The secret to healthy eating habits is easier than you think

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Tesco is helping shoppers achieve a more balanced and healthy diet (Image: Tom Regester)
Tesco is helping shoppers achieve a more balanced and healthy diet (Image: Tom Regester)

If your New Year’s resolution to eat healthier has wobbled already, you’re not the only one. New data from Tesco shows that many of us feel overwhelmed attempting to make big changes.

Over half of us admit to keeping New Year’s resolutions for two weeks or less, leading one in three of us to feel like we’ve failed before we’ve even started.

So what’s the secret to keeping our healthy intentions?

Three words: making small changes. Nearly two thirds of us - 61% of people - found adding extra vegetables and fruit to meals make it easier to stick to healthy eating, according to the Tesco research.

On dinner tables across the country, those small ‘flexitarian’ changes are already adding up.

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A veg revolution is underway, with households eating more vegetables than five years ago and experimenting with plant-based sources of protein, like chickpeas and beans.

How can you get involved? The easiest way is adding one or two more vegetables into each meal, which also makes meals go further, and is especially good if you are watching your budget.

Extra veg can give you more vitamins and minerals, and is often better value too. You could experiment with more vegetable side dishes with your Sunday roast, or even try replacing some of your meat content with veg or pulses.

According to new research by Tesco the average Brit now has three or more veggies with a roast dinner.

Tesco is helping to support customers who want to make healthy changes, by keeping prices low on fresh produce through weekly price promotions such as Fresh 5 and rolling out Better Basket zones where products that are high in fibre or lower in sugar or calories can be found together.

The secret to healthy eating habits is easier than you think (Tom Regester)

The supermarket has also removed a massive 71 billion calories from foods in their own-brand ranges and continues to work with suppliers to encourage similar action across branded products.

And it’s working, too. Over 3.3 million Tesco customers purchased at least 10% more healthy items in 2022 than in 2021.

“At Tesco we have seen what’s possible when we create the conditions and incentives to help people to fill their baskets with products that are healthier but still affordable,” says the supermarket’s Chief Commercial Officer, Ashwin Prasad.

And, says the British Nutrition Foundation, help from supermarkets and food suppliers is needed.

"To improve nutrition and help people lead healthier lives, we need to better connect people, food producers, businesses and science." says Elaine Hindal, CEO of the British Nutrition Foundation.

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"Success in supporting people to make a change comes from collaboration, both across the nutrition and food community but also collaboration with the public to promote and increase understanding of nutrition."

Since Tesco voluntarily introduced measures for products high in fat, salt and sugar ahead of government legislation, the supermarket’s sales of low- and no-sugar drinks has grown 11% - that’s quicker than its regular drinks sales.

Hindal concludes that “A healthier more sustainable diet is one that balances multiple elements including nutrition, health, cost and value of food items, and cultural considerations.

"The more we talk about how to create that balance, the more likely our healthy intentions are to stick.”

For more information visit tesco.com/healthy-diets

Anna Fielding

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