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| Healthy Eating | | So people are always saying that we have to eat healthily, 5-a-day, carbohydrates, protein, blah blah blah… But what does it mean? And why do we have to know all this? |
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Healthy Eating is very important in everyone’s life, especially kids, who will probably live with these habits for the rest of their lives. A balanced diet helps with eating healthily and can make you an all round fitter person. A balanced diet doesn’t mean to not eat any fatty, sugary foods and just eat tons of carrots and broccoli, it is a range of different foods and eating the right amounts of each type of food. It’s not a good idea at all to cut out all fat foods and just eat vegetables, because then you won’t be getting the right energy you need, but then again, too much of these ‘bad’ foods could make you become fat, and cause things like tooth decay. So overall, a balanced diet, with the right proportions of each food type is the best option. |
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| Breakfast is definately the most important meal of the day! |
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When you're sleeping, you can't eat any food, obviously, and so once you've spent the whole night with no energy intake, your body and brain need new fuel. This is when breakfast comes in. What you eat at breakfast will keep you going till lunchtime, and stop you picking on crisps or chocolate throughout the day. Breakfast really is important in helping you do better at school, and scientists have proven that it improves concentration and makes you think faster and more clearly. So try not to skip breakfast, and put fruit in your yoghurt, have porridge or muesli for a change, a runny egg and soldiers, toast, smoothies, and try to think of other fun ideas for the breakfast table. You could even have breakfast with a friend, or see if your school has a breakfast club, where you can share new ideas of what to have for breakfast and eat healthily together. |
| So if you don't eat healthily, what will happen? Well, if you eat more energy than you use up, it stores in your body as fat, which could make you overweight or obese if the problem gets too bad. There are many risks involved with being overweight including; joint pain, being out of breath, diabetes, Heart Disease, high blood pressure and the inability to do physical activity. A poor diet is thought to be the main reason for increasing the risk of getting heart disease and is estimated to be responsible for 30% of deaths from it. But becoming more active and eating more healthily can have a huge difference on your heart. Taking more exercise helps reduce blood pressure, improves cholesterol levels and boosts metabolism - all of which can reduce your risk of heart disease. |
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Nutritionists have tried to create a rough guide for the things that we eat, and how much we should have of each food group. There are several food groups and each has a different job that it does for your body;
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• Fruits and Vegetables – these are very important in a healthy lifestyle, and shouldn’t be skipped out. People say that you should eat at least 5 portions of fruit and veg a day, and if you don’t know how much of each fruit a portion is, see below.
One medium sized fruit – apple, orange, banana, peach, etc
One slice of a large fruit – pineapple, melon, mango, etc
One handful of grapes
Two handfuls of berries or cherries
One glass of fruit or vegetable juice or smoothie
A side salad
One serving of vegetables – e.g., peas, boiled carrots, broccoli, etc.
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• Fat – is mainly used for storage, and insulation, which is why if you eat too much, you get fat! It is also used as energy, but should be balanced with the amount of exercise you do, so this is a small section on the chart. But there are ‘good’ fats and ‘bad’ fats and you need to know the difference. ‘Bad’ fats are hard fats and are in things like red meat, butter and hard or full-fat cheeses but are also found in processed foods such as many margarines, biscuits, cakes and pies. These all contribute to raised 'bad' cholesterol levels and can increase the risk of heart disease, and so should be cut down in your everyday diet. ‘Good’ fats increase the levels of ‘good’ cholesterol and can also benefit arteries. Good fats include omega-3 fatty acids, found particularly in oily fish such as herring, mackerel, sardines, tuna, salmon and swordfish; and omega-6 fats found in olives, nuts, seeds and seed oils, and many vegetables and grains.
• Carbohydrates - these are a type of energy, and are found in potatoes, rice, bread, spaghetti, and cereals. As you can see from the pie chart, this is a big section, so you should try to eat quite a lot of Carbohydrates in your diet.
• Protein – helps with growth and repair, without these, our bodies wouldn’t be able to repair itself after a cut or wound, for example. You should have about 2-3 servings of protein foods, like meats, dairy, nuts, seeds, fish or beans a day. But not too much as eating a lot of animal fat is one of the main causes of ill-health and being overweight.
• Vitamins & minerals – These are needed in the body to keep you healthy and for healthy teeth, bones and muscles. There are lots of different types of vitamins and minerals, some of the main ones to look out for are Vitamins A, B, C, D, and E, Iron, Calcium, Sodium and Iodine.
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| Physical Activity is just as important as eating right when it comes to keeping your body healthy. Physical Activity doesn’t have to be really hard work, and it’s not a chore, there are loads of ways in which you can make it fun! OK, so not everyone likes PE at school, but what other ways do you think you can get fit? |
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Walking to school and back does make a big difference, but if you live miles away then its not as easy, but maybe ask mum to park the car further away from school so you can walk some of the way, maybe at a friends house who lives closer to school, then the journey will be even more fun!! Also break time is fun time, and great for some exercise. Football, Netball, Basketball, Rugby, get some friends together and have a mini game on your field or playground. Or if you’re not a sporty kid, then there are other activities you can do which are just as good for you. Jump-rope, hop-scotch, races, and you can also make up your own games to play at playtime.
Also, check this site regularly for football games or coaching sessions that you can have a go at!! These are always really fun, and good for your health too!! |
Child obesity has doubled in the past years, with 10% of 6-year-olds, and 17% of 15-year-olds said to be seriously overweight. But even with this large number of kids overweight, some schools are cutting down PE lessons to find more time to drill young children to pass Government tests in English and Maths.
State schools are found to be spending much less time doing sports and other physical education than most of Europe, and is 15th place out of 27 in a range of tables measuring time spent on sport in primary and secondary schools. |
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| 26th Jan 09 February Half Term |
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Free for girls and boys in selected housing association areas |
| 7th Jan 09 Level 1 Coaching Course 16-19 Year Olds |
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Free for all partner RSL residents |
| 7th Jan 09 Want to become a qualified football coach? |
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Join Albion's 5 Day Course |
| 13th Aug 08 RSL Surrey pilot project |
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This summer Albion in the community is offering FREE holiday courses as part of a new pilot football inclusion project in surrey. |
| 29th May 08 Wembley Win!! |
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Albion in the Community are celebrating another piece of silverware, which caps a fine season for the scheme, thanks to Orchards Middle School under-11s, who represented Albion in the Schools Community Cup Final at Wembley yesterday.
The Orchards' road to Wembley began when they won a local tournament to represent the Seagulls, run by Albion in the Community's award-winning RSL Project. |
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