The NHS EatWell Plate – How does Slimming World stack up?
‘The eatwell plate‘ is the NHS’s campaign to promote healthy eating – and the plate shows the key food groups which should come as part of your general daily intake.
It also shows the proportions which you should try to eat the sections in – to maintain a well balanced and healthy diet. If you look closely at the plate, you’ll notice some similarities with our plan, Food Optimising.
The green section is made up of Fruit and Vegetables, and with our Extra Easy plan, we recommend that you get at least 1/3 of your plate packed with these. So that’s pretty much identical to the NHS Guidelines.
At the same time, the yellow and pink areas refer to bread, rice, potatoes, pasta and meat, fish, eggs and beans. With Slimming World, these items are also free foods (apart from bread) and can be enjoyed at anytime when your appetite allows.
In the blue section, milk and dairy foods are suggested, and this is where Healthy Extras come into the visualisation – milk and some dairy foods like cheese are Healthy Extras. However, as many very low fat dairy products have higher satieity levels, these are in our Free Foods section.
I didn’t forget to come back to the bread! Wholemeal bread is full of fibre, and we have this in our Healthy Extra choice as well.
Finally, there is a small purple section which is ‘foods and drinks high in fat and/or sugar’. This section is of course, our syns selection. This allows members to enjoy treats at the same time as their own weight loss plan – which allows flexibility to make Food Optimising a life changing plan.
Getting this right everyday is a very good idea – but not always at every meal. Sometimes it can be easier to get the balance right across the day instead.
In England, most adults are either overweight or obese. (NHS). By following the ‘eatwell plate’, you’re on the right track to ensuring you maintain a well balanced and healthy diet. And as you’ve noticed – there are a lot of similarities between Slimming World and the eatwell plate. It’s as if they’ve used our healthy eating plan as a guide – and why wouldn’t they, when it’s so successful and promotes a healthy diet?
Can you think of diets which don’t even come close to meeting the NHS’s guidelines on healthy eating?
