Eating a healthy diet is an essential part of staying healthy; of fighting disease and feeling and looking good.

With so many different sorts of food fruit, vegetables and starchy foods such rice and bread, meat, fish, eggs and dairy foods its not always easy to know how to strike the right balance.

Know your food

I spoke to Doctor Tomas Safari of the pharmaceutical Sapher to find out.

Safari began by explaining that starchy foods should make up about a third of the food we eat. They are a good source of energy and the main source of a range of nutrients such as fibre, calcium, iron and B vitamins that our bodies need.

"Try to include one starchy food with each of your main meals,” he said. He further said that some people think that starchy foods are fattening, but they contain less than half the calories of fat.

You just need to watch the fats you add when cooking and serving these foods, because that’s what increases the calorie content.

Eating wholegrain foodstuffs contain more fibre and other nutrients than white or a refined starchy food is also very essential, Safari said.

Most people know that we should be eating more fruit and vegetables, but too many of us still aren't getting enough.

"Try to eat five portions of a variety of fruit and vegetables every day,’ he said.

He further said that try to add up your portions during the day for example, you could have a glass of juice and a sliced banana with your cereal at breakfast, a side salad at lunch and a portion of peas or other vegetables with your evening meal.

"You can choose from fresh, frozen, tinned, dried or juiced, but remember potatoes count as a starchy food, not as portions of fruit and vegetables,” he said.

Safari said that eating fish at list twice a week is essential to our bodies. It’s an excellent source of protein and contains many vitamins and minerals. Choose from fresh, frozen or canned - but remember that canned and smoked fish can be high in salt.

He further advised that, to stay healthy we need some fat in our diets and what’s important is the kind of fat we are eating.

The two main types of fat: saturated and unsaturated fat. Having too much saturated fat (butter, cream, cheese, chocolate) can increase the amount of cholesterol in the blood, which increases the chance of developing heart disease. Unsaturated fat lowers blood cholesterol.

"Try to cut down on food that is high in saturated fat and have foods that are rich in unsaturated fat instead, such as vegetable oils; including sunflower oily fish, avocados, nuts and seeds,’ he said.

He said that for a healthy choice; use just a small amount of vegetable oil or a reduced-fat spread instead of butter on bread and when you are having meat, try to choose lean cuts and cut off any visible fat.

Look at the label of the packet food to see how much fat that food contains. Generally the label will show how many grams (g) of fat there are in 100g of the food. The amount you eat of a particular food affects how much fat you will get from it.

Safari said that most people are eating too much sugar products forgetting that it’s likely to cause healthy problems.

"We should all be trying to eat fewer foods containing added sugar, such as sweets, cakes and biscuits, and drinking fewer sugary soft and fizzy drinks,” he said.

Having sugary foods and drinks can cause tooth decay. Many foods that contain added sugar can also be high in calories so cutting down could help you control your weight, Safari explained.

Take a look at the label and the ingredients list which always starts with the biggest ingredient first. Watch out for other words used to describe added sugars, such as sucrose, glucose, fructose, maltose, hydrolyzed starch and invert sugar, corn syrup and honey.

"If you see one of these near the top of the list, you know the food is likely to be high in added sugars,” he said.

Pass on salt

According to Doctor Florence Wabareze, trying to eat less salt, not more than 6g a day, could solve some health problems.

Lots of people think they don't eat much salt, especially if they don't add it to their food. But three-quarters of the salt we eat is already in the food we buy, such as breakfast cereals, soups, sauces and ready meals. So you could easily be eating too much salt without realizing it, she said.

"Eating too much salt can raise your blood pressure and people with high blood pressure are three times more likely to develop heart disease or have a stroke than people with normal blood pressure,” Wabareze said.

Fitness first

Getting active and trying to be with a healthy weight is very crucial; it’s not a good idea to be either underweight or overweight.

Being overweight can lead to abnormal health conditions such as heart disease, high blood pressure or diabetes. Being underweight could also affect your health as well, she said.

"If you're worried about your weight, ask for advice. But if you think you just need to lose a little weight, the main things to remember are; only eat as much food as you need, make healthy choices and it's a good idea to choose low-fat and low-sugar varieties, eat plenty of fruit, vegetables and wholegrain and get more active,” she advised.

It's also important to eat a variety of types of food so that you get all the nutrients your body needs. Physical activity is a good way of using up extra calories, and helps to control our weight.

But this doesn't mean you need to join a gym. Just try to get active every day for example, you could try to fit in as much walking as you can into your daily routine and try to walk at a good pace,  she said.

She further said that whenever we eat more than our body needs, we put on weight. This is because we store any energy we don't use up usually as fat. Even small amounts of extra energy each day can lead to weight gain.

Water is life

Drink plenty of water; we should be drinking about six to eight glasses (1.2 litres) of water, or other fluids, every day to stop your body from becoming dehydrated.

"When the weather is warm or when we get active, our bodies need more water. But avoid drinking soft and fizzy drinks that are high in added sugar,” Wabareze advised.

Avoid excess amounts of alcohol; there is nothing wrong with the occasional drink but drinking too much can cause health problems.

Alcohol is also high in calories, so cutting down could help you control your weight. Drinking heavily over a long period of time can damage the liver, she cautions.

Don’t forget breakfast

Never skip breakfast as it can help give you the vitamins, minerals and energy you need to face the challenges of the day as well as increasing on your good health.

Some people skip breakfast because they think it will help them lose weight. But missing meals doesn't help us lose weight and it isn't good for us, because we can miss out on essential nutrients our body requires, Wabareze said.

If you bare in mind these simple pointers, eating healthily should become easy an enjoyable. And it won’t be long before you look and feel a million dollars!

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