African food groups
A bespoke version of the Eatwell Guide has been created for the African and Caribbean communities. The Eatwell Guide was designed to give a visual representation of our plate and the balance we should aim for of each food group.
Food groups
We’ve included further information about each food group below:
Fruit and vegetables
It’s recommended that we eat at least 5 portions of fruit and vegetables a day which most of us are still not achieving.
Carbohydrates
Carbohydrates are foods that break down to sugar in the body. These may be sweet foods like mandazi cakes, puff puff, chin chin, condensed milk, plantain chips, sugared breakfast cereals, honey, fruit and concentrated fruit juices, or starchy foods like sweet potatoes, garri, cassava, plantain and fufu.
Dairy
Dairy includes things like milk, condensed or evaporated milk, coconut milk and yoghurt. You should aim to eat 2 – 3 portions of dairy a day.
Beans, meat, fish, eggs, pulses and other proteins:
We should aim to eat 2–3 portions a day and 2 portions of fish, 1 of which is oily fish, per week.
Oils and spreads:
We do need some fat in our diets but this should come from unsaturated fats such as sunflower, rapeseed and olive oils and spreads made from these oils.
Foods high in fat, sugar and salt:
As part of a healthy diet, we don’t need any foods that are high in saturated fat, sugar and salt.
