Instead of the ‘Good Food Guide’, The Pulse has written a good ‘fridge’ guide, to help everyone gauge whether or not their diet is as healthy as it could be…

The contents of your fridge say a lot about your diet. While we all enjoy occasional treats, a healthy balanced diet means our fridge should contain the following items:

As a guide your fridge should have the foods below:

• Skimmed, semi skimmed milk or fortified soy milk.
• Fresh fruit.
• Dip carrots in this chickpea spread.
• Low-fat yogurt. Mix fresh fruit into vanilla or plain.
• 100 per cent fruit juice.
• Bagged salad. Look for darker greens like baby spinach or a mix of multi-coloured lettuces.
• Lunch meatslike, chicken turkey and lean roast beef.
• A fun alternative to bread.
• Fresh vegetables like broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, snow peas, and celery to serve as a snack, toss into salads, or steam.
• Low-fat cheese.

Foods to avoid or limit in your fridge.

• Mayonnaise: High in calories and fat.
• Fizzy and other sweet drinks: High in sugar
• Alcoholic beverages: From a nutritional standpoint anyway.
• Processed lunch meat: Can contain lots of sodium, fat and preservatives.
• Hot dogs and sausage: Like processed meats.
• Whole-milk products: Can have an overabundance of fat and cholesterol.
• Gourmet ice cream: High in fat
• Creamy salad dressing:
• Butter or margarine: High in saturated fat.
• Frozen chips

We can all enjoy a few of these limited items as a treat but not on a regular basis.