Eating a healthy balanced diet means eating a wide variety of foods in the right proportions.

This can be hard to do if you are not used to it, but small changes can make all the difference. We explain why the different types of food are important below:

Fruit and vegetables are a vital source of vitamins and minerals and should make up just over a third of the food we eat each day. It’s advised that we eat at least five portions of a variety of fruit and vegetables every day. Eating five portions is not as hard as it sounds. Just one apple, banana, pear or similar-sized fruit is one portion. A slice of pineapple or melon is one portion. Three heaped tablespoons of vegetables is another portion.

Starchy foods should make up just over one third of everything we eat. This means we should base our meals on these foods. Potatoes with the skins on are a great source of fibre and vitamins.

Try to choose wholegrain or wholemeal varieties of starchy foods, such as brown rice, wholewheat pasta and brown, wholemeal or higher fibre white bread. They contain more fibre, and usually more vitamins and minerals than white varieties.

Milk and dairy foods such as cheese and yoghurt are good sources of protein. They also contain calcium, which helps keep your bones healthy..

Beans, pulses, fish, eggs, meat and other protein are all good sources of protein, which is essential for the body to grow and repair itself. They are also good sources of a range of vitamins and minerals..

Some fat in the diet is essential, but should be limited to small amounts. It’s important to get most of our fat from unsaturated oils and spreads. Swapping to unsaturated fats can help to lower cholesterol.

Too much saturated fat can increase the amount of cholesterol in the blood, which increases your risk of developing heart disease, while regularly consuming foods and drinks high in sugar increases your risk of obesity and tooth decay.