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Nutrition & Healthy Eating

This section will help you to increase your knowledge on nutrition, but what does that mean?

Well nutrition is the food and drink that our bodies need to work properly. Not all food and drink is nutritious (full of goodness), which is why we think it’s important for you to understand what is.

Food and drink, or nutrients, (and recommended daily portions) are divided into:

  • Proteins (2-3 portions)
  • Carbohydrates (6-11 portions)
  • Fruit and Vegetables (5 portions)
  • Dairy Products (2-3 portions)

A typical portion would be, for example, a small chicken breast or 2 boiled eggs (Protein), a slice of bread or 1 small teacup of low sugar breakfast cereal (carbohydrates), a bowl of salad or a banana (Fruit and Vegetables), a glass of milk or a 1" cube of cheese (Dairy).

It’s vital that we eat the right balance of nutrients to function at our best every day. If we eat too much of one thing, our body can suffer and we may feel ill, tired and irritable. So here is a portion chart for you to download and use, to check whether you are eating the right amount of food. The recommended portions for healthy eating is up to the dark orange boxes, and the portions can increase to the yellow boxes if you do more exercise and need to burn off additional calories.

the magic plateA great tool to help you eat the correct portions of food is the MAGIC plate. It not only helps you eat the right quantities, it also makes it easier for you to eat the right balance of the food groups we mentioned earlier, therefore making sure every meal is a healthy one! The treasure chest that you can see on the plate marks out the correct portion size for a chunk of cheese, while the magic circles helps you to control portions for pasta and rice meals. There’s also a MAGIC bowl which helps you to measure the correct portion size of cereals and deserts. Both the plate and bowl can be bought from www.thedietplate.com or you can ring 0845 330 6121 to order. The plate costs £19.99 plus postage or for both it’s £36.98 plus postage. Please mention SHINE when ordering, as every plate sold by us, helps to further the work we do.

You may also have heard people talking about the large amount of fat, sugar and salt contained in what we eat and drink these days and wondered what the right amount is.

Well to help us understand, the Food Standards Agency, which is the independent body that helps make sure the food and drink we eat is healthy and safe, have set a ‘threshold limit’ on the percentage of saturated fat, sugar, salt and sodium found in foods. What this means is the maximum amount that is considered to be healthy and you should find the amounts of each of these on most food packs. The following grid may help you to make healthier food choices as it shows what is too much and too little in your diet.

Nutrient This is a little Threshold per 100g This is a lot
Saturated fat 3g 5g 20g
Sugar 2g or less 10g more than 10g
Salt* 0.25g 1.25g 1.25g
Sodium 0.1g 0.5g 0.5g

(Please note these recommendations are for older children; *salt recommendations are much lower for children under the age of 11 years)

More about fat

Not all fat is bad for us; it’s mainly saturated fat that if eaten in large amounts over a long period of time, can cause problems with such things as the movement of blood around our body, the pumping of our heart and the functioning of our liver and brain. Good fats are in the form of Omega 3 and 6, but even large amounts of these can cause problems so it’s important that we eat the right balance, just as with all of the other nutrients.

Where can we find Omega fats?

Omega 3 – Mackerel, tuna, sardines, salmon, swordfish, sunflower seeds, flax seed

Omega 6 – Corn oil, sunflower oil, sunflower, pumpkin and sesame seeds, walnuts

So we’ve told you a bit about what is good for us, but lets see why it’s good for us.

Brain – We need lots of nutrients for our brains to help it to function properly, including glucose, which is usually converted from carbohydrates, but also lots of vitamins and minerals. For example:

  • Vitamin B1 found in peas, beans and watercress
  • Vitamin B3 is contained in some fish such as tuna, salmon and mackerel and also in chicken and turkey
  • Vitamin B5 found in eggs, mushrooms, avocados and lentils
  • Vitamin B6 contained in cauliflower, cabbage, bananas, kidney beans and brussels sprouts.
  • Vitamin B12 in dairy products, sardines, oysters, tuna, eggs, cottage cheese and turkey and chicken
  • Folic acid in wheat germ, sprouts, asparagus, spinach and broccoli.
  • Our brains also need Omega 3 and 6, potassium, sodium, niacin, calcium, magnesium, manganese, zinc and copper.

