User's comments:
This is my daily menu – please tell me if it's healthy?
Breakfast:
Pronutro (chocolate flavour) with 2% milk
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Lunch:
Chicken, meat or fish with vegetables, potato and rice
Dinner:
2 Crackerbreads with fish paste or Marmite
I drink about 5 cups of coffee per day and I use Equal tablets as sweetener. I walk about 3km per day and also do weight training occasionally.
Expert's comments:
Firstly, I would like to congratulate you on eating three meals a day. This is an important step for any healthy eating plan and to achieve or maintain an appropriate weight. Daily exercise is another essential part of achieving a balanced lifestyle. Well done in ensuring these elements remain part of your daily routine.
Your breakfast and lunch seem adequate although it is unclear how much you're actually eating. I am also unsure how your vegetables, potatoes, meat, chicken and fish are prepared.
Make sure you practice the following guidelines in preparing your food:
Use low-fat cooking methods: boil, steam, grill, braai over coals, bake in the oven, poach, stir-fry, microwave. Don't fry food. If you do need to fry food, use very little oil (canola or olive oil) or try to prepare food with no oil at all.
Remove all visible fat from meat before preparation. Avoid the skin of the chicken and ideally remove it prior to cooking.
Limit the amount of gravies and sauces you use, or prepare low-fat variations.
Limit the addition of any form of extra fat during food preparation (e.g. margarine, butter, cream, mayonnaise, oil, cheese).
If you use fat, choose low-fat options for mayonnaise, salad dressings and margarine, and use sparingly.
Read food labels to assess fat content. A product is low fat if it contains < 3g fat/ 100 g and fat free has < 0.5g fat/ 100 g. Practically, choose foods that contain fat between 3 and 10% and try to stick to about 10 to 13 g fat/ meal. This can be achieved by adding only 1 fat to a meal and following the above-mentioned cooking methods.
Below is also a guide for portions from the various food groups:
CARBOHYDRATES/ STARCH: Approximately the size of your fist; a tennis ball; 1 slice of bread
PROTEIN: The palm to length of your hand (no thicker than the ‘pinky joint’); 1-2 packs of cards
FRUIT: Size of your fist; a tennis ball
VEGETABLES: Unlimited
DAIRY: 1 cup of low fat milk; 1 small tub low fat/ fat free yoghurt; matchbox block of cheese; 250-300 ml drinking yoghurt
FAT: 1-2 level teaspoons oil (canola/ olive), ‘lite’ margarine, butter, peanut butter, regular mayonnaise; 1 tablespoon reduced oil/ ‘lite’ mayonnaise and salad dressing; ¼ medium avocado; any spreads ‘thinly’ on breads/ crackers; 1 small handful of nuts or seeds
Your dinner is the one meal that doesn't seem to be balanced. It lacks protein, a fibre-rich starch, a healthy fat, vegetables and fruit.
Overall, your diet seems to be lacking in vegetables and fruit. These are the vitamin and mineral power houses of your diet and you should ideally be following the 5-a-day rule, i.e. 5 different fruits and vegetables every day. This will also ensure more appropriate fibre intake.
In South Africa we are actually spoilt for choice with the variety of fruits and vegetables which are literally there for the picking and are for the most part easily accessible and relatively affordable. Don’t take it for granted and start enjoying a more diverse spread of foods.
If you are hungry between meals and find that you experience blood sugar lows, consider including a snack in between. You could incorporate your daily recommended fruit at this time.
Try to minimise your coffee intake to no more than 2 cups a day. Remember that caffeine is a chemical stimulant of the central nervous system. Once consumed, it quickly enters the bloodstream through the stomach and small intestine and goes directly to the central nervous system. There, it stimulates certain chemicals in the brain that produce an energising effect on the body. This effect can be felt approximately 15 to 45 minutes after consumption, and reaches a peak within 30 to 60 minutes.
It would be wise not to drink coffee on its own, i.e. take it with or after eating a balanced breakfast (e.g. fibre-rich cereal with low-fat milk and a fruit) or mid-morning and mid-afternoon snack. This will prevent sudden peaks followed by equally dramatic dips in blood sugar.
Water should be your drink of choice. Drinking water throughout the day is an excellent habit to adopt. The latest daily recommendation is 10 glasses (250ml) for women. So, keep a water bottle at your desk or in your car and sip on it throughout the day.
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