Knowing how to have a healthy diet is important for weight management, good energy levels and overall health and well being.

A healthy diet does not mean a boring or bland diet or that any foods are forbidden. Rather it means eating a diet that is nutritionally balanced, will improve your health, reduce your risk of illness and still taste great.

After all no one is going to stick to a diet that is dull and tasteless no matter how much good it may be doing for them.

There are a number of things that you can do to improve your diet and make it healthier. Firstly balance the number of calories that you eat each day with the number that you burn this will ensure that you remain at a constant healthy weight. Consuming more calories than you burn will cause weight gain.

Eating a wide variety of foods will ensure that you gain all the vitamins and minerals that your body needs to function properly and ensure that you have a healthy balanced diet. A calorie and nutrition guide is useful for doing this.

Eat lots of fruit and vegetables they are low in calories and high in fibre and water content meaning that they fill you up without causing weight to be gained.

Make sure that you drink enough water. It will help control hunger pangs and is necessary for the body to function efficiently.

If it’s not brown put it down. Food in its natural state is brown so try switching to whole grain bread and pasta. Food such as white bread contains more salt and calories than their whole grain equivalent.

Learn to read food labels. By doing this you will be more aware of what is actually in your food and it will help you to spot hidden calories.