Your life is filled with work, friends and fun. Has the idea of taking time to prepare nutritious meals ever crossed your radar?

Here are some pointers for good eating.

Angela Aviad is 28 and happily single in Tel Aviv. She has a busy career, a lively circle of friends and a full life.

“I eat in restaurants two or three times a week, either because of work or socially,” she says. “And I usually eat Friday night meals in the homes of friends, so I do very little cooking at home. I like to cook for company, but if there’s one thing I hate, it’s all that shopping and cooking just to produce a nice meal for one. That’s what take-out and fast-food are for.”

Take-out and fast-food clearly find a large market among people who live alone, but this kind of quick-fix solution can lead equally quickly to bad nutritional habits, according to dietician and public-health expert Dorit Adler, Head of the Diet and Nutrition Department at the Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center at Ein Karem.

“It’s very tempting to opt for the ready-made solo meal, eat out or overeat if you live alone,” she says. “But it’s also very shortsighted. Poor nutrition equals poor health, and no medicine in the world is going to counteract the damage caused by a steady combination of bad eating habits and insufficient exercise.”

Because nutrition for singles has to be convenient, easy and quick, it involves planning, informed choices and smart shopping, she says. “But other than that, there’s no difference between healthy eating habits for singles and anyone else. The principles of balanced nutrition are the same for all of us--and the stress here is on balance. There’s no bad food or good food. Chocolate is fine from time to time, as long as it’s balanced with other foods.”

Although the department’s first obligation is to its patients, 20 dieticians also develop new and creative educational programs for a far wider population. Courses in healthful eating for diabetics and the overweight, those with high blood pressure and high cholesterol were starting points. From there the department has moved on to open lectures on principles of nutrition, how to read food labels, guided visits to the supermarket, cooking classes for children with cancer and a wide range of written materials and research projects.

The eating habits of single people have never been formally studied in Israel, but observation and experience point to clear trends; mealtimes and sitting at the table alone simply don’t play a part. Increasingly, however, singles are looking for quick and easy ways to healthier eating.

“Let’s start with eating on the run,” says Adler. “It’s part of the way we live, but it needn’t involve empty calories. Yes, of course, it’s easy to grab a chocolate bar and get that quick energy surge. But a granola bar is just as easy, it tastes as good and it has real food value.”

Nor need a quick meal be an exercise in saturated fats. Instead of lunching on burgers, head for a salad bar and save yourself the bother of cutting up vegetables at home.

“More studies are showing that high consumption of fruit and vegetables protects against heart disease--as long as you go easy on the oily dressings,” says Adler.

To boost your vital fruit and vegetable intake still higher, she suggests you wash all your meals down with fresh fruit or vegetable juice. “Stock your fridge with fresh juices instead of chemical-rich synthetic drinks,” she advises. “Even the diet variety of these now has question marks hanging over it.” Adler’s not even opposed to the odd cup of coffee. “The key,” she says, “is moderation.”

Hungry for more than salad, but no time to eat it? If it’s a sandwich, you can vastly upgrade its nutritional value by eating it on whole-wheat bread. Or go for a Mediterranean-style snack--hummus, tehina, olive oil and salad with whole-wheat pita is one option, a bowl of couscous another. Both are tasty, filling and healthful. Instant couscous with instant vegetable soup can also be nutritious, says Adler. Just read the labels carefully.

Business lunches can also be turned into positive nutritional experiences. “Start with a vegetable or lentil soup and follow it with baked or grilled fish, a salad and a baked or boiled potato,” she suggests. “Baked or grilled chicken without its skin is also acceptable, but we should be eating North Sea fish at least twice a week. It contains the polyunsaturated fatty acid Omega 3 which protects against heart disease.”

With Aviad’s three to four meals out each week taken care of, what should she be keeping in her kitchen cabinets? Whole grains, says Adler, both wheat and rice. “The results of a large U.S. study on women’s health show a clear negative correlation between whole grains and heart disease and cancer.”

Low-fat milk products should be another staple, especially for women with a higher risk of osteoporosis, and for whom three to four servings a day are mandatory. “There’s not a lot of other naturally accessible calcium around,” says Adler. “Other sources are sardines and high-calorie foods such as almonds and sesame seeds. And, of course, calcium-enriched products.”

She wholeheartedly endorses enriched foods. “Breakfast cereals with low-fat milk are a good choice for people eating alone or living life in a rush,” she says. “Most are high fiber and whole grain fortified with various minerals. There’s also a growing trend to enrich them with folic acid, which protects against heart disease. Again, read labels carefully.” And, of course, the oleaginous issue of fats. “The link between saturated fatty acids [mostly from foods of animal origin] and higher cholesterol is very well known,” says Adler, “along with the recommendation to choose low-fat dairy products and meats. After that, however, it gets more complicated.”

There was initial excitement about the benefits of polyunsaturated fatty acids like soybean and corn oil: Not only do they keep down cholesterol levels but they also contain essential vitamins. That was until the discovery that this negative correlation applies to the “good” cholesterol as well as the “bad.” More than that, the unsaturated bonds of these oils oxidize and can contribute to atherosclerosis.

“We recommend these kinds of oils in very small amounts for their essential fatty acids,” says Adler. “But our major recommendation is for the monounsaturated oils from olives, canola, avocado and sesame.”

The past decade of nutritional advice and food-additive scares are having an impact. Men and women are moving away from red meat, and the vegetarian and health-food markets are burgeoning. Canola oil and pricey olive oil sell well in supermarkets and corner grocery stores, and the range of whole-grain and low-fat dairy products seems to expand each week.

“It’s out there to be bought,” says Adler. “Singles who shop once a week should have on their grocery list whole-wheat bread and pasta, cereal, low-fat milk, yogurt, cottage cheese, fruit juice, lots of fruit, vegetables and interesting herbs and spices to provide taste appeal. That equips you for sandwiches, fruit shakes, salads and a microwaved potato with low-fat cheese. Add hummus and tehina, a carefully chosen business lunch or two, and regular exercise.

“But what we must remember along with all this healthy eating is that it’s very important to enjoy what we eat. There’s no contradiction at all between healthy eating habits and enjoyable mealtimes.”