How to Eat Healthily? Just Count to 20

Just what is healthy eating?  We’re bombarded with advice that seems to change from one week to the next.  Butter or margarine?  Is fruit a healthy snack or just a lot of sugar?  Here’s one way to navigate the maze: eat at least 20 different foods a day.

 

Each food has a unique combination of nutritional benefits.  By eating plenty of different foods, you have a far greater chance of getting everything you need.  It also means you’re less likely to eat large amounts of any one food – what’s good for you in moderation can still be harmful in excess.

 

You can count any ‘real’ food – anything you might cook with yourself.  Tinned and frozen foods count the same as fresh, but artificial additives such as preservatives or emulsifiers definitely don’t.

 

For example if you have scrambled egg on toast you can count wheat, salt, yeast (from the toast), egg, and possibly butter, pepper and anything else you added.  Just that gives you 5 or 6 on a single plate.  If you have pasta later in the day though, that’s also wheat so you can’t count it again, but you can have the ingredients in the sauce.

 

Some ideas to increase your count include:

 

• home made curry. Each different spice counts as 1 food
• stir fries with a good variety of different veg
• fruit salads
• yoghurt with granola and mixed berries (which could be frozen)
• home made soups, for example mixed veg, chicken and veg, spiced lentil.

 

Here’s a recipe to get you started.

 

Curried Carrot and Butterbean Soup (serves 4)

 

Carrots are an excellent source of beta-carotene, which can help to maintain a healthy heart and provides some protection against sunburn.  The body can also convert it into Vitamin A, which is essential for eye health and immunity.  The butterbeans provide potassium, which helps to maintain healthy blood pressure, and fibre.  At the same time, the spices, especially turmeric and ginger, are quite powerful anti-inflammatories.

 

Ingredients

1 tbsp olive oil

1 onion, chopped

½ tsp turmeric

½ tsp ground ginger

½ tsp ground cumin

½ tsp ground coriander

500g carrots, sliced

1 small carrot, coarsely grated

1 400g can butter beans, drained and rinsed

600ml vegetable stock (can be from a cube or Marigold bouillon powder)

200ml whole milk

snipped chives and 2 tbsp Greek yoghurt to serve

 

1. Gently heat the olive oil in a large saucepan and then add the onion. Cook gently for 5-10 minutes until softened.  Stir in the spices and cook for 2 minutes, then add the sliced carrot, half the beans and the vegetable stock.  Bring to a simmer, then cover and cook for 15-20 minutes until the carrots are tender.
2. Take the soup off the heat and blend until smooth (this is easiest using a stick blender directly in the pan). Stir in the remaining beans and grated carrot with 250ml of hot water.  Bring back to a simmer, cover and cook gently for 10 minutes.
3. Stir in the milk, heat gently until piping hot. Remove from the heat, season to taste and serve with a spoonful of yoghurt and the snipped chives.