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Food has an important part to play in many religions and for the Islamic religion never more so than this September as Muslims celebrate Ramadan. Ramadan is the month of fast for Muslims and began on 1 September here in the UK. Fasting is the complete abstinence from food and drink between dawn and sunset.

If you or someone you know is fasting at the moment, it’s important to make sure that the food eaten within the non-fasting hours is providing all the necessary nutritional content. To help, the Department of Health has teamed up with Communities in Action to produce a Ramadan health guide which provides information on nutrition and how to stay healthy when fasting.

I’ve picked out a few tips which I thought were useful to mention here to make sure everyone’s Ramadan is a healthy one.

First, it’s important to remember that the diet should not change too much from the normal balanced diet eaten throughout the rest of the year. So it’s important to continue to eat plenty of starchy foods such as bread, rice, potatoes and pasta, especially as part of the pre-dawn meal. Try to choose wholegrain varieties as we digest these more slowly, so they can help us feel fuller for longer. Wholegrain foods include wholemeal and wholegrain bread and chapatti, brown rice and wholegrain breakfast cereals. It’s also important to stay hydrated by drinking water or other fluids during non-fasting hours.

In keeping with tradition, I would like to wish everyone a ‘Ramadan Mubarak’ (a blessed Ramadan).