What is healthy eating?
A healthy diet presupposes that it should be complete, varied and balanced, providing adequate energy and physical well-being throughout the day.
Foods rich in fibre such as vegetables, fruits, cereals and legumes, vitamins, minerals and low fat should be the "staple foods" of daily life for a healthy diet.
How many calories do I need per day?
The average recommended energy values for healthy adults vary between 1800 and 2500 calories, depending on each person's lifestyle, especially the caloric expenditure in physical activity.
In women the average values vary between 1500 and 1800 calories and in men these values can vary between 2000 and 2500 calories.
And how should the children's diet be?
The amount of food that should be eaten daily depends fundamentally on age, sex and degree of physical activity developed in activities of daily living.
As in other stages of life, a balanced dietary pattern that is appropriate to the child's needs includes a distribution, in terms of caloric value and macro and micronutrients, according to the rules of healthy eating. Thus, the diet must be varied and include foods that provide the necessary nutrients in adequate proportion and quantity.
What are children's energy needs?
Average energy needs range from 1,000 calories for 2-year-olds, 1,200 to 3-year-olds, and 1,700 calories for children at the end of 6 years, and vary according to the level of physical activity.
The child's energy needs depend on the requirements imposed by the body's functions (maintaining temperature, breathing, moving), growth and also the energy expenditure inherent to physical activity.
Does a child need to have a higher intake of vitamins?
Micronutrient requirements (vitamins and minerals) can be supplemented by eating foods from the five groups in the appropriate amounts and proportions. Variety in food is the best rule of thumb to ensure that micronutrient needs are met.
How often should a child eat?
Food should be distributed throughout the day, with 5 to 6 meals a day, at regular intervals. An example might be:
- Breakfast: milk, accompanied by bread or cereals and fruit (should be done within the first hour after the child wakes up)
- Mid-morning: small meal (avoid more than 3 hours without eating), e.g. bread and a piece of fruit
- Main meals: seasonal vegetable soup, meat and fish (<50g/day), eggs (3 per week instead of meat or fish):
- Use salt and sugar as little as possible (forbidden in the 1st year of life)
- Water is the most suitable beverage
- Dessert should preferably be fruit
- Mid-afternoon: Snack with milk or dairy products and bread
Water intake throughout the day is essential. You should not forget to teach the child the importance of brushing their teeth after meals.
What should I do to ensure that the child has regular bowel functioning?
Dietary fibres, present in products of plant origin (fruits, vegetables, legumes, cereals) are not absorbed, but are absolutely necessary to ensure proper intestinal function.
A healthy option will be for the child, in the two main meals, to start with a vegetable soup and end with a piece of fruit. The main course should also be accompanied with vegetables, legumes or salad. The child may have, temporarily, some resistance to trying new foods, and also for this reason it is important to vary in the choice of vegetables, legumes, vegetables and fruits.
What should I do to lose weight?
If you want to lose weight, you should consume less energy than you need, taking special care in the choice of food, in order to always meet your nutritional needs.
Eating plans that are too restrictive, both in terms of energy and food diversity, can lead to deficiencies that weaken the state of health.
In addition to a good diet, it is important to practice adequate physical activity and adopt healthy lifestyles.
What does the Mediterranean diet consist of?
The Mediterranean diet represents a balanced and complete dietary model with numerous health benefits. This diet is based on the principles of a healthy lifestyle, in which the use of traditional and seasonal foods is privileged, prepared through simple culinary practices, daily physical activity and conviviality.
What are the benefits of the simple Mediterranean diet?
The simplicity of Mediterranean meals on a daily basis is usually synonymous with a healthier, plant-based diet with healthy fat, reducing the risk of coronary heart disease or type II diabetes.
What should I do to follow a Mediterranean diet?
The adoption of the Mediterranean diet is done through several steps, such as:
- Eat a minimum of three main meals
- Eat plenty of vegetables
- Eat one to two pieces of fruit
- Drink plenty of water throughout the day
- Consume dairy products twice a day
- Give preference to olive oil for cooking and seasoning food
- Avoid consuming too much salt
- Include fish two or more times a week, dried and fresh legumes more than twice a week, and red meats once or twice a week
- Eat small amounts of olives, walnuts and almonds, dried figs, lupins and seeds
- Moderate your consumption of wine and/or beer and do so only at main meals
What is the importance of soup?
