your heart and eating lots of sugar is not good for your teeth. Eating large amounts of these foods can make you put on too much weight and that is not healthy for your heart.

So … a ‘balanced diet’ means eating a selection of all foods, in particular protein, starchy, milk and dairy foods, fruit and vegetables and some fatty and sugary foods. If you can do this, it will help you stay well, grow strong and always be full of energy!

…By the way, occasionally eating things like chocolate is part of a balanced healthy, enjoyable diet!

Livia La Camera
Paediatric Dietitian
October 2008