This European initiative took a fun and upbeat approach to healthy eating focusing on 6 messages.
Enjoy shopping for a healthy meal
Making healthy food choices when shopping and eating out is key to a well-balanced diet. Eating well means consuming a variety of nutrient-rich foods and beverages within the calorie limit that our body needs.
Healthy decisions start at home, and planning ahead can improve our health while saving us time and money. To make healthier shopping choices, it is important to know what is for sale in our stores and to pay attention to nutritional labels.
Nutritional information on the label enables us to compare foods before we buy. We need to choose foods with low levels of saturated fats, trans fats, cholesterol, added sugars, and salt. Instead, we need to make sure that we purchase products that are high in fibre, vitamins A, C, and E, calcium, potassium, magnesium and iron.
Shopping for a healthy diet can also be an enjoyable and social activity, and an opportunity to share experiences with others. For example, older people who may be frail and have difficulty carrying heavy shopping bags can ask local volunteers to help them shop for healthy foods.
Enjoy cooking
Eating is much more economical and healthier if we cook rather than just consume ready-made or prepared food. In fact, the only way fast food is actually cheaper is if we compare solely the price per calorie. When comparing serving size, weight, or nutritional content, home cooked meals are the cheapest.
Furthermore, the more a food is processed, the less nutritious it is. Drying can diminish nutritional value up to 80%. Freezing reduces vitamin C by 30% and potassium by 10%. Reheating already cooked food also decreases vitamin B12, thiamine and vitamin C by 45%.
Cooking for ourselves is also a good idea because we have better control of the ingredients’ quality, freshness and portion size. We consume fewer calories, less saturated fat and salt and more fibre and micronutrients per meal when we have cooked it at home. Besides, it is a great way to teach and learn about the taste, texture, and pleasure of food.
Finally, cooking potentially has a high social dimension since it offers an opportunity to bring family members together at home, as well as groups of people in schools, community centres, etc. Cooking can be a great family bonding experience; it can be an opportunity to share some time, talk and have fun with children and adults together.
Enjoy eating together
Take full advantage of the social benefits that a meal can offer. They are also a great opportunity to eat healthily!
Families have limited time to spend together and meals may be the only time of the day when they can reconnect, leaving behind individual pursuits like watching TV, playing video games, emailing and doing homework. A meal is an opportunity to relax, recharge, laugh, tell stories and catch up on the week’s ups and downs, while developing a sense of who we are as a family.
Eating meals in front of the TV, mobile phone or tablet certainly interferes with the pleasures and benefits of conversation and does not carry the same mental health benefits as those eaten “unplugged”. Parents have known for a long time: sharing a family meal may be good for the spirit, the brain and the health of all its members and might also lower the rates of obesity and eating disorders in children and adolescents.
Recently bereaved older people might suddenly find themselves eating alone, and this could have a significant impact on the quality of their meals. Finding ways to encourage people of all ages to enjoy eating healthy foods together can be a great way to promote healthy habits.
Enjoy drinking water
Water makes up more than half of our body weight. Every cell in our body needs water to function correctly. That’s why it is important to stay hydrated. Although all beverages help with hydration by providing some water, certain beverages are better choices than others.
Water doesn’t have calories or sugar, while the average 355 ml can of sugar-based fizzy drinks, for instance, contains 39 grams of sugar – the equivalent of scooping 10 teaspoons into our morning cup of coffee – and 140 calories, all of them from sugar. Consuming too many calories can lead to serious health problems such as heart disease and diabetes.
Regarding fruit juice, milk and diet drinks, there are a few points to keep in mind. First, fresh fruit juice contains no added sugars, but it has kept the calories from natural sugars and lost the fibre found in fresh fruit. However, it can still be part of a healthy diet in moderation. Fruit drinks, on the other hand, contain added sugars without the same nutritional value as 100% juice.
Milk is a nutrient-rich drink (especially the low-fat or fat-free type). Similarly to 100% fruit juice, milk contains natural sugars.
When it comes to diet drinks, we need to know that - even if they are lower in calories - they have no nutritional value and would only be good as an alternative to sugary drinks.
Water is an optimal choice to meet our body’s fluid needs. Find ways to make your water more enjoyable: drink it ice cold, sparkling, with a twist of lemon or other fruit.
Enjoy colourful fruit & vegetables
Colourful fruit and vegetables contain many of the vitamins and antioxidants we need - and few calories.
Along with helping us to maintain our good health, the nutrients in fruit and vegetables have been shown to work together to protect against cancer, heart disease, vision loss, hypertension and other illnesses.
This suggests that increasing fruit and vegetables in our diet is a great step towards improving our health. In addition, the different colour components in fruit and vegetables have been shown to carry different health benefits and health-protecting effects.
Enjoy physical exercise
Physical exercise is an excellent way to help prevent excess weight gain or maintain weight loss. When we engage in physical activity, we burn calories – the more intense the activity, the more calories we burn. Even small steps to be more active, like taking the stairs instead of the lift, can make a big difference. The benefits of physical exercise extend far beyond weight control - this has been proven extensively by research. Regular exercise lowers the risk of diseases like stroke, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, depression, certain types of cancer and arthritis.
Practicing some moderate sport also improves our mood by stimulating various brain chemicals that makes us feel happier and more relaxed. It can also make us feel better about ourselves and our appearance, boosting our confidence and improving our self-esteem. Exercise can also help us connect with family or friends in a fun social setting.
Physical activity can be undertaken indoors as well as outdoors. Check with local gyms, youth organisations and similar facilities for indoor sport activities like badminton, volleyball and swimming.
Outside, a wide range of fun activities is possible, both in winter and in summer: ice skating, building snow sculptures or a snow fort, snow tobogganing, downhill or cross-country skiing, hiking, rollerblading, bike riding, swimming, baseball, etc.
Innovative projects promoting health development can receive EU funding from the health programme , as a means of implementing the EU health strategy .
Since 2005, the Consumers, Health, Agriculture and Food Executive Agency manages calls for proposals for projects and organises grants, conferences and relations with the beneficiaries of health programme funding.
The European Commission also receives additional funding from the European Parliament for pilot projectsto improve future policy action in the area of nutrition and physical activity and to identify good practices that can be used to replicate these projects in other European cities or regions.