Want a healthier diet? What you should be eating, why you should be eating it and how often

From kiwis and nuts to oily fish and pulses, dietitian Orla Walsh explains the nutritional powers of her top superfoods — and why we should eat more of them

Orla Walsh is also encouraging people to eat more dairy

Orla Walsh

There are lots of wonderful foods that can do remarkable things. A ‘superfood’ is a term often used to describe a food that does something special or unique. It’s fair to say that most foods are superfoods, it’s just their superpowers haven’t been discovered yet. Knowing why a food is important nutritionally can help set guidelines on how often you may consider eating it. Here are some examples.

Pulses may help protect against certain types of cancer, such as bowel cancer. It can be a challenging connection to try to understand as so few people eat pulses on a regular basis. Therefore, comparing people who eat lots of pulses to people who eat very little is tricky. Additionally, they just contain so many wonderful nutrients that their protection is likely to be multifactorial and hard to pin down. Nevertheless, our understanding is that a big chunk of their protective benefits come from the fibre they offer as well as their ability to feed the bacteria within the gut.