Quick and healthy lunch ideas to keep you well.

Eating a well-balanced diet is an important part of staying healthy. Fuelling your body with the right food is not just about maintaining a healthy weight. It also boosts energy, supports immune health, and prevents bone loss and disease.

Here we explore the benefits of a well-balanced diet and provide tips and resources for incorporating healthy eating into your daily routine.

Prioritise plant food

It’s not always easy to stay motivated, and at times, we may find ourselves grabbing the easiest and most convenient foods. However, the foods that are the most convenient aren’t always the healthiest. They are often packed with unwanted calories and very few nutrients.

To maintain a healthy, balanced diet, it’s important to prioritise plant food (veggies and fruit) so you can meet your recommended daily intake of vitamins, minerals, and fibre. Healthy fats such as olive oil, avocado and omega-3 fatty acids are also important, in addition to lean protein and adequate water intake. Just remember that ageing and some health conditions can increase your requirements for certain nutrients, so it’s important to get individualised advice. Talk to your GP or get a referral to a registered Dietician or Nutritionist.

Blue zones diet

A good way to approach healthy eating is to choose foods that are rich in health promoting nutrients at every main meal, including lunch. Have you heard of the Blue Zones? They are five locations in the world where people live well into their 100s. Nutrition is one of the main wellness pillars and locals follow a Mediterranean style of eating. Leafy greens, beans, sweet potatoes, fruits, nuts, and seeds are staples. They also prepare their own food.

Here are some simple, nutrient-dense lunch recipes from the Blue Zones website:

• Mini Frittatas
• Sweet potato and bean salad
• Lentil salad
• Homemade minestrone soup
• Quinoa & veggie salad
• Bean and salad wrap

If grocery shopping, meal preparation or cooking starts to become a challenge, reach out to Five Good Friends for a helping hand. At Five Good Friends, we help people live long, healthy lives in their own homes so they can remain connected to the friends, community, and life they love. Our Helpers can support you to continue to eat, and live well, at home.

You can also consider meal delivery services that provide healthy and tasty pre prepared meals. We can recommend a range of verified third-party suppliers and discounts are available under Home Care Packages.