You can read Suffolk County Council's statement on our website.
![Councillor Peter Gould](/image-library/peter-gould-ws-hr-1.xb6cb8b20.jpg?width=470&height=256&fit=crop&quality=75&format=webp)
You can read Suffolk County Council's statement on our website.
Eating well is not just about what we eat, but maintaining a good relationship with food.
Be Well, Feel Well: A healthier Suffolk in 2023 is a partnership between Suffolk Mind, Public Health & Communities and a range of community groups teaming up to focus on promoting ways we can stay well throughout the year, by meeting 12 physical and emotional needs. Our relationship with food and drink should be one of life’s pleasures beyond just eating to live, experiencing new tastes, the feeling of being nourished, and the sense of community which comes from eating and drinking with others.
However, what we eat and drink can often be linked to our state of mind, and how we feel, and this can lead to unhealthy relationships with food and drink.
With the cost of food and drink on the increase, it’s also challenging for families to maintain a healthy balanced diet if on a budget.
We have teamed up with Suffolk County Council, Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust (NSFT) and the Integrated Care Board (ICB) to highlight their 'Eat Well, Feel Well' Campaign to help raise awareness of how changes to our eating habits can improve our wellbeing.
The 'Eat Well, Feel Well' campaign aims to raise awareness to families and schools of the importance of eating well and building good relationships with a variety of food in order to maintain good mental and physical health, and prevent eating problems in children.
As part of the 'Eat Well, Feel Well' campaign, we have gathered resources, tips and advice on various topics centred around eating well for our mental and physical health to support parents, carers, teachers and young people.
Do you know that our brains run on glucose and carbohydrates!
It’s not widely known that our brains depend on sugar and carbs for energy.
When we make changes to eat healthy, we immediately look at dieting and cutting out these types of foods from our diet which is not so great for our brains.
This is no excuse for us to eat more chocolate, but to instead understand that in order for us to 'eat Healthy' for both our mind and body, we need to:
These three things, along with staying active, will keep both our mind and body in good shape, but also ensure that by not restricting or avoiding certain types of food, we have a good relationship with all food - food will not start to control our life.
With the help of OneLife Suffolk we have created the below Eat Well webinar to guide families which includes tips and advice on various eat well topics.
Watch the below video from Fiona Hanlon, Senior Trainer at Suffolk Mind, who explains how food and drink is one of the twelve emotional needs required for good mental health. She explores the sort of food and drink that can help improve your mood, and which ones you may want to consider reducing.
The video below from the 'Be Well, Feel Well' food and dink campaign mentions the importance of food and drink and how good choices can have a positive impact on our health and wellbeing.
Eating on a budget resources:
Apps:
Anxiety and stress can cause a change in ours and our children’s appetites and eating habits.
When we are stressed this can affect our eating habits as our stress hormone, called cortisol, can increase our appetite, leading us to overeat. This is our bodies way of ensuring we have enough energy to provide a 'fight or flight' response to a stressful situation.
Additionally, if stress wreaks havoc on your sleeping patterns, it can also alter hormones that control appetite, blood sugar and cravings.
Therefore when we are feeling stressed we should find ways to relax and release tension as we crave more high-fat foods during periods of stress.
Being anxious on the other hand can cause us to lose our appetite and this can be a vicious cycle because not eating enough causes anxiety or depression.
We need to eat regularly to maintain the energy levels in our body to stop us feeling anxious and low.
The following webinar video from 'Kooth - stress, anxiety and eating' (use this password 'Promotionandengagement123' to view) helps to explain to young people and families about how stress and anxiety can affect our eating, giving advice on what we can do to prevent this.
The video below 'Improving Our Relationship with Food', was created with Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust Peer Support Worker Phoebe Webb, from the Suffolk Under 18s Eating Disorder Service. It highlights he signs of a good or bad relationship with food, with tips to eat well.
Body Image is the way we think and feel about our bodies.
Children as young as 3 years old, are worrying about how their bodies look based on what they see in the media, in Disney films and on TV.
If we have negative feelings about the way our body looks this can affect our health and wellbeing, eating and relationships.
We are more than our body.
Find more Body Image advice and downloadable resources to help children understand about body image at: www.bodyhappyorg.com
Wednesday's Child have the following webinars available to support families through their recovery journey.
Men and boys are just as much at risk of an eating disorder as woman and girls
"Around 1 in 4 people with eating disorders are men. And yet their symptoms can still go unnoticed by those around them."
Take a look at BEATs Men Get Eating Disorders Too Campaign to hear stories from men struggling with eating disorders and how to get support.