Health By Stealth: How To Improve Your Diet Without Noticing

In a recent report about the “fibre gap,” the British Nutrition Foundation (BNF) said that only about 4% of us eat the recommended 30g of fibre a day.

They added that the report identified “several priority areas for action,” including a “health by stealth” approach to improving people’s diets.

But what does that mean, and how can we achieve it?

Here, HuffPost UK spoke to Bridget Benelam, a nutrition scientist with BNF, about the term.

It’s a way of making your diet better for you without you really noticing.

Benelam told us, “It’s mostly used to talk about industry reformulating products – e.g. reducing salt and sugar, or adding extra fibre to things like bread or pasta so that people get healthier food without having to change their habits”.

One example might be zinc added to breakfast cereals or flour enriched with folic acid.

These aren’t individual choices consumers consciously opt for – they come from policies or industry changes many of us never realise have been made.

But, the nutrition expert continued, “it’s a concept that could be applied at home by making small, manageable changes”, too.

If you want to consume more fibre, for instance, she said you could take barely-noticeable steps like “adding beans or lentils to every day dishes like bolognese sauce or curry, adding brawn to your usual white rice, [or] swapping white for 50:50 bread”.

You might be surprised by how far little changes can go. One study found that eating a meagre half-portion more of fruits or vegetables a day, when combined with minutes more sleep or exercise, could add a year to our life.

And while eating the recommended 30g of fibre a day is linked to an impressive array of health benefits, advantages start much sooner.

For every 7g of fibre you eat daily, you may enjoy an 8% reduction in bowel cancer risk, a 9% reduction in heart disease and heart attack risk, a 7% reduction in stroke risk, and a 6% reduction in type 2 diabetes risk.

That’s the equivalent of two slices of wholemeal toast.

“Health by stealth” can involve adding nutrients to your diet you wouldn’t have otherwise. But it might also mean taking some foods away from easy reach, Benelam said.

“You can also do something that scientists call ‘choice editing’, where you make healthier choices more obvious and available – e.g. having veg ready prepared for snacks, having a fruit bowl in reach and either not having or putting less healthy foods out of sight/reach,” she suggested.

“It’s also something that parents could think about with kids meals to encourage extra fibre/veg.”