Health Challenge Cardiff, be part of a healthy city - Her Iechyd Caerdydd, Byddwch yn rhan o ddinas iach

My Health

Getting the Balance Right

The main messages for healthy eating for adults and children over the age of 5 years are:

• Base your meals on starchy foods
• Eat lots of fruit and veg
• Eat more fish
• Cut down on saturated fat and sugar
• Try to eat less salt - no more than 6g a day
• Get active and try to be a healthy weight
• Drink plenty of water
• Don't skip breakfast

You can find a wealth of information on eating a balanced healthy diet on the Food Standards Agency Eatwell website and Food Facts from Dietitians at the British Dietetic Association.

One of the key messages for healthy eating is to ensure you eat at least 5 portions of fruit and vegetables a day. The NHS website 5 A Day gives you advice on how this can be achieved along with some recipe ideas.

What are the benefits of Enjoying a Healthy Balanced Diet?

• Helps to reduce the risk of developing diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, some cancers, osteoporosis and obesity
• Can help to maintain a healthy weight (with physical activity)
• Improved sense of well being
• Prevents anaemia
• Improved immune function and reduced risk of infection
• Reduce the risk of dental caries

How Can I Enjoy a Healthy Balanced Diet?

The Eat Well Plate, produced by the Food Standards Agency shows you which foods are in each group and how much of them you should be aiming to consume.

Start young - growing up tasting and learning about a wide variety of foods that make a balanced healthy diet can help to develop good eating patterns for later on. Information on infant feeding and weaning can be found at the Food Standards Agency website.

Involve children in tasting, preparing and when old enough cooking food and make meal times a social occasion. For information related to children and food habits go to the Eatwell site.

Starting Young:

For babies and children the Flying Start programme in Cardiff has a food and nutrition programme offering weaning parties, toddler feeding frenzies and health and advice on feeding your young children. Ask your health visitor if you are in a Flying Start area.

Cardiff has a Gold Standard Healthy Snack Award Scheme for nurseries, play groups and other settings caring for 0-4's. Places that apply and achieve the award will ensure your youngster will have the best start in life, offering a variety of healthy snacks and staff trained to promote good nutrition. If your child attends a nursery, play group or child minder ask if they have the award.

Healthy Start vitamins are available to eligible families as part of the 'Healthy Start' Scheme from the time your child is 6 months of age until their fourth birthday. For babies at risk of vitamin D deficiency and under 6 months of age your health visitor will give you a letter to take with your Healthy Start letter to the clinic. Healthy Start vitamin supplements are available from a number of clinics. Please contact your health visitor to find your local clinic. Pregnant women and women with babies up to one year old may also be eligable for free Healthy Start vitamins. Please ask your midwife or health visitor for further information.

School Age:

Schools are encouraged to be part of the Healthy Schools Scheme which includes looking at food in schools and asking young people what they want to know about food and school meals by forming SNAG's (School Nutrition Action Groups). School cooks and staff can access nutrition training initiatives delivered by community dietitians (see 'Community Dieticians'). Further information about SNAGs and other school nutrition activities can be found on the Food in Schools website.

MEND (Mind, Exercise, Nutrition... Do it!) is a free local healthy living programme to familes. The programme is a fun course for families with children aged 7 to 13 whose weight is above the healthy range for their age and height. It runs twice a week after school in two-hour sessions over 10 weeks. The MEND project in Cardiff is run out of the STAR centre. Go to the MEND site for more information on how to register.

How can I Get Healthy Affordable Food?

Look for fruit and vegetable offers in your local shops, find out about local food co-operatives in your area or visit the Riverside and Roath Markets.

A community food co-operative is an excellent way to bring the community together - people get to know each other and all sorts of other activities often develop as a result. They sell very affordable fruit, vegetable and seasonal salad bags weekly (between £2 & £2.50) from community centers, schools and even Church halls. For example, the vegetable bag will generally have potatoes, carrots and 3-4 other seasonal items.

Only a few volunteers are needed, spending 2-3 hours sorting the produce, taking orders and money. Customers order and pay for next week's selection when they collect this weeks order and the total order is phoned through to the supplier. The food co-ops are run by dedicated volunteers and are always looking out for more willing people to join in and help run the co-op each week.

Anyone can use a food co-op and customers can order as little or as much as they like. All the money taken goes directly to the supplier with no profit made by the co-op.  There are a number of food co-ops currently operating in or around Cardiff - St Mellons, Butetown, Grangetown, Riverside, Trowbridge, Pentwyn and Penarth. To find out if there is a co-op in your area visit the Physical Activity and Nutrition Networks for Wales Community Initiatives Database - just click on Food Co-ops in the 'Activity' list, click the area you wish to find in the 'Location list and then click on search.

