Leeds is a highly diverse city, home to more than 140 ethnic groups.
For organisations promoting healthier food choices, it is essential to understand and respect culturally appropriate foods, traditions, and dietary practices.
Food plays a vital role in preserving cultural identity and community connection. People from different cultural backgrounds have distinct eating habits, influenced by a range of factors such as generation, geographic origin, age, religion, and personal beliefs. Recognising and accommodating these differences enables organisations to promote health and wellbeing in a way that is inclusive, culturally sensitive, and more likely to be effective.
Below are some of the bespoke Eatwell Guides produced by Hamara and other organisations across the city. You can also find cultural specific healthy recipes in our recipe hub. To find out more about how this work was created click here
Below is a downloadable African Caribbean Eatwell Guide. It shows culturally appropriate foods in each food group and how much of each is recommended.
Below is a downloadable South Asian Eatwell Guide. It shows culturally appropriate foods in each food group and how much of each is recommended.
Below is a downloadable Eastern European Eatwell Guide
Image credit: Leeds City Council and Beckett University
Ensuring food affordability across Leeds’ diverse communities requires moving beyond one-size-fits-all emergency food aid to provide culturally appropriate, nutritious, and accessible options for every neighbourhood.
Explore the leeds food aid map to find culturally appropriate options that suit your needs if seeking emergency food aid.
Leeds City Council, in partnership with FoodWise Leeds, has also produced Eating Well, a downloadable leaflet with practical tips for eating healthily on a budget.
The leaflet is not designed around any one cultural diet, but the suggested foods can easily be swapped for alternatives that better suit your own cultural, religious or dietary needs.
See the useful links below and our Leeds Recipe Hub for more ideas.
Eating Well is an eight page leaflet (PDF).
Page 1 has a picture of a jacket potato with veg on a plate and text ”Eating well – top tips to keep you eating healthier on a budget.”
Page 2 and 3 are two halves of one general Eat Well Guide diagram, and highlights items to eat in smaller quantities or less often – including less oils, butters, chocolate, crisps, sweets and biscuits.
Pages 4 & 5 contain advice about each food group, as well as a range of links which are also in our useful links for eating on a budget.
Pages 6 & 7 contain shopping tips and meal suggestions
Page 8 contains information about the traffic light format of how safe food is (green = eat as often as you like red = eat only occasionally). It finishes with an explanation about use by and best before date information.
Useful Links for eating healthily on a budget.
Hubbub (10 tips for cooking more with less energy) – click here
British Dietetics Association (Food Facts) – click here for the link
NHS Better Health – click here
British Nutrition Foundation – Eating Healthily on a Budget – click here
That Girl Cooks Healthy – Low carb Caribbean recipes – click here