Shifting The Balance

Shifting the balance is all about making a few simple changes or swaps to the foods and meals you like to eat to make them a little healthier. Often people think they can’t eat a better diet because they wouldn’t like the food.  But eating healthily isn’t about eating ‘rabbit food’.  Food should be enjoyable.

Experiment with making quick and easy changes to the meals below and you’ll be amazed at the differences you can make to your energy, fat, sugar and salt intake.

Choose one or more meals from the selection below. Some of these meals are more balanced than others. It might not be the foods themselves that pile up the energy (calories), fat or salt but the way they are cooked. It might be that fat is added in some other way such as thickly spread butter or a dollop of cream. Once you have made your choice find out how this stacks up in energy, fat, fibre and salt by clicking on the calculate button. Add, remove or swap foods to see how the totals change.

Burger and apple
Breakfast











Lunch















Snacks










Dinners
















Energy:
0 kcals (calories)
0 kJ

Fat: 0 g

Saturated Fat:
0 g

Fibre: 0 g

Salt: 0 g

Once you have calculated the total amounts of energy (calories) fat, fibre and salt try comparing these with Guideline Daily Amounts which will give you an approximate idea of how much of certain nutrients make a healthy diet.

Guideline Daily Amounts

Age Energy Calories (kcal) Fat (g) Saturated Fat (g) Fibre (g) Salt (g)
  Male symbol Female symbol Male symbol Female symbol Male symbol Female symbol Male and Female symbol Male and Female symbol
11‑14 2200 1850 85 70 25 25 15 6
15‑18 2750 2100 105 80 35 25 18 6
19+ 2500 2000 95 70 30 20 18 6
  • Male symbolMale
  • Female symbolFemale

Energy, Fat and Saturated fat too high?

Think again. Overall this diet would not be a healthy one for you. If you were trying to lower your fat and energy intake at home you might do this by cutting down on fatty and oily foods. Such foods include butter, margarine, cream, oil, full cream milk, pastry, fried foods, fat/rind on meat, full fat cheese, processed foods like sausages, burgers. Also take care to make your meals more satisfying by adding more vegetables and salad. Fruit, fresh or dried, makes a great low-fat snack.

Fibre too low?

Think about ways in which you could modify the plan to increase your fibre intake. This plan does not allow you to pick single foods, but if you were trying to increase your own fibre intake you might do this by eating more wholegrain cereals, fruit and vegetables and beans, peas or lentils.

Salt too high?

It can be really hard to keep below the 6g maximum level. About 75% of our salt comes from processed foods so preparing meals from fresh ingredients often helps. Try to limit meals to no more than one processed food. Also avoid salt in cooking and don’t add it at the table. After a while you won’t miss it. Check out the labels of you favourite snacks for salt levels.

Amounts within your Guideline Daily Amounts

Well done. If your choice comes close to your Guideline Daily Amounts for energy, fat and saturated fat then you have chosen well. This might have given you some thoughts for new foods you could try out at home. If so try printing out your choice to use as a guide.