Good food
Eating a healthy, balanced diet can help to prevent diet-related illness and will give you the energy and nutrients you need to keep active and maintain a healthy weight.
Eating well helps to reduce the risk of certain conditions including heart disease, stroke, some cancers, diabetes and osteoporosis. Ultimately, healthy eating helps you to feel great, have more energy and stabilises your mood.
Healthy Weight Healthy Wales is the national 10-year strategy to reduce and prevent obesity in Wales. The Cardiff and Vale Local Public Health Team delivers on this through its Good Food and Movement Framework as well as a variety of actions focussed on encouraging a healthy diet
Throughout our life, there are key things we can all do to help us to age well and maintain the best possible health, such as eating a healthy and well-balanced diet.
Cardiff and Vale Public Health Team are working with partners to help the people of Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan improve their food choices, as well as ensuring they have access to healthier food, including:
- Developing sustainable food partnerships that support local food projects to grow and provide better access to food for those on a low income.
- Working with the local and national government to ensure access to healthy food is a priority for all.
- Working in partnership with the Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan Dietetics team to encourage access to nutrition education.
- Working with school and pre-school settings to provide healthy eating information and resources.
- Promoting schemes that support families on a low income to afford to buy healthier food.
Current project initiatives
Food Sense Wales
Food Sense Wales aims to influence and impact how food is produced and consumed in Wales, ensuring that sustainable food, farming and fisheries are at the heart of a just, connected and prosperous food system.
Founded in 2018, Food Sense Wales was established to drive forward a cross-sector approach to the food system in Wales and is a fund within the Cardiff and Vale Health Charity, hosted by the Cardiff and Vale Public Health Team.
Food Sense Wales works with communities, organisations, policymakers and Government across Wales to create a food and farming system that is good for people and good for the planet. In order to achieve this, Food Sense Wales believes that the environment; health and wellbeing; social justice, and the economy should be integrated into all policy thinking in Wales.
This ‘food in all policies’ approach can be achieved through research, cross sector collaboration and by mobilising a Wales Good Food Movement, increasing public awareness of food issues and encouraging widespread participation in food-related activity. Food Sense Wales is helping to develop this Good Food Movement by delivering a number of food-related programmes across Wales – many as part of UK partnerships.
Food Cardiff
Food Cardiff is a city-wide partnership of individuals and organisations. It acts as a hub for connecting the people and projects working to promote healthy, environmentally sustainable and ethical food across the city; it acts as a voice for wider change. In 2024, Cardiff achieved Gold Sustainable Food Places status, becoming the first place in Wales and one of the first 5 places in the UK to achieve the prestigious accolade. Food Cardiff has developed 5 food goals: a healthy Cardiff, an environmentally sustainable Cardiff, an empowering food movement, a thriving local food economy, a fair and connected food system.
Everybody in Cardiff can join the movement by ‘Make a Pledge’ or by signing up to the Food Cardiff newsletter
Food Vale
Food Vale is a partnership of dedicated individuals, community groups, organisations and businesses working together to build a thriving, healthy and sustainable food system in the Vale. The partnership is hosted within Cardiff and Vale University Health Board’s Public Health Team, and has established a cross-sector Steering Group to help guide this work with representatives from directorates across Vale of Glamorgan Council, Glamorgan Voluntary Services, Cardiff and Vale University Health Board Dietetics, FareShare Cymru, the Vale of Glamorgan Public Service Board, Glamorgan Smallholders, Big Fresh Catering, Natural Resources Wales and Cywain.
Food Vale are part of a growing network of food partnerships taking a place-based, systems approach to healthy and sustainable food under the UK-wide Sustainable Food Places (SFP) programme. Across Wales, 22 food partnerships already exist, 10 of which are active members of the Sustainable Food Places programme. Food Vale is able to connect with and learn from food partnerships from across all four nations, especially with other food partnerships from across Wales through Food Sense Wales – the national delivery partner of SFP in Wales.
Since first convening in 2017, Food Vale has hosted festivals, run food trails, invested in community food growing projects and food pantries, supported cookery and nutrition skills workshops and gone on to achieve the Bronze Sustainable Food Places award. We also work closely with partners at all levels to ensure that food is embedded in wider strategic work. Anyone can be a part of the Food Vale partnership: once every three months, we host an in person gathering to give everyone the chance to connect, share ideas, and form a collective voice for change.
Food Vale has recently worked closely with partners to co-develop the new Vale Food Strategy 2025-2030 [link pending], build on our strong foundations in the Vale and setting out a trajectory towards our shared vision for the future through ambitious goals, clear outcomes and practical actions. Find out more here
Healthy Eating Standards for Hospital Restaurant and Retail Outlets
Being a healthy weight has become one of the most effective ways to reduce the risk of long-term health conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and cancers.
However, in our current environment it is difficult to achieve this as the food around us often prioritises convenience over health, and can be high in fat, sugar and salt. As a result, we are eating less fruit and vegetables, oily fish and dietary fibre, the foods that help us to be healthy.
We know that what surrounds us, shapes us. In Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan, we are working with partners across the University Health Board to offer more accessible, healthy and sustainable food and drink, providing a healthier environment to staff, patients and visitors. We are implementing a set of standards which are carefully monitored to ensure more healthy options are available.
Advice
Our dietetic colleagues have produced an Eatwell Guide Video for anyone looking for general advice on how to eat a healthy balanced diet.
Visit the Keeping Me Well: Eating Well page here.
If you would like ideas on healthier meals you can make at home, there are some tasty healthy recipe suggestions below.
Get ideas about healthier recipes here.
If you are recovering from illness, more information Eating for Recovery - Keeping Me Well can be found here.
With over 60% of people from Cardiff and Vale above a healthy weight, it is important that support is provided to help people to eat well and manage a healthier weight, avoiding ill health. As well as our projects, we work with a range of partners from Cardiff and Vale UHB who also offer services to address this.
If you would like to find out more about the services to support people to become a healthier weight, you can visit the Weight Management - Keeping Me Well website here.
If you are interested in learning more about nutrition and how to maintain a health balanced diet, there are a range of courses delivered by the local dietetic teams to support people to improve health through healthy eating.
Nutrition Skills for Life Public Courses – Nutrition Skills for Life® (includes Foodwise)
Contact details
For further information, please get in touch with the team:
Rhianon Urquhart, Healthy Eating Lead: Rhianon.Urquhart@wales.nhs.uk
Louise Denham, Food Vale: Louise.Denham@wales.nhs.uk
Lucinda Jones, Food Cardiff: lucinda.jones4@wales.nhs.uk
Helen Griffith, Healthy Eating Standards for Hospital Restaurant and Retail Outlets: Helen.Griffith5@wales.nhs.uk
Rachel Sanderson, Healthy Eating Standards for Hospital Restaurant and Retail Outlets: rachel.sanderson@wales.nhs.uk
Food Sense Wales: foodsensewales@wales.nhs.uk