Healthy Eating? Healthy Shopping!

Supermarkets can be tricky places when you're trying to be healthy and if you're trying to lose weight. And when you're shopping for a family, it's even harder to banish anything unhealthy from your trolley. But thinking about what you're going to buy is key because losing weight from your body starts with your head. So today I'm going to share a few ideas that might help you steer your trolley in the right direction to eat well and lose weight. So I know this sounds absolutely crazy, but we're going to shop back to front. We're going to start at the back of the store and work forward. That way, when you're passing through temptation, you're still feeling fresh and motivated to resist. It is important to have a small amount of fat and oil in our diet. However, and this is really important if you're trying to lose weight, fat is fat is fat is fat is fat. So whether it's a tablespoon of lard or a tablespoon of oil or a tablespoon of butter, it's exactly the same amount of calories. And if I tell you that a tablespoon of oil, which is not even the palm of your hand, is 210 calories, which is a big fat chocolate biscuit. biscuit. So good section but got to be treated like gold dust. In fact the fact that it's quite golden can remind you good to use in really small amounts. And the same goes for spreads. This is the section that I think confuses people more than any other part of a supermarket. You've got goose fat, butter, the polyunsaturated spreads, the mono unsaturated spreads. It is an absolute mine feel. So before you pick up one packet you remind yourself fat is fat is fat is fat is fat. Which ones would I recommend that you use? To be honest with you it doesn't really matter, go for the lighter ones if you can. Now there's a big discussion about whether or not we should be using butter. The problem with butter is that if you're a butter lover you will like butter with bread not bread with butter. My father used to use butter like cheese. When you put fat on your bread It should be about the same amount as your thumb, okay? So you want to scrape it on and scrape it off. That's the one I'm going to get. Ready meals aren't all bad but you've got to choose carefully and I'm really pleased to see that I find some ready meals that have the traffic light system here. So you're going to look for more greens and less amber and red and so they look at fat, saturated fat, sugar and salt. So as you can see, this particular ready meal has more green than it has amber or red, so I know it's a healthy choice. Okay, here we go, fish pie. Now, I make a lovely fish pie, which is nice and low in fat. But you see, you've got to be careful, because you see, every single recipe is different. This one here is a bit of a luxury fish pie. A lot of red and amber, a higher amount of fat, saturated fat and salt in it. And if I look at the ingredients, ah yes, you see it's got double cream. And, in fact, when you look at ingredients, the ones at the top are the ones that are most in the product, and as you go down, it gets less and less and less. Here we are. Now, I think most people know that nuts and seeds are really good for us. But although nuts contain a healthy fat, it's still a fat, so they need to be eaten in very small amounts. The problem with nuts is they have this effect, don't they? Once you start, you can't stop, and on, and on, and on, and on. And then you go, oh, who's eating my peanuts? So the sort of portions that we're looking at is about three Brazil nuts, four or five almonds. You know, you're talking about tablespoons, not handfuls. Right, now lots of people are anti-starchy foods. It's a big trend at the moment, avoiding starch, but starches are really important in our diets. They give essential B vitamins, they can keep our bowels working. Whole meal and whole grain is better. Nice and high in fibre, keeps me full for longer. Definitely gonna buy some of that. And when it comes to rice, brown's best. Here we are, brown rice. Really delicious, really nutty. So cooked amount, about what you can hold in your hand, really. That's sort of the portion. And actually, your hand is a really good guide for portion sizes. So whether it's pasta or whether it's rice, if you make a fist, you draw a circle around your fist, that's about the size of your stomach. So you can see how we over-portion things all the time, even though I'm encouraging to eat lots of different healthy food groups. If you eat too many healthy foods, you're going to put on weight and I'll get the shop's own brand because it's a little bit cheaper. And that goes for wherever you shop. Now waitress kindly let us film, but remember own branded food in any supermarket is usually cheaper. And while we're talking about starchy food, just like whole grain pasta and brown rice, wholemeal bread isn't just the healthy option, it'll keep you fuller for longer. Whole grain or whole meal is the whole of the seed, whole meal, whole grain, it's the whole of the seed, that's what you're looking for, not brown. Brown is white bread coloured brown, so I