Water, drinks and your health

It’s easy to overlook, but choosing healthier drinks is a key part of getting a balanced diet. Many soft drinks – including instant powdered drinks and hot chocolate – are high in sugar. Food and drinks that are high in sugar are often high in calories, and having too many calories can make you more likely to gain weight. Some energy drinks are high in both sugar and caffeine. Checking the nutrition labels on soft drinks such as fruit juices and fizzy drinks can help you make healthier choices. The Eatwell Guide…

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Eight tips for healthy eating

These eight practical tips cover the basics of healthy eating, and can help you make healthier choices. Base your meals on starchy carbohydrates Eat lots of fruit and veg Eat more fish – including a portion of oily fish Cut down on saturated fat and sugar Eat less salt – no more than 6g a day for adults Get active and be a healthy weight Don’t get thirsty Don’t skip breakfast The key to a healthy diet is to: Eat the right amount of calories for how active you are, so that…

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Eating a balanced diet

Eating a healthy, balanced diet is an important part of maintaining good health, and can help you feel your best. This means eating a wide variety of foods in the right proportions, and consuming the right amount of food and drink to achieve and maintain a healthy body weight. Food groups in our diet The Eatwell Guide shows that to have a healthy, balanced diet, people should try to: eat 5 A DAY base meals on starchy foods like potatoes, bread, rice or pasta have some dairy or dairy alternatives (such as soya drinks)…

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The Eatwell Guide

The Eatwell Guide shows how much of what we eat overall should come from each food group to achieve a healthy, balanced diet. You don’t need to achieve this balance with every meal but try to get the balance right over a day or even a week. Download the Eatwell Guide as a PDF (2.41Mb). Eat at least five portions of a variety of fruit and vegetables a day Most of us still aren’t eating enough fruit and vegetables. They should make up over a third of the food we…

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How does sugar in our diet affect our health?

Most adults and children in the UK eat too much sugar. Cut down by eating fewer sugary foods, such as sweets, cakes and biscuits, and drinking fewer sugary drinks. The kind of sugar we eat too much of is known as “free sugars”. Free sugars are any sugars added to food or drinks, or found naturally in honey, syrups and unsweetened fruit juices. Many foods and drinks that contain added sugars can be high in energy (measured in either kilojoules/kJ or calories/kcal) and often have few other nutrients. Eating these foods too…

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New HIV infections down, but AIDS deaths rise 35% in 3 yrs

Deaths due to full blown AIDSin the city have jumped by nearly 35% over the last three years though the number of fresh HIV infections has shown a decline, shows figures collated by the Mumbai District Aids Control Society. They suggest that a majority of the HIV cases are detected in the 35-49 age group, indicating that awareness campaigns are probably not making early inroads. AIDS deaths rose from 945 in 2013-14 to 1,270 in 2015-16 (see box). Activists are alarmed that the year-on-year increase in fatalities has ranged from…

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