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Your Guide to Food Groups - How to build a balanced meal.
Your Guide to Food Groups - How to build a balanced meal.
Sophia Thompson avatar
Written by Sophia Thompson
Updated over a week ago

Welcome to your one-stop shop for high-quality foods, categorised to help you build a balanced meal and meet your nutritional needs.

The Eat Well Guide

You may have seen the Eat Well Guide, a visual representation of how different foods contribute towards a healthy, balanced diet. There are many pros to this resource. For example, it shows the importance of:

  • Flexibility - The guide doesn't prescribe specific foods but rather food groups, allowing for cultural and personal preferences.

  • A balanced approach - The need to eat a variety of foods from different food groups in appropriate proportions.

  • Whole foods, while minimising ultra-processed foods.

  • Hydration.

But here at ZOE, we’re big on the quality of food, which is missing from the Eat Well Guide.

So here is our version, and below are high-quality examples of each food group that you can mix and match to build a variety of balanced meals.

Food Groups

Fats

High-quality fats are essential for a number of bodily functions, including brain health, hormone production, nutrient absorption, and heart health, while also providing energy and contributing to satiety.

High quality examples include:

  • Greek yoghurt

  • Extra virgin olive oil

  • Avocado

  • Nuts

  • Seeds

  • Oily fish (sardines, mackerel, salmon)

Protein

Protein is essential for tissue building and repair, enzyme and hormone production, immune support, and overall body function.

Studies have also shown that there is no difference in fullness and hunger between consuming animal protein vs plant protein. So choosing plant sources more often is a good idea, as you'll get that added fibre!

High quality examples include:

  • Nuts

  • Seeds

  • Beans (chickpeas, black beans, kidney beans, cannellini beans, haricot beans)

  • Lentils

  • Peas

  • Quinoa

  • Fish + seafood

  • Eggs

  • Greek yoghurt

  • Edamame

  • Tofu

  • Tempeh

  • Lean meats (chicken)

  • Cottage cheese

Carbohydrates

Carbs are really important for your health and are a great source of energy for your body, especially your brain. In general, you’ll want to opt for a variety of high-quality, fibre-rich carbs most of the time. This is because research suggests the quality of the carbs we eat is important for better long-term health outcomes, not simply the quantity.

High quality examples include:

  • Wholegrain pasta (look for 8g fibre per 100g on the back-of-pack information)

  • Wholegrain seeded sourdough bread

  • Pearl barley

  • Bulgur wheat

  • Buckwheat

  • Quinoa

  • Freekeh

  • Brown rice

  • Wholegrain couscous

  • Sweet potato

  • Fruit and veg

Don’t be put off by these carbs if they have a lower score. It’s all part of the magic of food combining. More on this below.

Fermented Foods

We feel very strongly about Fermented foods here at ZOE, due to their positive impact on our gut health.

The good news is that you can start small and build up your intake over time to allow your gut bacteria to adjust.

Examples include:

  • Miso

  • Kimchi

  • Sauerkraut

  • Greek yoghurt

  • Kombucha

  • Kefir

  • Water kefir

  • Natto

  • Tempeh

You’ll see these foods have a ‘Fermentation’ score boost if you scroll down to the ‘Facts’ of a food or meal.

Top tip: opt for fermented foods from the refrigerated section to make sure they contain live strains.

Fibre

It’s also important to give Fibre a shout-out as so many people don’t meet the recommended amount of 30g a day.

For fibre, think plants! The more variety the better. Take a look at our article on boosting fibre intake for tips.

Herbs and Spices

Finally, we have herbs and spices. While not technically a food group, they have a very important role in our diets. For example, they:

  • Can make a meal more enjoyable

  • Increase diet diversity

  • Contribute towards satiety

  • Can help reduce the intake of salt and sugar

  • Are culturally significant - many traditional flavourings are integral to cultural cuisines and traditions

  • Have potential health benefits - have a listen to our podcast for more information 🎧

So don’t forget to add lots of dried and fresh herbs and spices to your meals!

Examples include:

Herbs

  • Basil

  • Parsley

  • Coriander / Cilantro

  • Thyme

  • Rosemary

  • Oregano

  • Sage

  • Mint

  • Dill

  • Chives

  • Tarragon

  • Bay leaves

  • Lemongrass

  • Fennel

Spices

  • Black pepper

  • Cinnamon

  • Cumin

  • Paprika

  • Turmeric

  • Ginger

  • Nutmeg

  • Cardamom

  • Cloves

  • Saffron

  • Star anise

  • Fenugreek

  • Cayenne pepper

  • Caraway seeds

You can also buy spice mixes, like:

  • Za’atar

  • Curry powder

  • Garam masala

  • Chinese Five-spice powder

  • Herbes de Provence

Food Combining

Pairing these foods can allow you to meet your nutritional needs, while also helping you optimise your blood fat, blood sugar and gut health impact as reflected in the app.

What's next?

Why not pick a food from this list that you’ve never tried before, and buy it the next time you do a food shop to boost your diet diversity?

You can also take a look at the recipes in the app for meal ideas. Or check out our recommended cookbooks for inspiration.

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