Healthy eating for all the family

Improving your family's eating habits will increase your all-round fitness and help you all to maintain a healthy weight - and it needn't cost more than you're already spending

Follow these simple tips and you'll all feel the benefits.

Re-stock your fridge and store cupboards

The first step towards improving your diet is to re-stock with healthy foods. Making clever choices means you'll feel fuller for longer throughout the day - saving money and calories on all those unnecessary extras!

And it's been proven that 'grazing' throughout the day - eating little and often - can be healthier than facing three large meals a day, so when you do fancy a little something between meals you'll have a whole lot of good foods to choose from.

Great essentials for your fridge include: low-fat soft cheese; tubes of tomato and garlic puree; low-fat spread (without transfats - check the label); skimmed milk; low-fat fromage frais or natural yoghurt; a varied salad drawer (but don't go for pre-bagged stuff unless you can finish it in one day); lean ham or chicken slices; eggs.

Great essentials for your store cupboards include: baked beans (reduced sugar and salt); canned tomatoes; canned mixed beans; canned lentils; dried herbs and spices; Worcestershire sauce; stock cubes; canned tuna and other fish; brown/red/wild rice and brown/wholemeal pasta; grains such as couscous/quinoa; soy sauce; balsamic vinegar; olive oil; olives.

Booster breakfasts

A good breakfast will provide that much-needed energy boost to get you all off to the best start. Choose foods that release their energy slowly to keep you feeling fuller for longer.

Porridge is perfect - especially now you can microwave a bowl in just two minutes. Ring the changes by serving with natural yoghurt or reduced-fat fromage frais plus a handful of chopped strawberries/whole blueberries/blackberries/pomegranate seeds/mixed nuts and seeds/halved grapes or a sprinkling of sultanas.
Choose a wholegrain or wholewheat cereal and serve with skimmed milk (or whole milk for babies from a year old; semi-skimmed for children over the age of two).
Serve wholemeal or wholegrain toast with low-fat spread/peanut butter/no-added-sugar jam/yeast extract.