Eyes –

  • Vitamin A helps us to see in the dark. We can find it in dark green vegetables such as broccoli and spinach and in other vegetables like carrots and sweet potatoes, and also liver and watercress.
  • Vitamin B2 is also really important to keep our eyes healthy and we can find it in wheat germ, mushrooms, broccoli and mackerel!

Hair, skin and nails – To keep hair, skins and nails strong and healthy, we need:

  • Vitamin C found in lots of fruit and vegetables like broccoli, peppers, oranges, cabbage and kiwi fruit
  • Biotin found in almonds, oysters, herrings, eggs, sweetcorn and watermelon
  • Vitamin E contained in sunflower seeds, corn oil, wheat germ and sesame seeds
  • Calcium found in cheese, parsley, almonds, prunes and pumpkin seeds
  • Copper found in sesame and sunflower seeds, cashew nuts, soya beans and apricots
  • Vitamin A, B2 and B5, Zinc and Omega 3 and Omega 6

Blood – Having healthy blood and a correctly functioning blood transport system is vital, so we need to ensure we eat the correct nutrients. They are:

  • Iron found in parsley, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds and nuts
  • Copper, Vitamins B12 and E, folic acid, manganese and Omega 3 and 6.
  • We also need Vitamin K found in cauliflower, brussels sprouts, peas and beans

Immune system – We need a healthy immune system to prevent coughs, colds and other infections. To keep it healthy, we should eat:

  • Vitamin C and A and
  • Selenium contained in herrings, molasses, mushrooms, tuna and oysters

Bones and teeth – Keeping our bones and teeth strong is particularly important when we’re young because we’re still growing. Although exercise will help us do this, we also need to have a healthy diet and nutrients such as:

  • Calcium and Vitamin C
  • Vitamin D found in oily fish
  • Phosphorous which is in nearly every food
  • Magnesium found in wheat germ, nuts, garlic, raisins
  • Manganese which is in pineapple, blackberries, raspberries and grapes and
  • Zinc found in ginger, oysters, lamb, pecan nuts, brazil nuts, egg yolk, oats, peanuts, almonds.

Gut – Our gut needs to be healthy to make sure we digest our food properly and absorb all of the nutrients we’ve talked about. In particular, we need Vitamin B1 for digestion and Potassium to ensure our gut functions efficiently enough to get rid of waste.

Muscles – we use our muscles all the time, even without realising it as muscle is everywhere in our body, including our heart and our digestive system. To keep muscles functioning properly, we need:

  • Magnesium, sodium, calcium and phosphorus and also
  • Potassium contained in watercress, cabbage, celery, parsley, cauliflower, mushrooms and molasses

Heart – Our heart is one of our major organs and it keeps blood pumping around our body. Exercise helps our heart as does keeping relaxed and staying away from smoking, drugs and alcohol. Eating healthily is also a big part of having a healthy heart and in particular we need a good balance of the following nutrients:

  • Calcium, vitamin C, magnesium, potassium, selenium, Omega 3 and 6
  • Chromium found in wholemeal bread, wheat germ, green peppers and potatoes and
  • Sodium which is in olives, shrimps, ham and celery

Sometimes the hardest thing about including healthy food in our diet is putting ingredients together to make food tasty, fun and interesting, which is why it’s important to have delicious recipes to try out. If you’ve got a healthy recipe that you’d like to see on this page, please feel free to send it in to us, but just to get you started, here’s some of our own.

