foodfitness: healthy eating, active lifestyle: Healthy Lifestyle Tips > Tip 3

Foodfitness - Practical advice on healthy eating and an active lifestyle

	Base meals on starchy foods





		Eat a good serving of bread, potatoes, cereals, rice or pasta at mealtimes When making sandwiches, 'cut it thick and spread it thin' Have a few extra potatoes – but watch the butter Try more rice and less curry Add noodles or rice to soups and stews Top up your energy with breakfast cereal with reduced fat milk Try a tea cake with less butter and enjoy the jam

Starches, along with sugars, are known as carbohydrates. They are an important part of our diet because carbohydrate is the body's favourite fuel.

Make starchy foods (bread, potatoes, cereals, rice and pasta) the basis of your main meals. For example, have a slightly bigger helping of pasta and a smaller helping of the sauce. Increasing the proportion of carbohydrate in our diet can actually help control weight. Eating starchy foods, especially wholegrain varieties, increases your fibre intake too.

Be careful to increase just the carbohydrates and not the fat in your diet. Limit how much fat such as butter, margarine, mayonnaise and creamy sauces you add to bread, pasta and other starchy foods. Choose boiled rather than fried rice and try baked or boiled potatoes sometimes rather than roast or fried. Use skimmed or semi-skimmed milk for mashed potatoes and less butter.

Snacks are also a useful source of carbohydrates and other nutrients, especially as you become more active. But remember to check out food labels to keep track of the fat content.

Carbohydrate has less than half the calories of fat.