General Article The 15 most common questions about healthy eating, answered by a dietitian

Topic Selected: Food and Diet
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By Tomé Morrissy-Swan

We humans have become really bad at knowing exactly what to eat to maintain a healthy diet. When once we roamed in search of a healthy balance of fruit, veg and meat, today we scoff a variety of nutritionally questionable but tasty and moreish snacks. Almost certainly, we didn't evolve to eat biscuits and down fizzy drinks all day. But we do it anyway, succumbing to temptation. 

Most of us, of course, still know what constitutes an ideal diet. The Mediterranean diet gets plenty of praise, with its focus on an abundance of fruit and veg, olive oil, lots of fish and less meat. Or the varied pre-industrial peasant diet, with healthy grains, veg, potatoes, meat and milk featuring heavily.

It's not rocket science, really. A balanced diet of real food is essential to staying healthy. Yet 50 per cent of food bought by British households is now thought to be 'ultra-processed', increasing risk of cancer as vital nutrients are replaced by harmful additives. Not by coinci...

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