Reviewed 12/8/2025
Overview
Also see Bolton JSNA - Built and natural environment (Access to healthier food)
Eating a healthy, balanced diet is an important part of maintaining good health. The Eat Well Guide shows that to have a healthy, balanced diet, people should try to:
- 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; and drink plenty of fluids.
Fruit and veg consumption is often used as a quick indicator of the number of people who eat a broader healthy diet.
The Bolton picture
Further useful links
- Eating out/ fast food
- Eat Well - information and guidance about eating a healthy, balanced diet - from the NHS
- The eat well guide - shows how much of what we eat overall should come from each food group to achieve a healthy, balanced diet - from the NHS
- Diet, nutrition and obesity from NICE - All NICE products on diet, nutrition and obesity. Includes any guidance, advice and quality standards
- Action on Salt - a group of specialists concerned with salt and its effects on health
- National diet and nutrition survey reports - from OHID. The National Diet and Nutrition Survey (NDNS) is a continuous, cross-sectional survey. It is designed to collect detailed, quantitative information on the food consumption, nutrient intake and nutritional status of the population living in private households in the UK
- Food insecurity interventions: evidence summary - from Derbyshire County Council