Key terms

Unbalanced diet - a diet with too much of one nutrient

Dietary disorder - health problems caused by an unbalanced diet

Lifestyle - how we lead our lives eg physical activity

Modifiable - risk factors that are changable

Non-modifiable - risk factors that are unchangable

Risk factor - something that increases your chances of getting a disease

Physical health - the body and it’s functioning

Diet - the food we eat

Strategy - a careful plan or method

Mental health - our emotional health

Tip2 Base your meals on higher fibre starchy carbohydrates

Starchy carbohydrates should make up just over 1/3 of the food you eat.

They include potatoes, bread, rice, pasta and cereals.

Choose higher fibre varieties, such as wholewheat pasta, brown rice or

potatoes with their skins on.

They contain more fibre than white or refined starchy carbohydrates and can help you

feel full for longer .

Tip 4 Cut down on saturated fat and sugar

There are 2 main types of fat: saturated and unsaturated. Too much

saturated. fat can increase the amount of cholesterol in the blood, which increases

your risk of developing heart disease.

Saturated fat is found in many foods, such as:

fatty cuts of meat, sausages, butter, cream, pies.

Try to cut down on your saturated fat intake and choose foods that contain

unsaturated fats instead, such as vegetable oils and spreads, oily fish and avocados.

Sugary foods and drinks are often high in energy (measured in kilojoules

or calories), and if consumed too often can contribute to weight gain . They can also

cause tooth decay  if eaten between meals.

Follow a healthy diet –

• Use the Eatwell Guide and 8 tips to help plan meals – include all food groups

• Include foods that are high in fibre as these keep us fuller for longer (less likely to snack on crisps, biscuits etc)

Keep our energy balance even –

• Input (ie food/drink) must equal output (physical activity, growth) for weight control

Portion control –

• Be aware of how much you eat.  ‘Grazing’ is eating mindlessly – extra calories!

• Portion size helps to restrict calorie intake so less likely to gain weight

Exercise more – exercise burns calories and so we are less likely to gain weight

Moderate amount of physical activity for adolescents - 60 minutes per day

It’s not just fat that contributes to energy intake.

Eating sugar also means extra calories, which in turn can lead to stored fat in the body, causing obesity and diseases like heart disease, some cancers and type 2 diabetes**.**

Free sugar

The recommended maximum amount of sugar for a teenager is 7 cubes per day.  This is no more than 30g of free sugar per day. Around a quarter of the free sugar in teenage diets comes from sugary drinks; that’s why sugary drinks have no place in the daily diet.

There are two types of sugar.

1. Intrinsic sugar found in intact/whole fruit and vegetables. This type is contained inside the cell walls and therefore it does not impact on dental health or overweight and obesity.

2. Free sugars. These are sugars added by the manufacturer, baker or consumer and are found in sweets, cakes, frosted breakfast cereals. Free sugars are also found in fruit juices and smoothies because during processing the sugar is released from the cells (ie it is ‘set free’).

Free sugars cause tooth decay and are known to be a significant contributing factor to overweight and obesity.

Dietary recommendations state that we should be consuming five portions of fruit and vegetables a day. However, nutritionists advise that we should not drink any more than one small glass of fruit juice/smoothies per day.

This is because FRUIT can contain a high percentage of sugar in its cells. When processed into a juice this sugar is released (free sugars) which can damage your teeth.

A variety of fruit and vegetables is required in order increase the range of nutrients consumed.

Cardivascular disease (CVD) occurs when one or more of the coronary arteries is narrowed or blocked with fatty deposits/cholesterol. CHD can often be prevented and there are many things that people can do to protect their heart and keep it healthy.

In 2017/2018, 6062 people in Northern Ireland were admitted to hospital with a heart attack. This is approximately 16 people per day.

How does it occur?

The diagram below shows a fatty deposit forming in an artery.

Cardiovascular disease can occur when one or more of the coronary arteries is narrowed or completely blocked, by a build-up of fatty deposits or cholesterol on its walls.

This reduces the blood supply to the heart forcing the heart to work much harder to pump blood around the body. If the arteries become totally blocked, blood cannot flow to the heart and this can result in a heart attack.

The name of the medical event that occurs  when an artery to the brain becomes blocked is a stroke.

A risk factor increases the likelihood of developing diseases.

Some risk factors for CHD are non-modifiable e.g (i) gender – being male

(ii)getting older or family history

The table below shows modifiable risk factors and the explanation for them