The five food groups on the eatwell plate are:

Fruit and vegetables

These should make up about a third of your daily diet and can be eaten as part of every meal, as well as being the first choice for a snack.


You should eat at least five portions of fruit and vegetables each day. Research suggests this can help to protect against cancer, obesity and various chronic diseases such as heart disease.

This is because of the unique package of nutrients and plant compounds they contain.

Foods from each of these groups are needed to provide everything that is necessary for life.

Although each food group plays an important role in a healthy lifestyle,there is not a single food that can provide everything needed for a healthy lifestyle.

Selecting whole natural foods will provide the best source of vitamins, minerals and nutrients. Some processed foods, such as white flour and white rice, may not have additives but they have been stripped of their nutritional value during processing.

Although white flour can be used to make fluffy cakes and light bread, there is no nutritional benefit to consuming them.

First, there are too many people making them (even doctors fit into this category) and you need a scorecard to keep track of the rules because they change faster than you can read them.

Two-thirds of Americans and British people are obese and there does not seem to be any meaningful reduction to that number coming any time soon.

There are no shortage of television shows, magazine articles or books written on how to lose weight.


What is confusing to those trying to lose weight, or eat more healthily is that the rules for eating better, more healthy meals change from the publishing of one medical journal to the next.


Not too long ago, the American dairy foundation went on a tear because of the millions of advertising dollars spent demonizing the egg.

The egg was found to be full of cholesterol and therefore, a "bad" food so the rule was: do not eat eggs. That rule was later modified to: do not eat egg yolks; egg whites are fine.

More recently, the egg not only lost its "demon" status but has been declared a great protein food and not so bad in the cholesterol department.