Food Development Workers assist communities wishing to start a food co-op. They provide free advice, support, basic equipment and a range of free training courses for volunteers and customer. For further information about how to set up a co-op in your area, go to the Community Food Co-operatives pages of the Physical Activity and Nutrition Networks for Wales website.

Riverside and Roath Markets offer a fantastic range of fresh food at great prices. The produce is also sourced locally. Look at their website for more information.

With Healthy Start, you can get free vouchers every week which you swap for milk, fresh fruit, fresh vegetables and infant formula milk. You may also be eligible for free vitamins. Healthy Start vouchers can be used at most food co-ops. If you are entitled to receive 'Healthy Start' Vouchers ask your health visitor or midwife about how to get them and use them to buy nutritious foods for you and your baby.

Learning New Skills and Knowledge About Food

The community dietitians in Cardiff offer courses on food and nutrition to community staff working with children and young people. Community groups can also access nutrition-training initiatives such as practical cooking skills courses. For more information read on or go to the Physical Activity and Nutrition Networks for Wales (PANW) website.

Community Dieticians

A programme of Open College Network (OCN) accredited nutrition training courses delivered by community dietitians, can be accessed by staff e.g. early years practitioners, school cooks, playgroup leaders and community food workers such as food co-op volunteers as well as community groups. Courses include:

• 10 week, level 2, Community Food and Nutrition Skills Course (3 credits).
• 5 week, level 2, Community Food and Nutrition Skills for the Early Years Course (2 credits).
• 10 week, level 1, Practical Cooking Skills Course (3 credits).

See the Physical Activity and Nutrition Network for Wales (PANW) website for further information on Community Food Initiatives and OCN Community Food and Nutrition Skills Courses.

An eight week weight management programme is available with your local community dietetics department, based at Riverside Health Centre Cardiff. Participants who would like to lose weight and a supportive family member or friend are invited to attend eight, 1 and a quarter hour sessions or if the group setting is not for you, one to one consultations can be arranged. You can access this via a referral from your GP or Practice Nurse.

Community Dietitians and Diabetes Specialist nurses run a structured patient education programme for people living with Diabetes. The X-PERT programme is a specially designed patient education programme to provide people with the confidence, knowledge and skills necessary to self manage their diabetes. Participants with Type 2 diabetes and a supportive family member of friend are invited to attend six, 2.5 hour sessions. You can access this via a referral from your GP or Practice Nurse to the Community Dietetic Department.

Worried About Your Weight?

For information about how to lose weight and keep it off visit the BDA food facts section for tips and ideas.

Will losing weight really benefit my health?

Yes - Carrying extra weight is bad for your health. Losing some weight can help you to feel better and improves your health. Controlling your weight can help with the following conditions: high blood pressure, heart problems, diabetes and arthritis. An initial weight loss of 10% of your body weight will help lower blood pressure and high cholesterol. It will also help to lower your risk of type 2 diabetes.

Key health messages for diabetes. Although the food choices you make and your eating habits are important in helping you manage your diabetes, you should be able to continue enjoying a wide variety of foods as part of healthy eating. Eating a balanced diet, managing your weight, and following a healthy lifestyle, together with taking any prescribed medication and monitoring where appropriate will benefit your health enormously.

Will controlling my diabetes benefit my health?

If your diabetes is not well controlled it can lead to long term health problems such as problems with your heart, eyes and kidneys. The diet for people with diabetes is a balanced healthy diet, the same kind that is recommended for the rest of the population. For further information and recipe ideas visit the Diabetes UK website.

For information about weight management programmes and diabetes patient education programmes delivered by community dietitians in Cardiff see 'Community Dieticians'.

The All Wales Healthy Options Award

Eating out has never been so popular or so easy and accessible. Foods eaten outside the home can make a big contribution to intakes of fat, saturated fat, sugar, salt and calories. Therefore, food businesses are in an excellent position to increase consumer awareness of healthy choices and more importantly to provide healthier food choices to their customers.

The All Wales Healthy Options Award is offered in Cardiff by Cardiff Council to food businesses. The award is a way of rewarding businesses that practice good standards of food hygiene and offer healthy food options. The award aims to make the food served by businesses generally healthier across the board to:

• Improve access to healthier food so the healthy choice is the easy choice.
• Reward businesses who make it easier for customers to eat healthily when eating out.
• Help customers make informed choices by including healthier items on the menu which are clearly identified.

If you are a business interested in this scheme please see the Healthy Options Guidance document. If you would like to see which businesses in Cardiff hold the Healthy Options Award and for more information on the scheme please visit the Health Improvement Team pages of the Cardiff Council website.