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Eating well, feeling great

Food is your fuel. The better the quality of your fuel, the better you'll feel.

Eating well should be easy but there are so many mixed messages in the media it can make food choices difficult. Our body requires certain nutrients to be healthy and we need to eat the right foods to supply those nutrients. Scientists have made this easy for us by researching what foods provide the nutrients we need, and by categorising foods into groups, with simple recommendations on how much we should eat from each food group every day.

We’ve got a link below to the Ministry of Health guidelines for you to read if you are interested. These are solid guidelines, backed up with solid research.

There are many other excellent nutritional resources available if you are looking to overhaul your diet, but a note of caution, please do make sure that any advice you take is backed up by proper research, as from time to time we all hear a buzz about the latest miracle food or diet. The reality is, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

You can get free printed copies of any of these guidelines from the Ministry of Health, plus guidelines for babies and children. There’s a lot of useful information on nutrition on the Ministry website, so if you’d like to dig deeper visit www.moh.govt.nz/nutrition

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Reading food labels

Confused about what’s a ‘healthy choice’? Criteria do change with different foods so we can’t provide generalised information, but this guide from Consumer NZ is handy for specific foods.

You might also find it helpful to:

• Look at the ‘per 100g’ column when comparing foods
• Check the recommended serving size =- you may be surprised!

Guide reproduced from www.consumer.org.nz with the permission of Consumer NZ.

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A local opportunity

Diabetes Otago runs supermarket tours with a qualified dietitian who will take you around a local supermarket and show you how to read food labels, choose healthier foods, and even choose healthier versions of your favourites. There is a small charge depending on numbers. If you’d like to register phone 03 474 0240.

What's for tea?

Tired of cooking the same old dinners? Wondering how to make your favourite recipes a bit healthier? Looking for new dessert ideas? Check out these links for some inspiration. We particularly like
www.healthyfood.co.nz
www.healthyas.org.nz
www.5aday.co.nz
www.vegetables.co.nz
facebook.nutritionfoundation.org.nz/kitchen.php
www.livesmart.co.nz
www.heartfoundation.org.nz

OTHER LOCAL ACTIVITY INITIATIVES

If you'd like to find out more about physical activity and local initiatives to encourage people to be more physically active, here are some links to interesting websites.

Dunedin City Council
Sport Otago

MoveMe is a Getting Dunedin Active Initiative involving many project partners with major sponsorship from the Dunedin City Council