Healthy diet

Physical activityDigital healthNo tobacco

A healthy diet is essential for good health and nutrition.

It protects you against many chronic noncommunicable diseases, such as heart disease, diabetes and cancer. Eating a variety of foods and consuming less salt, sugars and saturated and industrially-produced trans-fats, are essential for healthy diet.

A healthy diet comprises a combination of different foods. These include:

• Staples like cereals (wheat, barley, rye, maize or rice) or starchy tubers or roots (potato, yam, taro or cassava).
• Legumes (lentils and beans).
• Fruit and vegetables.
• Foods from animal sources (meat, fish, eggs and milk).

Here is some useful information, based on WHO recommendations, to follow a healthy diet, and the benefits of doing so.

• Breastfeed babies and young children:
  • A healthy diet starts early in life – breastfeeding fosters healthy growth, and may have longer-term health benefits, like reducing the risk of becoming overweight or obese and developing noncommunicable diseases later in life.
  • Feeding babies exclusively with breast milk from birth to 6 months of life is important for a healthy diet. It is also important to introduce a variety of safe and nutritious complementary foods at 6 months of age, while continuing to breastfeed until your child is two years old and beyond.
   
• Eat plenty of vegetables and fruit:
  • They are important sources of vitamins, minerals, dietary fibre, plant protein and antioxidants.
  • People with diets rich in vegetables and fruit have a significantly lower risk of obesity, heart disease, stroke, diabetes and certain types of cancer