Soup is a simple cooking method that preserves many nutrients, hydrates and has a low risk of contamination due to boiling.
What are the advantages of eating more vegetables and less animal foods?
This principle helps to distribute the daily energy balance in a balanced way:
- 55% to 60% of daily energy comes from carbohydrates
- 25% to 30% of lipids
- 0% to 15% of protein, mainly of vegetable origin (legumes and cereals)
On the other hand, it is important to realize that meat and fish are not the only suppliers of protein. In addition, we are able to save water and reduce carbon emissions.
What role do vegetable products play in the Mediterranean diet?
Vegetable products occupy a prominent place in this type of diet, and it is possible to adapt them easily throughout the 365 days of the year.
Should we prefer seasonal foods?
yes. Cooking, depending on what the garden and the field provide, becomes very flexible, intuitive and intelligent. Preferring seasonal foods is positive not only because a seasonal food is a fresh food, which is available locally and in conditions of ripeness suitable for consumption, but also because the production of out-of-season food requires much more energy and chemical fertilizers and the economic and environmental cost is greater.
Are there any other associated benefits?
yes. The region's food promotes local employment and avoids the energy expenditure on its transportation, bringing advantages to the economy and the environment. A local food is a food produced in close proximity, having a short distribution chain. Consuming local food promotes the region's economy and minimizes the carbon footprint. In addition, these foods may have better organoleptic (color, flavor and aroma) and nutritional characteristics.
Is olive oil part of the Mediterranean diet?
yes. Olive oil is the main source of fat and the main supplier of oleic acid, which helps protect cardiovascular and brain health.
How should dairy products be consumed?
Dairy consumption should be moderate. Milk is a food of high nutritional value, with emphasis on calcium, vitamin B12, vitamin D, calcium and phosphorus. In addition, it provides high-quality proteins and also iodine, which is essential for brain development, particularly in children.
What is the importance of salt in the diet?
For thousands of years, salt was essential for preserving food through salting, when the ability to preserve was limited. In addition, Portugal is surrounded by salty seas, so it continued to use salt in large quantities. However, salt is an aggressor of the arteries and increases the risk of high blood pressure (which affects almost 4 million Portuguese) and cardiovascular diseases, as well as certain types of cancer.
What is the recommendation for salt consumption?
The World Health Organization recommends that the maximum salt intake per person should not exceed 5 grams per day. However, on average, the Portuguese consume almost twice as much.
Are there foods with a higher salt content?
yes. Some foods from our tradition may have high amounts of salt, such as cold cuts. Other foods that can provide a lot of salt, because they are widely consumed, are bread and soup.
Is it possible to reduce salt consumption?
yes. The motto should be: less salt and more aromatic herbs. That is, reduce the amount of salt in cooking and instead use aromatic herbs to flavor the food.
How should fish be consumed?
The Mediterranean dietary pattern practised in Portugal favours the consumption of cod and local fish, especially sardines, horse mackerel, mackerel and tuna.
Why should the consumption of these fish be preferred?
The fattiest fish have appreciable amounts of polyunsaturated fats that play an important role in inflammatory processes and the prevention of cardiovascular disease.
Is the Mediterranean diet characterised by the consumption of red meat?
No. The Mediterranean diet is characterised by a low consumption of red meat because, in addition to the fact that pastures in the south are not abundant, for a long time it was necessary to use larger animals, such as oxen, to help with agricultural work.
Is wine consumption beneficial in the Mediterranean diet?
Wine is characteristic of the Mediterranean diet, but it should be consumed only by healthy adults and at main meals, in low to moderate quantities – a maximum of two 200 ml glasses per day for men and one glass for women. Children and pregnant or breastfeeding women should not drink.
What should be the main drink throughout the day?
We should, generally speaking, drink at least one and a half liters of water a day. Public water in Portugal is of good quality and can be a way to promote the health and well-being of citizens, helping to protect the environment and fight obesity.
Water consumption should be higher when practicing physical activity and when it is very hot.
Can I eat vegetables and legumes without being washed?
Hand washing should be done before washing food. Vegetables and legumes should be washed and disinfected if they are eaten raw.
Disinfection can be done by placing these foods, after being well washed, mixing 10 drops of bleach in a liter of water and leaving it on for 30 minutes.
Rinse these foods thoroughly under running water.
Source: Directorate-General for Health (DGS)