Healthy Eating
There’s no evidence that shows any specific food or diet is associated with the development, management or treatment of brain tumours.
Managing your diet, however, may help to improve your quality of life and manage the side-effects of treatment.
This means eating a wide variety of foods in the right proportions, and consuming the right amount of food and drink to achieve and maintain a healthy body weight.
What is a balanced diet?
Healthy eating is about the overall balance of your diet over weeks, months and years. It’s about having a diet of foods you enjoy, with as much variety as possible and not too much of anything.
A healthy diet consists of a balance of protein, carbohydrates and fats and well as other nutrients, such as fibre, vitamins and minerals.
- eat at least 5 portions of a variety of fruit and vegetables every day base meals on higher fibre starchy foods like potatoes, bread, rice or pasta
- have some dairy or dairy alternatives (such as soya drinks)
- eat some beans, pulses, fish, eggs, meat and other protein
- choose unsaturated oils and spreads, and eat them in small amounts
- drink plenty of fluids (at least 6 to 8 glasses a day)
The Eatwell Guide
Use the Eatwell Guide to help you get a balance of healthier and more sustainable food. It shows how much of what you eat overall should come from each food group.
You can also find general advice about achieving a healthy diet on the NHS Eatwell website.
Food Labels
Nutrition labels can help you choose between products and keep a check on the amount of foods you're eating that are high in fat, salt and added sugars. Most pre-packed foods have a nutrition label on the back or side of the packaging.
- These labels include information on energy in kilojoules (kJ) and kilocalories (kcal), usually referred to as calories.
- They also include information on fat, saturates (saturated fat), carbohydrate, sugars, protein and salt.
- All nutrition information is provided per 100 grams and sometimes per portion of the food.
To help you make an informed choice, most packaged foods have information labels to help you see the amounts of fat, saturated fat, sugar and salt per 100g (3.5oz) of the product. The colours on the packaging indicate if the levels are high, medium or low
We are encouraged to eat more foods with amber and green labels and fewer with red.
Tips For Healthy Eating
The NHS Live Well campaign identifies there are 8 tips that cover the basics of healthy eating and can help you make healthier choices. The key to a healthy diet is to eat the right amount of calories for how active you are so you balance the energy you consume with the energy you use. If you eat or drink more than your body needs, you'll put on weight because the energy you do not use is stored as fat. If you eat and drink too little, you'll lose weight.
You should also eat a wide range of foods to make sure you're getting a balanced diet and your body is receiving all the nutrients it needs.
It's recommended that men have around 2,500 calories a day (10,500 kilojoules). Women should have around 2,000 calories a day (8,400 kilojoules).
So What are the 8 Healthy Eating Tips?
- Base your meals on high fibre starchy diets
- Eat lots of fruit and veg
- Eat more fish, including a portion of oily fish
- Cut down on saturated fat and sugar
- Eat less salt: No more than 6g a day for adults
- Get active, and be a healthy weight
- Do not get thirsty
- Do not skip breakfast
For more information on what you can do about each of these healthy eating tips, visit the NHS Eat Well Website
