Healthy Eating

Healthy Eating

Eating a healthy, balanced diet is an important part of maintaining good health and can help you feel your best.  This means eating a wide variety of foods in the right proportions and consuming the right amount of food and drink to achieve and maintain a healthy body weight.

There is a direct link between what we eat and our health and wellbeing. A poor-quality diet, along with being overweight or very overweight, increases the risk of such things as coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes and some forms of cancer and can also have negative impacts on emotional wellbeing.

What we are doing

Newcastle City Council is a member of the Food Newcastle partnership which was established  to coordinate food activities across the city and provide an environment for creating a healthier food culture. 

Together with wider stakeholders the partnership became members of the Sustainable Food City Network and produced the Newcastle Food Charter and Newcastle Good Food Plan.

The Good Food Plan is our way of addressing a range of issues affecting the city based on the Sustainable Food Cities framework which helped identify six main themes:

  • Diet-related ill health and access to food
  • Good food for all – tackling food poverty
  • Building community food knowledge, skills, resources and projects
  • Strengthen the local sustainable food economy
  • Transforming catering and food procurement
  • Environmental sustainability – reducing waste and the ecological footprint of the food system

Sugar Smart Newcastle

Sugar Smart Newcastle is our programme of activities to enable the City to become a member of the national Sugar Smart UK network.  It aims to help the people of Newcastle to reduce their sugar consumption by coordinating a range of activities across the settings highlighted in the action plan.  This will create an environment where it should be easier for people to make healthier choices around the food and drink they consume, which will ultimately help people to be a healthier weight and have reduced need for dental treatment. 

The key messages that the Newcastle Sugar Smart campaign promotes are:

  • Reduce the frequency of sugar intake
  • Keep sugary foods and drinks as part of a meal
  • Reduce the amount of sugar consumed every day

Newcastle Can

Newcastle Can is our flagship programme that encourages and supports people who live, work or visit Newcastle to eat less and move more. The aim is for people to come together to support each other to lead healthier lives and maintain a healthy weight.  It provides practical information as well as recipes and links to local events and activities. 

Did you know?

Fast Food

  • In Newcastle there were a total of 334 fast food outlets (higher than the national average).
  • The distribution of fast food outlets in the city varies across wards, with the greatest concentration in the city centre (Westgate) but with South Heaton (Chillingham Road) and Elswick, Benwell & Scotswood also having a higher concentration of outlets.

Need more information?


The NHS provide useful and important information on healthy eating and nutrition on their Eat Well website which will help you to follow the Eat Well model.

If you want advice and activities for you and your family on healthy eating and physical activity, then head to the Change4Life website and sign up for further support and information. 

A guide to healthy fasting can be found in the Ramadan Health Guide.

The British Nutrition Foundation also have some very useful information on healthy eating and nutrition.

The Information Now website has some fantastic information on healthy eating and lifestyles for older people living in Newcastle.

 NIWE is the local service for people who feel that they could benefit from support with eating distress or eating disorders.

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