How to Create a Personalised Healthy Meal Plan to Include the Vitamins and Minerals You Need Today

Meal plans are a great way to cut down waste, make shopping for food quicker and easier, and help you to stick to healthy choices. But where do you start? What makes a healthy meal plan for the week, and how do you know what to include? How do you create one that fits your nutrient needs? Read on to learn how to create a healthy meal plan for you and download your free nutrient guides.

Firstly, there is no healthy meal plan that works for everyone. At different stages of your life, you will need different levels of nutrients, but there are some general principles that you can follow, and then adjust as necessary. Here’s how to create a healthy meal plan for the week.

I’m Dr Harriet Holme a Registered Nutritionist, doctor, and lecturer in nutrition.

The Backbone of Your Healthy Meal Plan

For the vast majority of adults, these practical tips should be the backbone of your meal plan:

• A range of fruits and vegetables
• Unsaturated fats such as extra virgin olive oil, rapeseed oil, avocados, and nuts
• Whole-grain carbohydrates (brown rice, brown bread, millet, bulgar wheat, etc)
• Fermented food such as kefir, kimchi, and sauerkraut
• Two portions of oily fish such as salmon per week (or nuts and seeds if you don’t eat fish)
• A handful of nuts and seeds a day
• Aim for 30g of fiber a day
• Eat a range of beans and pulses (such as chickpeas, kidney beans, black beans, and lentils)
• Drink until you don’t feel thirsty (approximately 8 glasses of water a day)[1]

Calorie Counting

A calorie is the energy required to raise the temperature of 1g water from 14.5 to 15.5°Celsius. This is calculated in a laboratory, by burning the food. However, the food is not “burnt” in our bodies, and people’s metabolism and energy expenditure vary, so it’s a very rough estimate.

The absorption and, therefore, how much energy is available for you to use, is also affected by how the food…