FOOD CORNER: HEALTHY TIPS TO LIVE BY

Don't skip breakfast
Breakfast kick-starts your metabolism and helps you to be alert and awake throughout the day. Make sure you always eat a nutritious breakfast. Make it wholesome and make it count.

Cook your food from the scratch
This is one of the most important life skills you can learn. It allows you to have complete control of what goes into your food.

Eat a balanced diet
Aim to eat a balanced diet that contains each of the food groups in the correct proportions.

Drink enough water
Water is an essential part of your diet. Drink plenty of water and avoid empty calories from things such as fizzy drinks, energy drinks or juices with added sugar. Eat your calories don't drink them.

Eat nutritious calories
Make sure the majority of your energy intake comes from nutritious calories that also provide your body with nutrients like vitamins, minerals, protein, fibre and good fats. Avoid empty calories.

Understand what you are about to eat
Make an effort to learn about the food you're eating – we all need to understand where food comes from and how it affects our bodies.
 

Eat varieties
Fill your diet with a wide range of fruits, vegetables, lean meats, fish, eggs, pulses, nuts, seeds, wholegrains and naturally low fat dairy foods. When it comes to fruit and veg, different colours provide your body with the different nutrients it needs to stay strong and healthy – it's not just greens that are good for you!

Read the small print
It's important to read packaging correctly. Be aware of the recommended portion sizes, and the sugar, salt and saturated fat contents. Remember that not all E-numbers are bad, but too many is often a bad sign.

Keep exercising
Exercise is an extremely important factor in staying healthy so try to be as active as you can.

Sleep well
Make sure you get enough sleep – it's an essential part of being healthy and directly affects how well we are able to learn, grow and act in life. While we're asleep, our bodies have that all-important time to repair.

As put together by Dareen