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Eat a varied diet

 

Fruit and vegetables

The Danish Council on Nutrition recommends that you eat 600 g of fruit and vegetables a day. You should eat many different fruits and vegetables, as they have differing health effects. Potatoes do not count in this category, but are classified as ”food with carbohydrates”.

By eating more fruits and vegetables, you reduce the risk of:

  • heart problems
  • cardiovascular diseases (for each 100 g increase in fruit and vegetable consumption, the risk decreases by 10%)
  • obesity and overweight
  • type 2 diabetes (if you combine healthy diet with regular exercise, you halve the risk)
  • breast cancer, cancer of the colon, stomach cancer

Foods with carbohydrates

The Danish Council on Nutrition recommends that you eat 500 g of carbohydrates a day. Carbohydrate foods are potatoes, bread, pulses, grain, oats and pasta. You should select wholemeal products such as wholemeal bread or wholemeal pasta. By eating more foods with carbohydrates, you can reduce the risk of:


Low-fat diet

No more than 30% of your daily energy consumption should stem from fat, distributed on maximum 10% saturated fat, 10-15% mono-saturated fat and 5-10% poly-saturated fat. You should keep your intake of saturated fat at a minimum, as it increases the level of cholesterol.

  • Saturated fat is found in dairy produce, meat cuts, meat spreads and meat.

You should replace saturated fat with mono-saturated or poly-saturated fat, which lower the level of cholesterol.

  • Mono-saturated fat comes from rape-seed and olive oils, nuts, almonds and avocado pears.
  • Poly-saturated fat comes from fatty fish, sunflower oil, grape-seed oil, vegetable margarine, corn and thistle oils.

Your body needs a certain amount of fat to function in the optimum way. But a diet with a high fat content impacts negatively on your health and increases the risk of obesity and overweight. By eating less fat, you reduce the risk of:


Fish and fish cold cuts or tinned fish

According to the Council on Nutrition, you should eat 200-300 g fish weekly and regularly eat fish cold cuts or fish spreads.

Fish and shellfish contain useful vitamins and minerals (vitamin D, iodine and selenium). Fish also contains the special poly-saturated Omega 3 fatty acids, especially fatty fish types like salmon, herring, mackerel, lumpfish, trout and eel are rich in Omega 3.

By eating more fish, you reduce the risk of:

  • cardiovascular diseases


Sugar

Sugar gives energy, but contains no nutrients. This is why you should limit your consumption of sugar.

By eating less sugar, you reduce the risk of

  • obesity and overweight
  • type 2 diabetes
  • dental caries

 

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