Making healthy resolutions
Hot topic: Be good to yourself this New Year
Our be good to yourself products makes it even easier for you to make healthy choices with now hundreds of products in the range.
It’s that time of year when festive excesses have left almost all of us feeling in need of a little TLC. All around us, people are making resolutions to diet and do without, but, when we all know that even the best intentions wane after a few weeks, it’s hard not to ask why you should be depriving yourself.
So what’s to be done when you want a mouthwatering meal made from authentic, healthier ingredients that doesn’t make you feel you need to count the calories, check for artificial flavours and colours or worry about so-called ‘nasties’ such as hydrogenated fats?
What the experts are saying
Health practitioners agree that adopting a nutritionally balanced diet for the long term will offer benefits way beyond a quick-fix fast or novelty weight-loss plan. But what if you can’t – or don’t want to – spend hours in the kitchen preparing a delicious, perfectly balanced meal?
How Sainsbury's can help
Thankfully for food lovers, Sainsbury’s have come up with an ideal solution: their Be good to yourself range is designed to offer the kind of food you want to eat – but without any guilt factor. And the great news is Be good to yourself is now even better, relaunched with hundreds of improved, tastier recipes, more than 30 additions to the range and stylish new packaging. And all new and improved products have been customer panelled to ensure they taste fantastic. Now there really is something to suit all tastes and every occasion.
From curries and pasta dishes to croissants and desserts (even sticky toffee pudding and pannacotta!), it’s now easy to make a healthier choice every day, with all products in the range being either reduced fat or containing less than three per cent fat.
Packed with quality, fresh ingredients, each Be good to yourself dish is not only bursting with flavour but is carefully balanced to ensure you’re enjoying a healthier way to keep your tastebuds happy. For example, the paprika chicken (pictured, opposite) tastes fantastic: Sainsbury’s absorption-cook arborio rice with onions and chilli, plus a delicious tomato sauce with signature chicken stock, chorizo, paprika and parsley, all topped with fresh chargrilled courgettes, red pepper and tender, chargrilled British chicken breast.
And, with that kind of appetising, nourishing dish on the menu, it makes sense that your wellbeing will follow suit. So, start 2010 as you mean to go on, and be good to yourself.
Charlotte Parker, company nutritionist at Sainsbury’s, offers her advice on healthy eating:
‘Food is the fuel of life and can bring great pleasure, yet many people seem to believe that a “healthy” diet must mean deprivation or starvation.
In fact, the simple philosophy of “everything in moderation” applies to a nutritionally balanced diet. To maintain overall wellbeing, you should eat a varied diet featuring all five food groups, prepared in a healthy way, with one eye on portion control.
Most Britons consume too much saturated fat, salt and sugar, and not enough fruit and vegetables, wholegrains and oily fish.’
How to be good to yourself
Here is some quick advice to help start making improvements to your diet now.
The five main food groups
They are fruit and vegetables; starchy carbohydrates (pasta, potatoes, cereals, rice and bread); milk and dairy; protein (meat, fish, eggs and beans); fats and sugars. You’ll need them all in varying quantities. |
Plan ahead
Try making time once a week to think about your meals for the days ahead, ensuring you include a variety from the five main food groups: eg, if you have pasta one night, go for rice, couscous or potatoes another night. It’ll pay off later in the week, when your energy and good intent may be flagging. |
Make time for breakfast
Starting the day with a high-fibre cereal (ideally with skimmed milk) should help to give you enough fuel to keep you going until lunchtime – avoiding the temptation of ‘naughty’ snacks. |
Vitamins and minerals
To provide your body with essential vitamins and minerals, try to eat five differently coloured portions (about the size of your fist) of fruit and/or vegetables a day. You can always bulk out meat dishes like chilli con carne or spaghetti bolognese by adding vegetables such as sweet corn, diced carrots or frozen peas – a great way to ensure reluctant children boost their vegetable intake. |
Eating fish
Aim to eat two portions of fish each week, one of which should be an oily variety such as salmon, trout, mackerel, sardines or fresh tuna. |
Watch your alcohol intake
If you decide to drink alcohol make sure you stay within the recommended safe guidelines. Look out for the ‘Know your limits’ labels on Sainsbury’s alcohol. |
Invest in some healthycooking equipment
Steamers are a great way to cook vegetables and they help retains important vitamins and minerals. Nonstick frying pans and woks require no oils so they are a good way to cut down the fat; using oil sprays with them will help reduce the amount of oil needed, too. |
