Dieticians and nutritionists advise that we need a daily intake of food which gives us a balance of macronutrients: protein, carbohydrates and fats .
Foods which provide protein should make up about 15 per cent of our diet (two portions daily). Foods with a high carbohydrate content (preferably from complex carbohydrate or wholegrain sources such as wholemeal bread, cereals and rice) should comprise about 50 per cent of our diet (five to six portions daily).
Foods providing fat should represent about 35 per cent of our diet. Crucially, we should get no more than 10 per cent of this from saturated fat which is in dairy products and meat; with about 12.5 per cent from mono-unsaturated fat sources such as olive oil, avocados and cashew nuts, and 12.5 per cent from polyunsaturated fats which is in oily fish.
We also need micronutrients, which we get from vitamins and minerals. Fruit and vegetables are an excellent source of these. The Irish guidelines for healthy eating are four portions a day; in Britain, the recommendation is five, while in Mediterranean countries, the average is about nine a day.