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Doctor reveals perfect amount of each food group you should eat with every meal

We all know we should eat a healthy balanced diet, but what does that actually look like in real life?

Health and diet wisdom advises us to eat five portions of fresh fruit and veg a day and to drink around 1.2 litres of water daily .

Then there are all the food groups to juggle – carbohydrates, unsaturated fats, protein, vitamins, fibre – and we need a different amount of each to meet our needs.

So what exactly is a balanced meal?

Much to our distress, it’s not a pizza chased with a large glass of wine.

To help make it clear in a simple visual, one food blogger has shared photos of what a perfectly healthy plate of food might look like.

Q. What is the BEST diet to reduce our risk of disease? ❤️ The British Medical Journal (BMJ) launched its first of a series of articles on the science and politics of food “Food For Thought” – HURRAH ?? The articles will also be open access which means that everyone can access them. I’ve included the swipe up to the article in my stories. • The first topic is ‘Dietary patterns and the prevention of chronic disease’ and its a pretty good summary. The article outlines our current understanding of foods/diets and the risk of certain diseases. • Their key points include “Food based prevention of chronic disease should prioritise fruits, veg, whole grains, + fish, + lower consumption of processed meats and sugar sweetened beverages” • “high consumption of nuts, legumes,vegetable oils, fermented dairy products, and coffee are further likely to confer benefit” • They also highlighted some drawbacks to most of the research in nutritional science e.g lack of long term studies, mostly observational, and also difficult to have a control (ie. placebo or another food/diet to compare against) when evaluating foods or diets. • Basically – No one diet is the best ? Most heathy diets (e.g. Mediterranean, DASH) share similar components – high intake of fruit + veg, whole grains + legumes, a little fish, healthy oils and less processed meat and sugar. Even if we expand our research base, I imagine these components will always remain the basics of a good diet. “Eat food, not too much, mostly plants” – Michael Pollan ? • Ps. Here I have the carrot + corriander chickpea burgers, roasted veggies, parsnips, sweet corn + feta ? #thefoodmedic #hazelwallace #foodforthought18 #foodforthought #thefoodmedicforlife #theBMJ #mediterraneandiet

A post shared by Dr Hazel Wallace (@thefoodmedic) on

It comes after a study revealed the best type of diet to follow, which is apparently either a Mediterranean-style one , which doesn’t cut out food groups or the DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension).

The Food Medic , aka Dr Hazel Wallace, shared a photo of her dinner on Instagram to give an example of a good way to eat for optimum health.

Dr Wallace’s dinner incorporates homemade carrot, coriander and chickpea burgers, served with roasted vegetables, broccoli, parsnips, and a sprinkling of feta cheese.

She also revealed her winning formula – which she tries to stick to every meal – with the Mail Online :

"A palm sized portion of protein such as a salmon fillet, or if you’re plant-based, tofu, lentils or chickpeas, two cupped handfuls of non-startchy veg such as leafy greens, broccoli, peppers, mushrooms etc.

"A fist full of complex carbohydrates such as brown rice or a baked potato, and a little bit of fat in the form of olive oil as a dressing or maybe some nuts and seeds sprinkled on top.

"This diet does not focus on reducing individual nutrients, but focuses on an inclusive diet filled with a variety of good quality, whole foods."

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