Rosalind Lynch - Monica's verdict - breakfast

Monica's verdict:

For a healthy and enjoyable diet, most people should:

- Eat plenty of fruit and veg (five portions a day!)
- Eat a good variety of starchy foods to base meals around, such as bread, cereals, rice, pasta, and potatoes (try to choose some wholegrain varieties of cereals)
- Cut down on saturated fat and sugar
- Try to eat no more than 6g of salt a day
- Include some protein-rich foods such as meat, fish, eggs and pulses

We should include a good variety of foods, as different foods provide different nutrients. This will ensure we include all the nutrients for a healthy body and will help protect against infection and disease.

This isn't hard to achieve. Looking at Rosalind's menus, it's fine to include convenience foods, in a healthy diet, however I think she is imagining that a meal cooked from scratch will be time-consuming. Not always so! Here's where she could be making changes:

Breakfast:
Always allow 20 minutes for breakfast: if it's a rush in the morning, they should solve this problem by getting up earlier, or perhaps cut down on time spent on other things. I'm interested that Rosalind considers doing cereal if she has extra time - surely cooking bacon and beans takes longer than simply tipping cereal from the box and adding milk?

This meal could benefit from some added fibre to help maintain a healthy gut. Crumpets are fine but perhaps try a tasty wholemeal muffin. Lots of us love bacon, so why not grill instead of fry to reduce the fat, and serve with wholemeal toast for that added fibre. Baked beans are a great source of fibre, but are sometimes high in salt. It would be a good idea to check the GDA label, and choose one that's lower in added salt.

Some alternatives:
1. Cereal with some chopped fresh fruit or dried fruit and low fat milk, or porridge made with water, added skimmed or soya milk and sliced banana. Adding a little honey for extra taste is fine!
2. Two slices of multi-grain bread with 2 scrambled eggs or baked beans.
3. Omelette (made from 3 egg whites and 1 whole egg) and orange juice, with wholemeal toast.

Quick tip: Keep a bowl of fruit salad in the fridge, which you can make when you have a quiet moment.

Monica's verdict - lunch
Monica's verdict - dinner
Monica's verdict - general

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Guideline daily amounts explained
Monica Grenfell
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Lisa Woollaston's diet

By Anna Penniceard