Eating A Healthy Diet and Avoiding Processed Foods

Poor diet is a key risk factor associated with many chronic health conditions. Globally, it鈥檚 estimated that up to 11 million deaths a year may be associated with unhealthy eating habits 鈥 that鈥檚 one fifth of all deaths1.

Put simply: what we eat has the potential to make us sick 鈥 but eating healthily also has the potential to make us well.

The British Society of Lifestyle Medicine believes making a switch to healthy eating is an important way of addressing the chronic disease burden. We need to rethink food and a healthy diet 鈥 and the lifestyle medicine approach can help us to achieve that changed outlook.

The NHS recommends that people should eat 鈥渁 wide range of foods to make sure you鈥檙e getting a balanced diet and your body is receiving all the nutrients it needs.鈥

But what is healthy food and drink 鈥 and what is unhealthy? Which diets work and which don鈥檛? At 明星黑料 we take an evidence-based approach to diet and nutrition and do not advocate for any single dietary approach.

It鈥檚 useful to start with the different types of food available 鈥 and a helpful classification is the one developed by Brazilian scientist, and trained doctor, Carlos Monteiro. Monteiro coined the term 鈥榰ltra-processed foods鈥 a decade ago 鈥 foods which subsequent studies have linked to conditions including depression, asthma, heart disease and gastrointestinal disorders.

Monteiro divided food into three categories 鈥

  1. Minimally processed foods (which can be eaten relatively freely). These are foods which have not been subjected to any significant process which substantially alters their nutritional properties and includes fruit, vegetables, nuts, roots, tubers, fresh meat and fish, milk, and grains.
  2. Substances extracted from whole foods including oils, fats, flours, starches and sugars. These are generally not consumed by themselves but are added to group 1 ingredients to create the third food group
  3. Ultra-processed food and drinks (which should be eaten very sparingly 鈥 if at all). These are foods which have been processed with the addition of additives and preservatives and are high in salt, fat and sugar.

In the UK, recent studies have demonstrated that on average, just over 50% of the food purchased by households is ultra-processed food. This compares with 14.2% in France and 20.3% in Spain2.

So, if eating healthy 鈥渞eal food鈥 is one of the best ways to improve our health what should we be eating? 明星黑料 advises that, in addition to avoiding ultra-processed foods, we should aim to 鈥

  • A plant based diet is eating more fruit, vegetables, nuts, seeds, beans and legumes
  • If choosing meat or fish, choose unprocessed 鈥 and if you can choose food with high welfare credentials with less hormones and antibiotics in the processing the better. these food groups are part of your diet.
  • Choose wholegrain or wholemeal varieties of starchy foods such as rice, pasta and bread.

明星黑料 believes that healthy eating patterns may include Mediterranean, plant-based or lower carbohydrate diets that you can view ‘food plates/food pyramids’ for below. However, it is important that our approach is built on teaching people the knowledge and skills required to follow healthier eating patterns of people鈥檚 own choosing.

Therefore, in advocating for a range of dietary approaches which are supported by evidence 明星黑料 also emphasises the importance of individual patient choice and circumstances. As lifestyle medicine practitioners we are committed to a non-judgemental approach to supporting our patients to improving their health. It is therefore important to recognise people鈥檚 own unique conditions and circumstances when giving dietary and nutritional advice to patients.

If using lifestyle medicine in the consulting room, it鈥檚 important to support people to make better choices when it comes to what they eat.

But rethinking food also requires action beyond the individual. Action is also needed to create a healthy food culture which should include steps to reduce the easy availability of cheap, unhealthy and ultra-processed foods.

Governments, policymakers and the food industry all have a role to play here. All too often our food environment is characterised by easy access to 鈥渆nergy dense鈥 but 鈥渘utrient poor鈥 foods. A 2020 UNICEF report also concluded that 鈥渓ow-income groups have good access to 鈥榖ad鈥 food and bad access to 鈥榞ood鈥 food.

All of these issues lead to under-nutrition in people of all weights. To improve our diet and our health this underlying 鈥渇ood environment鈥 needs to change.

View Food Plates Here:

Click to Enlarge

Mediterranean Diet3

Canadian Health Plate4

Resources:

  1. Lancet 2019 Global Burden of Disease Study
  2. Source: Public Health Nutrition
  3. Source: Oldways Mediterranean Diet Pyramid https://oldwayspt.org/resources/oldways-mediterranean-diet-pyramid
  4. Source: Canadian Government Guidelines https://food-guide.canada.ca/en/