Food preparation and portions

Home cooking is a simple way to manage your nutrition without the need for dieting. Home-cooked meals are often lower in calories, sugar, and salt compared to ready-made or takeaway meals. They are also cheaper, fresher, and give you full control over ingredients and portions, helping you maintain your nutrition and wellbeing. Even if you’re not confident in the kitchen, home cooking can be easy and enjoyable!

Home cooking can help you:

• Save money – home-cooked meals cost less than takeaways.
• Control portions – eat only what you need.
• Tailor recipes – swap ingredients for healthier options and reduce fat, sugar, and salt.
• Use healthier cooking methods – try grilling instead of frying or steaming instead of boiling.
• Plan meals and batch cook – make meals in bulk, divide into portions, and freeze for later.
• Prepare healthy snacks and puddings – enjoy nourishing homemade treats.
• Shop smart and reduce food waste.

When cooking at home, try to use methods that minimise fat and preserve nutrients. Avoid deep-frying, which adds too much fat, or boiling, which can cause nutrient loss.

Healthy cooking methods:

• Steaming: Cook food with steam over boiling water. This keeps its shape, texture, and full nutritional value.
• Raw food: Eating raw vegetables, nuts, and seeds retains all nutrients, provides high fibre, and avoids added fats.
• Grilling: Cook food on a rack over direct heat. This reduces fat content as excess fat drips away.
• Microwaving: A quick method that uses no liquid or fat, helping to retain nutrients.
• Stir-frying: Quickly cook small pieces over high heat with constant stirring. This uses little fat, keeps nutrients, and adds flavour and texture.

When cooking at home, try to avoid ingredients high in saturated fats (butter, lard, cheese, mayonnaise), trans fats (margarine), salt (table salt, soy sauce), or sugar (table sugar and condiments like ketchup).

Choose healthier alternatives, such as oil instead of butter or margarine, spices instead of salt, and low-fat, low-salt, or low-sugar condiments and tinned vegetables or legumes.

Food preparation tips:

• Use minimal salt or none at all. Instead, flavour food with herbs, spices, salt-free seasoning blends, flavoured vinegars, peppers, garlic, or citrus juice and zest.
• Drain and rinse tinned meat, seafood, vegetables, and beans to remove excess salt, sugar, or oil.
• Trim visible fat from meat before cooking.
• Use skinless poultry or remove the skin before cooking.
• Cook vegetables until they are tender-crisp. Overcooking reduces flavour, colour, and nutrients.

Simple food swaps can help reduce sugar, salt, and fat, making your meals healthier every day.

At breakfast, try cutting back on sugar and fat by choosing healthier, more filling options. For example:

• Replace granola, which is high in fat and sugar, with muesli made with unrefined sugars and low fat.
• Swap croissants and pastries for wholemeal toast to start your day on a healthier note.
• Swap chocolate cereal for wheat biscuit cereal.
• Swap sugary cereal for shredded wholegrain cereal.
• Swap frosted flakes with muesli
• Swap honey crunch cereal with porridge
• Swap croissants with wholemeal toast
• Swap cereal bars with plain natural yoghurt and fruits

Click here for more healthy breakfast alternatives.

Simple food swaps can help reduce sugar, salt, and fat, making your meals healthier every day.

At breakfast, try cutting back on sugar and fat by choosing healthier, more filling options. For example:

• Swap crisps and savoury snacks for plain popcorn or rice cakes.
• Swap cake and cereal bars for fresh or tinned fruit (no syrup).
• Swap muffins and chocolate for whole wheat toast and peanut butter.
• Swap sugary yoghurt and pudding pots to low fat yoghurt and sugar free jelly
• Swap fruit juice and fizzy drinks with water or sugar free juice and drinks
• Swap tinned soup with homemade vegetables or pulses soup

Click here for more healthy lunch alternatives.

Dinner time is often when salt and saturated fat levels can increase, especially with ready-made ingredients and takeaway foods.

Swap takeaways for homemade meals to reduce salt, fat, and cost. Cooking from scratch gives you control over what goes into your food.

Avoid or limit alcohol with your evening meal, as it adds 'empty' calories, affects nutrient absorption, and can disrupt sleep.

• Swap sausages for plant-based or meat-free sausages.
• Swap pepperoni or meat pizza for cauliflower crust veggie pizza.
• Swap spaghetti Bolognese for lentil and vegetable pasta Bolognese.
• Swap salt and soya sauce for herbs or low-sodium soya sauce.
• Swap ketchup for low-sugar and low-salt ketchup.
• Swap mayonnaise for low-fat mayonnaise.
• Swap gravy or brown sauce for jus.

Click here for dinner time alternatives.

Eating a healthy, balanced diet and maintaining a healthy weight isn’t just about what we eat—it’s also about how much we eat. While we need portions from each food group daily, understanding what a single portion looks like can be challenging. The recommended number of portions varies for each person depending on factors like age, sex, size, and health.

In the UK, portion sizes have increased over time. Larger portions can lead to learned eating behaviours that are unhealthy, especially when they involve foods high in salt, sugar, or fat.

A portion is how much food we eat at one time, whether at home, in a restaurant, or from a package. A serving size, however, is what’s listed on food labels. These serving sizes can often exceed recommended portions, so it’s important to know how much is enough.

Using your hands is an easy and practical way to measure food portions:

• Your hands are always with you, making them a portable tool.
• They provide a consistent size for reference.
• They scale naturally with your body size.

Hand-sized portions are a simple way to track food intake without the need for weighing or measuring. This approach saves time and makes it easier to balance nutrients and energy.