Diets and Healthy Food Choices

• Healthy food choices
  • Food packaging and labels: Guide to making healthy food choices
  • Maintaining your diet and exercise routine during holidays
  • Comfort eating
  • How processed foods affect health and nutrition
• Diets effective for medical conditions
  • Nutrition for medical conditions
  • Mediterranean diet
  • Gluten-free diet
  • FAILSAFE diet
  • Meal replacement programs
  • Low FODMAP diet
• Popular diets
  • The truth about diets: detox, cleansing and fad diets versus healthy balanced nutrition
  • Liver cleansing diet
  • Vegetarian diet

Healthy food choices

Food packaging and labels: Guide to making healthy food choices

Many consumers pick foods depending on the attraction and temptation of the label on the front of the food packaging, but to become educated consumers, we should turn to the sides and back of the food product and read the labels carefully. There are many things that the labels can tell us, and we can use these to help us pick nutritious and healthy items.

For more information, see Food Packaging and Labels: Guide to Making Healthy Food Choices.

Maintaining your diet and exercise routine during holidays

It is not unusual to come to your holiday and believe you need a well deserved break not only from work or study but from your usual exercise and diet regime. However, it is important that diet and exercise are not completely forgotten when you go on holidays. During your holidays it is wise to change your exercise goals and treat yourself, within reason.

For more information, see Maintaining your Diet and Exercise Routine During Holidays.

Comfort eating

Often when food is eaten, it is not just for the nutritional content or to appease hunger, but also for social or psychological reasons. Eating a meal can change your mood and emotional predisposition. Comfort eating is a way in which people deal with stress, anxiety, boredom, loneliness or unhappiness. Comfort foods are foods that evoke a psychologically comfortable and pleasurable state when they are eaten.

For more information, see Comfort Eating.

How processed foods affect health and nutrition

Many people have misconceptions about what processed foods are and are not. Some processed foods may pose a health risk, while others may actually be an important part of a healthy diet. It is important to read the labels to see how their concentration of good nutrients (like vitamins) compares to their salt, sugar and fat content.

For more information, see How processed foods affect health and nutrition.

Diets effective for medical conditions

Nutrition for medical conditions

A wide range of medical conditions require attention to nutrition and food choices as treatment or to alleviate symptoms. General nutritional changes or specific diets are appropriate for different diseases and medical conditions.

For more information, see Nutrition for medical conditions.

Mediterranean diet

The Mediterranean diet has been shown to reduce marker of metabolic syndrome (a condition which often leads to type two diabetes), improve cardiovascular health and increase weight loss in the long term. It is a diet based on consuming plant foods and healthy fats that is high in antioxidants and phytochemicals, and low in cholesterol, salt and sugar.

For more information, see Mediterranean Diet.

Gluten-free diet

A gluten-free diet is the only effective treatment for gluten intolerance. It is typically followed by people with an intolerance to gluten, including those with coeliac disease and dermatitis herpetiformis. Gluten is a storage protein derived from wheat, barley, rye and a number of other cereals, and thus is commonly found in modern diets.

For more information, see Gluten-Free Diet.

FAILSAFE diet

The FAILSAFE diet can reduce symptoms of hyperactivity in children with ADHD. FAILSAFE stands for Free of Additives, Low in Salicylates, Amines and Flavour Enhancers. The compounds eliminated from the FAILSAFE diet cause adverse reactions in food intolerant individuals, and can also lead to mood disorders, digestive disorders and sleeping problems. The FAILSAFE diet can reduce symptoms of hyperactivity in children with ADHD.

For more information, see FAILSAFE Diet for ADHD.

Meal replacement programs

Meal replacement programs are a type of energy-restricted diet which have been shown to assist overweight and obese individuals lose weight. As the name suggests they are based on replacing one or more meals per day with low-calorie, vitamin and mineral-rich liquids or snacks.

For more information, see Meal Replacement Programs.

Low FODMAP diet

A low FODMAP diet is a nutritionist-supervised eating plan. It requires avoiding foods that contain fermentable sugars which worsen the symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome.

For more information, see low FODMAP diet.

Popular diets

The truth about diets: detox, cleansing and fad diets versus healthy balanced nutrition

Diets that claim to detox or cleanse organs like the liver and fad diets that claim help people lose weight super fast are unproven. If a diet sounds too good to be true, it probably is! The only proven way to lose weight is by eating less calories than you expend with exercise. Healthy, balanced nutrition is the best way to create this energy balance.

For more information, see The truth about diets: detox, cleansing and fad diets versus healthy balanced nutrition.

Liver cleansing diet

Liver cleansing diets claim to remove toxins that are clogging the liver. This cleansing of the liver is proposed to help it to work more efficiently, leading to weight loss. A range of nutritional supplements and liver tonics are often recommended to accompany liver cleansing diets. While calorie-restriction may cause weight loss, scientific studies have not indicated it is possible to cleanse the liver by eating certain foods.

For more information, see Liver Cleansing Diet.

Vegetarian diet

Vegetarians are people who exclude animal meat from their diet. A vegetarian diet comprises mainly of fruits and vegetables. There are a number of health advantages and disadvantages of vegetarian diets, and a well-designed diet should include a wide range of foods to meet nutritional requirements.

For more information, see Healthy Eating for Vegetarians.

More information

For more information on nutrition, including information on types and composition of food, nutrition and people, conditions related to nutrition, and diets and recipes, as well as some useful videos and tools, see Nutrition.