Enrich’s Guide to…Eating for Balance

Welcome to 2024 with Enrich! We are so excited to explore another year of wellness together, bringing you resources on nutrition, health, and wellbeing that you know you can trust. This year, we are going to explore eating for all types of health concerns, from heart health to brain health.

As we start off the year, we want to begin by talking about how to bring a sense of contentment and balance into our diets. There can be a lot of pressure at this time of year to ‘get back on track’, with restrictive diet plans available everywhere you look. We believe that getting the basics right can go such a long way towards us feeling happy, healthy and like we are functioning at our best, with no need to drastically overhaul how we eat in away that is difficult and ultimately unsustainable.

Balance is something we all strive for in our day to day lives. A balanced approach to life allows us to maintain our energy for those things which are important to us, as well as build resilience for those inevitable times when things get harder. Here at Enrich, we know that true wellbeing is holistic, and takes into account our life circumstances and challenges. We want to help you to make choices that are supportive, achievable and sustainable, whatever that looks like for you.

We want the food we eat to support whatever goals we might have, as well as adding a source of pleasure and enjoyment. Truly being in balance means understanding that we don’t need strict food rules, but rather can pay attention to how our body feels and respond with nourishment.

Enrich’s approach to food is, at its core, simple – eat lots of plants, include a source of protein whenever you can, and emphasise healthy fats. We follow the flexitarian approach, a style of eating that emphasises a flexible approach to diet. It takes the undeniable benefits of a vegetarian or plant-based diet, but allows for occasional consumption of meat, allowing you to make your own choices. Including both animal and plant foods in your diet means that you will feel satisfied and ensure that you are consuming all the essential vitamins and minerals for your health to thrive.

A flexitarian diet is built on a foundation of plant-based foods. This means that your primary foods will be fruits, vegetables, grains, legumes, and nuts, with more variety just adding to the health benefits. It is estimated that we should be trying to eat 30 different plant foods a week, for optimum health benefits. This might sound daunting, but over time you will find ways to incorporate fruits and vegetables into your meals. Think of a bowl of porridge – if you add bananas, berries, nut butter and a sprinkling of mixed seeds, this can already be 6 plant foods!

However, the key difference between flexitarian and plant-based is that animal products may occasionally be included in small amounts. Lean meats and fish can provide us with essential nutrition such as quality protein, iron, and healthy fats. This dietary pattern thus becomes very adaptable, allowing us to consume all of our favourite foods, albeit in portions that contribute most to our health. It is also a sustainable choice, as it does not require cutting out any food groups.

This way of eating is associated with numerous health benefits. Eating primarily plant-based means that you are consuming lots of fruits and vegetables, which we know is amazing for our health. We are getting fibre, vitamins and minerals, contributing to improved heart health and reduced risk of chronic diseases.

This flexible approach also benefits our mental wellbeing. Restrictive diets can potentially lead to disordered eating habits, as strict rules can often lead to feelings of being out of control or ‘bad’ for eating certain foods. Over time, this contributes to a negative relationship with food. It can also have an impact on our relationships, as our eating style may mean that we cannot join in with social occasions. A flexitarian diet allows us to embrace different types of food, focusing on what we can add to our diets rather than take away. This is a much more sustainable and balanced approach to food.

So, let’s embrace a flexitarian approach to food this year, and bring a sense of balance into all of our efforts to improve our health and wellbeing.