think that's the one I'm going to get, stone ground whole meal bread, that looks delish. Talking of delish, healthy eating has to be delicious too, because to be able to stick to it, you have to enjoy it, so you want cheese, buy cheese. Can I have some Yorkshire Wensleydale with cranberries? Please. It's the portion size that matters. If I could just have that in two bits of cling film, that would be fantastic. Yeah. She's portioned it for me, so she's taken all that decision away from me at home. I've chosen something which I absolutely wanted, which looked absolutely delicious. Fantastic, job done. Wonderful, thank you so much. With other proteins, it can be a case of a little bit more of what you fancy. The sort of portion size we're looking for, for fish, is about checkbook size. So with fish, you can eat a little bit more than with meat. About the size of your palm is about what you're looking for with meat, but with fish you can eat a little bit more, so a nice big bit, a little bit bigger if you could. So that's nice, trying to lose weight, and I'm asking for a bigger bit of food, so we like that. My food should be more beautiful, more delicious, more yummy than any other time, because it is hard resisting the things that you know you shouldn't perhaps be eating because they're slightly unhealthy. So, thank you. Thank you very much for that. Yummy. Although protein is really important, it's important to maybe once or twice a week have a non-meat meal, which is when we can have beans and pulses and lentils, and they're not expensive either. So a vegetarian diet is a very, very healthy diet, but you must not be what we call a lazy vegetarian. You've got to be careful. Nuts are very, very high in calories and if you eat too many dairy foods, that can then make you put on weight. So yes, a vegetarian diet, but you've got to be still aware of the balance and portioning. Vegetarian or non-vegetarian, we need three health meals of dairy foods every single day. But without overdoing our fat intake, there are many, many, many low-fat yogurts on offer to help us with that. However, just because it's low fat doesn't necessarily mean it's low sugar. And sometimes diet products, they lower the calories by decreasing the fat, but they actually increase the sugar. You need to look at how many calories per pot. Again, huge variety of milk, what do we get? If you can't cope with going fully skimmed, you can go for semi-skimmed. skimmed. The good news is, is the more skimmed you get, the higher the calcium. Now I know I've got to be really conscious during this section and I think that's so important when you switch on your conscious brain that you think, do I really want the thing that I'm about to buy? And if you see something and you really want it, then you should allow yourself, but you must do this. You see something and you actually say, sometimes in your head, sometimes out loud, oh look, there's a pudding, I can have that. So try not to say to yourself, oh I shouldn't have that, because as soon as somebody says to you, you shouldn't have something, you want it. So you say to yourself, I'm a grown up, there's a pudding, I could have that if I wanted to. But you know what, just having this conversation with you in the camera, I've decided, do you know what? I don't really want it. I really want to get on top of my weight. I really want to eat healthily. So even though I can buy it, nobody's gonna stop me. I choose not to. Fruit and veg are the backbone of our diet. They are crucial. Five a day should be the bare minimum, vegetables in particular. but, and this is important, please don't confuse these with fruit and vegetables. These are part of the starchy food group, okay? So they are good for you, and they're really healthy for you, but not as one of your fruit and vegetables. Broccoli, love a bit of broccoli. Courgette, always nice to have that. What has been found is that if we can eat a range of different colours that are found in fruit and vegetables, we can get all these wonderful chemicals that protect us against cancer and heart disease and diabetes. So now I've got orange, and I need some purple as well. Ah, some grapes. All you guys have to remember is, have I picked and am I eating a rainbow? Have I got a rainbow in my trolley? And your trolley should look a bit like your meal at home, brimming with lovely fruit and veg. And you don't have to buy all your fruit and veg as fresh, you can buy tinned, frozen and things on special offer. Absolutely top tip for eating healthily is half veg, a quarter starchy carbs and a quarter protein and go down a plate size. Even if you don't change anything that you eat and drink, if you go down a plate size today you will start to lose weight. So that now is a beautiful full plate of food, and as you can see, the balance is right. Small changes make a big difference. Often we don't want the unhealthy food, we're stressed, we're tired, we're unhappy, we're not actually hungry. So it's about engaging your conscious brain before making the decision whether or not to buy that thing. Best of luck.