A Well-Balanced Diet Guide

All the necessary food factors - proteins, vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, fats, fibre and fluid - are provided by a balanced and varied diet. Each day, food should be eaten from each of the following five groups, in approximately the amount suggested:

Milk - For protein, vitamins and calcium. 600ml for children, pregnant and lactating women, 300ml for adults.

Meat, Fish, Eggs, Cheese or Vegetables Protein - For protein, vitamins and minerals. At least one serving each day.

Vegetables and Fruit - For vitamin C, other vitamins, minerals and fibre. One serving of fruit or vegetable rich in vitamin C; one serving of leafy green, orange or yellow vegetable for vitamin A; two other servings of vegetables or fruits, including potato.

Bread, Flour and Other Cereals - For energy, vitamins, minerals, protein and fibre. Three or more servings.

Fats and Oils 1-1½ tablespoons.
Most snack foods are poor quality - chips, chiko rolls and sweet biscuits are high in kilojoules and low or lacking in essential minerals, vitamins and fibre.

The amount of food people eat varies enormously. Many fat people complain that their thinner friends consume a vast amount food, whereas they 'eat nothing' and put on weight, but doctors and dieticians agree that a fat person becomes overweight because he takes in more energy in food than he expands in physical activity. There are few fat people in times of famine.

There are, however, minor variations in the efficiency of the metabolic process among different people. A fat person does not necessarily eat more than a thin person - but is eating more than his body needs. The best way to adjust this imbalance is for him to increase activity such as walking and exercising, restrict total kilojoules intake and to eat only when he is feeling hungry.

Spacing of meals is also important for weight maintenance of reduction. It is unwise to have 80 percent or more of one's food in the evening, a common habit among the obese.

Prolonged dieting may lead to deficiency disorders. But any diet which contain at least 5000-6000 kilojoules, and includes food from each of the five food groups, is adequate for a week or two for a person in normal health. Intake should not be below this amount as it is almost impossible to obtain adequate nutrients on diets below this kilojoules level.

Vitamin and mineral supplements will not provide all of the necessary nutrients. Cutting down drastically on fluids is unnecessary and can be dangerous. Depriving yourself of water- or deliberately sweating it off with a sauna - causes an immediate loss in weight, but no fat in is lost and the weight is regained as soon as you drink to quench the resultant thirst.

Weight reduction by almost total starvation is rarely justified and should be undertaken only under the supervision of a specialist in a hospital. Anyone wanting to lose weight should aim at losing no more than 0.5 to 1 kg per week.

Some slimming courses involve taking appetite-suppressant drugs. Some of these, such as the amphetamines, are potentially dangerous; they are habit forming and the slimmer could end up addicted to the slimming tablets instead of cream cakes. Sound advice is never to take any drug unless it has been prescribed by your own doctor.