Eating well and diet advice
Fruit and vegetables contain all the things you need to keep you healthy and your immune system happy. Eat plenty and try to include as many different colours of fruit and vegetables as you can to ensure you benefit from the full range of nutrients.
Try to include food from each of the four main food groups every day:
- Bread and cereals
- Fruit and vegetables
- Dairy products such as milk, cheese and yoghurt
- Meat, fish, eggs, pulses (peas, beans and lentils) and nuts.
Eat a well-balanced diet with a good calcium supply. Calcium is important for strong bones. Foods that give you the best calcium are; milk, cheese and yoghurts. Also good are bread, green leafy vegetables such as cabbage, baked beans, and fish with soft bones such as sardines.
- Try not to skip breakfast.
- Do not get thirsty – keep hydrated by drinking water.
- Base your meals on things like brown rice.
- Aim to eat at least five portions of a range of fruit and vegetables every day – that’s five portions of fruit and veg in total.
- Eat more fish, including one portion of fish a week such as tuna or salmon.
Cut down on saturated fat (the kind of fat found in butter and lard and fatty cuts of meat) and sugar for example sugary drinks, cakes and biscuits
- Eat less salt
- Be active and aim for a healthy weight.
Information in this section is intended to be used as a guide. It gives you an idea about how low back pain can be managed. However, you should remember that every case is different, and symptoms and management can vary from person to person.
