Eating well can help you improve your wellbeing, manage your weight and reduce your risk of developing diseases such as diabetes and coronary heart disease.

Being overweight, or underweight can have serious consequences to your health, and having a poor diet will put your overall health at risk.

Healthy diet

A healthy, balanced diet involves eating a wide variety of nutritious food and drink in the right proportions to achieve and maintain a healthy body weight.

It is recommended that men have around 2,500 calories a day and women around 2,000 calories a day. A poor diet is linked to poor health and illness such as Type 2 Diabetes, Cancer and Stroke to name a few.

MoreLife

If you are concerned about weight, MoreLife provides free adult and child weight management services for individuals and families who live in Bedford Borough and meet the eligibility criteria.

Their sessions cover a range of topics including healthy eating, physical activity and body image to help support sustainable change in a fun and friendly environment

You can ask your GP or Health professional to refer you to MoreLife or alternatively you can self-refer via the MoreLife website.

Keeping active

An active lifestyle is also important to prevent illness and improve our physical and mental well-being, helping us to feel our best.

Work out the amount of physical activity we need to do to stay healthy, depending on your age group.

Find local sport and physical activity sessions as well as Exercise on Referral.

Download the free Couch to 5K app.

Healthy lifestyle online resources

• Change4Life is designed for families with young children in mind. It features healthy eating tips, quick and easy family recipes, fun activities for kids and lots more!
• One You provides tips on how you can eat better, loose weight and keep active. There are a downloadable apps such as the ‘easy meals’ and the ‘couch to 5k’ to name but a few!
• NHS Eat Well provides information on how to eat healthily, exercise and understand what your weight means.
• Start4life for pregnant women, dads-to-be and new parents and their babies
• Healthy Start for those on benefits who are pregnant or have children under the age of four.

National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP)

National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP) monitors weight and obesity levels in children within primary schools

Children have their height and weight measured in Reception and Year 6 as part of the National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP).

This information is used to plan and provide better services for children and families.

If your child's NCMP letter surprised or worried you, you can call the number on your results letter for advice and support or speak to your school Nurse or GP.