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The new Oakhouse Foods home meals range for the winter season is out now, and includes a brand new breakfast range aimed at encouraging those living alone to start their day with a substantial meal. Research has shown that eating a good breakfast provides the body and brain with fuel for the day, and can have long term health benefits too. Featuring 2 new hot porridges and a choice of cooked breakfasts, the Oakhouse selection offers an interesting variety of dishes for customers to choose from.

It's World Heart Day this week and the ideal time to double check that we’re looking after our hearts. Keeping active is one of the most fun parts of it. But the good news is, your diet can also really benefit your heart – even if you already have a heart condition. Thankfully it’s not too complicated. All you have to do is aim for a balanced diet, naturally packed full of nutrient-rich ingredients. So when choosing your ready meals make sure they often include:  - plenty of fruit and vegetables - plenty of starchy foods - low fat milk and dairy - some meat and fish, or eggs, beans and other non-dairy protein sources - lower fat, salt and sugar values

With the cold nip of winter already in the air, now’s the perfect time to keep warm and toasty indoors and look through our latest brochure. It’s packed with a variety of wholesome and delicious home delivered ready meals – which makes stocking up on easy-to-prepare dinners simple and convenient. Along with all the classic favourites such as stews and casseroles, hearty soups and comforting hot desserts, the Oakhouse Foods chefs have been busy creating some tempting new recipes that are perfect for the chilly nights ahead. You’ll find some of these in our new Winters Wonders Pack, which offers a wonderful choice of recipes for this season including: Steak Diane, Mediterranean Chicken, Luxury Roast Pork, Fish & Potato Gratin and Four Cheese Ravioli.

If you reckon a meal’s not a proper meal without some kind of meat in it, you’re not alone. But with vegetables playing such a crucial role in a nutritious, balanced diet, it’s often a good idea to make a few days a week meat-free – and seeing how that makes you feel. As we get older, our energy levels and appetite tend to change. So if you’re not eating as much as before, what you do eat needs to be rich in vitamins, minerals, fibre and ‘good’ fats. A diet based mainly on starchy foods such as potatoes, whole-grain bread, rice and pasta, along with plenty of fruit, vegetables and nuts, ticks all the healthy boxes and provides your essential ‘five-a-day’. And whether they’re raw, cooked, sliced, diced, stewed, mashed or puréed – enjoying vegetarian food is easier than you think.

If you like to stay active, keeping your joints healthy can be important. Although they won’t prevent more serious conditions such as arthritis, the following tips can help keep your joints in good condition – so you can carry on doing the things you love. From getting out of bed to holding a pen, our joints are essential for everything we do. But when we age, our joints can become stiff and painful – whether from wear and tear of bones and cartilage, or different types of arthritis. The good thing is, there are some simple things you can do to keep your joints strong and flexible in later life.

Good digestive health is vital for our overall wellbeing and strengthening our immunity to illness and infections. So understanding what foods and drinks help or hinder our digestion can make you feel better in lots of ways. Fibre A diet rich in fibre or ‘roughage’ helps prevent constipation and lowers the risk of chronic diseases. For a healthy bowel, aim to eat 30g of fibre a day from a variety of foods such as: wholemeal bread, cereal, brown rice, fruit, vegetables, beans and oats. Take a look at our Tuscan Bean Casserole or Chilli Con Carne & Rice – for satisfying suppers, packed with fibre.

It’s a fact of life for many of us: as we get older, our glasses become our new best friend. And, while a healthy diet can do little to change this, it can protect against more serious eye conditions that can result from health problems such as diabetes and strokes – which are closely tied to what we eat. A balanced diet containing all the food groups – carbohydrates, fruit and vegetables, dairy, meat and fish – should give you all the nutrients you need to stay healthy. In our other blog posts, we’ve looked at how different foods benefit our brain, bones and heart – but how can they help our eyes?

Whether because of natural changes in our health or side effects of medication, many of us find it more difficult to get to sleep as we age. But there are some simple things you can do to drift off more easily – including enjoying a relaxing meal. To get to sleep, our bodies rely on a hormone called melatonin, which controls our sleeping and waking cycles. For example, during daylight hours, our body clock cuts down how much melatonin we produce to help us feel awake. Production of melatonin increases into the evening as we prepare to rest, and reaches its highest levels at night to keep us asleep until morning.

If you’re caring for someone with dysphagia, mealtimes can be a worrying and stressful time. We share some simple tips for helping those with swallowing difficulties rediscover the pleasure of food. Try to make sure food look as appealing as possible. Food should be visually enticing, especially if you're trying to encourage someone to eat more. If it needs to be texture modified, why not try blending the different parts of the meal separately so they look more appetising.

Just as with the rest of the body, a balanced diet can help our eyes stay strong and healthy in later life. Here, we look at the vitamins and essential nutrients that can help combat macular degeneration. The macula is the central part of the retina, which is responsible for the type of sight we need for detailed tasks such as reading and recognising faces. In Age Related Macular Degeneration (AMD), the cells in the macula gradually stop working, damaging central vision.