Healthy eating plans show how healthy eating works in practice.
Whilst beautiful photos of food and simple recipes can inspire you to try a new food, in order to really understand how to change the way you eat, you need to see a realistic plan in practice, day after day, week after week.

Here you will find a month of recipes laid out in a one month healthy eating plan. This takes all the worry out of how make nutritious meals every day. Also if you click on the month you are currently in you will find new posts, tips, information and seasonal ideas so you can personalise the eating plan to suit your own tastes.

The information is based on a light lunch at home and a family meal in the evenings; they are interchangeable. Links are supplied to all the recipes, most of which have un-stylised photographs of the meal as it was cooked. Sometimes the food doesn’t look like a cook book, however it is realistic!

Play with the ideas and make the recipes your own. A healthy eating plan will support you and help you make the changes that you want to make to the way you think about food and what you eat

What makes a healthy eating recipe?
Essentially, the ingredients and the way the food is cooked, will determine the health credentials of recipe. The fundamental principle of each healthy eating recipe is that it is consists of a combination of fresh foods. It really is that simple.

First step, always start with food in its natural state. That means picking up a food in the supermarket or farmers market that you know has grown and is not man made. If the food has a list of additives or ingredients, then it isn’t. A good guideline is choosing food that your great grandmother would recognise!

Make sure the food is as fresh as possible. The reduced label is tempting but that suggests that the food has been around for a while; for fruit and vegetables that may mean they have lost a lot of their nutritional value. For your healthy recipe you want to maximise the goodness in every mouthful.

Whilst the oils in fish are understood to be beneficial, those in meat can be the biggest source of saturated fats in a dish. Cut as much fat off as possible however preferably choose lean cuts.

Amp up the nutritional value of a meal by using wholegrain foods. You will be adding a rich source of vitamins, minerals and fibre to any healthy recipe. Choose ‘brown’ varieties of rice, pasta and other grain products.

Cold pressed oils such as olive, sesame or flax/linseed bring huge health benefits when used regularly. However don’t use them for cooking; use cold and add to finished dishes, salads and dressings for flavour, texture and appeal. These are not the same as their cheaper blended pale coloured cousins, which have been highly processed.

When starting out you can turn your old family favourites into healthier options by adapting your ingredient choices. This way you will become the expert at serving great food by using your own really healthy recipes.

Healthy eating is a huge subject. We see it mentioned regularly in all forms of media but what does it actually mean?

For me it means, eating foods that contribute to my health both now and toward the long term. To categorise which these are I use the phrase ‘nature made’ (as opposed to created in a laboratory by ‘man’) to identify which foods to choose.

This is an over simplification of a complex area but helps get you on the right track. If the majority of your diet is based on fresh vegetables, low sugar fruits, whole unrefined grains and oils, pulses and legumes (beans!) and lean sources of flesh protein, you will be ‘healthy eating’. There will always be exceptions; technically speaking bread is a man-made product. However go for the wholegrain, unrefined versions and you will be healthy eating.

So how do you create meals to include these choices? First stop? Inspiration!

There are many cookbooks and websites that offer healthy eating recipes. There are a huge number of ‘healthy eating’ pages on Google; you won’t be short of material. Stick to the nature made guideline and you won’t go far wrong.

When you put meals together aim to have at least 50% (preferably 75%) of the food on your plate of vegetable origin. A more exacting ratio would be 50- 60% foods you recognise as vegetables such as leafy greens, salady type foods, anything that grows. The rest of this ratio would be the starchy component: brown rice, wholegrain pasta or noodles, potatoes (especially with added green veg) quinoa or similar; you get the picture.

For the remaining space on your plate, choose a good quality protein of either vegetable origin or flesh based. ‘Good quality’ means: low saturated fat (animal meats can be high in these, especially, lamb, beef and pork but not exclusively these), no chemical additives (including antibiotics, meat tenderizers and colourings) and make sure it’s very fresh.

Healthy eating is a choice for adults; children tend to be at the mercy of those who supply their meals. However this doesn’t mean eating in this way is arduous, quite the contrary. It gives you freedom. When you embrace and understand what healthy eating is, it eliminates great swathes of food options that do not help build your well-being. I should add that a little good quality chocolate is not one of these!!!

I see eating like this as a way to contribute toward my health. There are no guarantees; however it is very positive strategy that I can employ day after a day, meal after meal.