Every first-year medical student knows that the basis of a good diet is the correct balance of carbohydrate, fat and adequate protein, coupled with the correct amount of vitamins and trace elements, but without added salt.

Most would add that people should have five different types of fruit and vegetables (not including potatoes), and oily fish twice a week, with adolescent women needing a higher calcium diet than usual.

Most also believe that eating regularly, with meals in which the daily calorie intake has been divided equally between three meals, has advantages.

If all the food was good quality and fresh, from land that had been well cultivated, and the meat free range and not artificially fattened, it would be an added advantage. But few have the time, or live in the right environment, to achieve this.

Our food hasn’t been freshly picked, fished or slaughtered, and the vitamin content is low. We frenetic commuters have to make do with precooked, reheated calorie-dense foods stripped of their vitamin content. Those who decry vitamin and mineral supplements are harking back to an earlier era. If we are to have a satisfactory diet we now need to opt for second best and take a good quality multivitamin and mineral supplement. The value of vitamins has been proved with the vitamin folic acid, without which the number of deformed or disabled babies would have burgeoned, and the Omega 3 fats that improve intellectual ability in children and protect the cardiovascular systems in adults. Without additional calcium and vitamin D, the incidence of osteoporosis in a society where people are living longer will burden the health service with even more fractures.

Explore Health

• Expert Advice

• Health Features

• Mental Health

• Alternative Medicine

• Child Health

• Health Club