Hi, I never know how to correctly portion my meals to have a balanced meal. Please help.

The portioning greatly depends on what you would like to achieve – e.g. weight loss, weight gain, improving your digestion etc. The portioning of food groups (protein, fat, carbohydrates) often depends on your body’s ability to process these macronutrients properly, hence, we would recommend you seeing a nutritional therapist to assess your needs. As a general rule, we would recommend having filling up the plate according to this: ½ plate vegetables (cooked + fresh), ¼ source of protein (meat, fish, eggs, pulses) and the rest carbohydrates (whole grain pasta, brown rice, whole grain bread etc.) with little bit of fat (about one tbsp) like nuts, seeds and extra virgin olive oil.

If one wants to cut calories to appear leaner and more toned rather than 'bulking', which foods should be avoided?

When you cut down calories, you will not bulk up – you only do so when you start doing intense heavy-weight lifting or vigorous exercise. If you wish to get lean and toned, increasing your protein intake and decreasing your carbohydrate intake can help. Protein forms the structure of muscles, helps you feel full (equals eating less calories) and can increase your fat-burning metabolism (equals burning more calories at rest). Try to include protein sources like fish, eggs, meat, pulses, nuts; reduce fattening foods (like white pasta, bread, rice, sugar etc.) and do exercise that does not increase the size of your muscles but only add definition to it – e.g. high intensity exercise, running short distances, swimming, general exercise without weights etc.

I’m currently very under weight for my age but I feel as if my diet is very unhealthy and is bad for my body on the inside and I would just like to know if you have any advice on changing my diet and how to improve/keep being healthy from the inside?

Increasing the intake of vegetables to about 500g to one kg a day would be a good start – some can be cooked (e.g. soups, stews etc.) and some fresh (smoothies, salads) to add a good variety of nutrients to the diet. Fibre is essential to clean our intestines to improve digestive health and detox, hence, aim to obtain at least 25g of fibre a day (using vegetables and whole grain foods). Avoid hydrogenated fats and oils (e.g. fried food, margarines, refined oils like vegetable or sunflower oil), fast food and processed/pre-prepared food in general, sugar and sugar containing products and processed meat.