Recipes

SHINE’s Special Smoothie

Handful of raspberries
Handful of blueberries
5 tablespoons of pineapple chunks
10 tablespoons of pineapple juice
10 tablespoons of natural biolive yoghurt
1 cup of ice

Put all of the ingredients in a blender and mix together until it forms a juice.

SHINE’s fruity muesli bar

Ingredients

1 cup sultanas
1 cup chopped dried apricots
¾ cup apple juice
½ cup flaked coconut
1 cup rolled oats
½ cup puffed rice
½ cup sunflower seeds
¼ cup chopped mixed nuts
1 tbsp Manuka honey

Cooking & Preparation time: 40 minutes

1. Preheat the oven to 360F
2. Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl
3. Put it in a baking tin and compress all the ingredients so it sticks
4. Place it in the oven for 30 minutes
5. When baked, remove from the oven and once cool, place in the refrigerator to chill

SHINE’s Salmon Skewers

Ingredients

2 medium sized fillets (this can be salmon, chicke, tuna, pork or beef), diced
1 small green or yellow pepper, diced
8 cherry tomatoes
8 shallots
4 bamboo skewers

Marinade
2 tbsp olive oil
2-3 cloves garlic, crushed
1tbsp soy sauce
Dash of black pepper

Cooking & preparation time: 1 to 1½ hours

1. Place alternate pieces of fish/meat and vegetables on the skewers
2. Mix the ingredients for the marinade together in a large bowl
3. Place the kebabs in the bowl, turning them so they are fully covered in the marinade and leave in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to 1 hour
4. When the kebabs have been marinated for sufficient time, place them under a grill at medium heat and leave to cook for 20 minutes, turning occasionally
5. Once the kebabs are cooked, serve on a bed of brown rice with spinach and watercress salad

SHINE’s healthy chicken burgers

Ingredients

1 pound lean minced chicken
1 large carrot, grated
1 small - medium onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 egg, lightly beaten
Dash of black pepper
Dash of chilli powder
Dash of Worcestershire sauce

Cooking & Preparation time: Approximately 45 minutes

1. Place the minced chicken, carrot, onion, garlic, sauce and seasoning in a bowl and mix together
2. Add the egg and mix in evenly
3. Take a small handful of mixture and shape into a pattie. Do this with the remainder of the mixture, which should give you approximately 8 good sized burgers
4. Grill for about 10 -15 minutes, turning occasionally
5. Serve with salad or in a whole-wheat bun

SHINE’s Crunchy Coated Fishcakes

Ingredients

1lb fish fillets (skinless and boneless)
2 potatoes, cooked and mashed
1 large egg, lightly beaten
3 tbsp sunflower oil
½ cup low-fat milk
3oz organic, no added sugar, cornflakes, crushed

Cooking & Preparation time: 45 minutes

1. Place the fish in a good-sized pan and simmer it in the milk until cooked (i.e. should flake easily)
2. Put the milk, ¼ pint boiling water and mashed potatoes into a bowl and mix well
3. Add half the beaten egg and the flaked fish and mix all together until of a smooth consistency
4. Separate the mixture into 12 equal portions and shape into cakes
5. Pour the remaining egg in a good sized bowl and the crushed cornflakes in a separate bowl and dip each cake in the egg and then roll in the cornflakes until they are completely covered
6. Heat the sunflower oil in a pan and shallow-fry the fishcakes for 5 minutes on each side
7. Transfer to a sheet of kitchen paper so any excess oil is removed
8. Serve with a fresh, green salad

We know you may feel overwhelmed by all of the information on this website and you’re probably wondering how you’re going to use it all. But please don’t worry, just try to make small changes every day. Try to eat lots of different types of food so that you’re giving yourself the best possible chance of eating all of the nutrients we’ve mentioned and combine this with exercise and your weight will soon start to come off. It’s also fine to eat chips sometimes or the occasional chocolate bar, as long as you eat regular balanced meals and drink 6-8 glasses of water a day, or more if you’re exercising. If you have any problems or would like more information, then please contact us.