What to do when you're not eating our food

Starting with breakfast

We all have different digestive systems, and there are lots of variables that will affect our eating habits such as hormones, metabolism, activity, to name a few. For some, intermittent fasting works best for their digestive system whereas others find the need for that healthy breakfast to set them up for the day.

If you are eating breakfast, it’s super important to eat a breakfast that contains slow-release carbohydrates (to maintain steady energy levels) as well as a little protein, and healthy fats to help keep us feeling fuller longer. Starting your day with an oat-based cereal like granola or porridge has great benefits because oats contain a type of soluble fibre called beta-glucan that has been shown to help reduce levels of LDL (‘bad’) cholesterol. Our favourite oat-based breakfasts are our maple porridge with berry compote and our pistachio and pecan granola. Otherwise, we recommend our banana bread or buckwheat waffles (which can also be made into pancakes) for a satisfying and nutritious non-oat based breakfast.

Try not to reach for the nutrient-poor, sugary cereals or quick fixes if you’re in a rush as these foods are quickly digested, giving a burst of energy that is often swiftly followed by a drop in blood sugar levels which will have you grabbing snacks to satisfy your hunger. If you are accustomed to having sugar in the morning, here are some simple sugar swaps to help curb those cravings.

A great way of ensuring your first meal of the day is a nutrient powerhouse is to supercharge your breakfast with healthy toppings. Try sprinkling some flaxseeds on your cereal; stir nuts and seeds into your fruit and yogurt pot; or add a vegetable-based juice to your morning ritual. Otherwise, if you’re more orientated towards savoury foods, we recommend breakfasts high in protein and healthy fats such as eggs and avocado. We recommend our baked eggs or sweetcorn fritters with avocado salsa.

Lunch

Research shows that lunch should be your most filling meal of the day to keep you satisfied for as long as possible and provide you with the energy you need to carry out your daily activities. Feeling fuller from lunch will mean that you are more likely to want a lighter dinner. This is good news for your digestion as it won’t provide too much extra labour, easing you into a restful, regenerative sleep.

Before you sit down to lunch as a routine habit, try and practice mindful and intuitive eating. Science shows that when we eat mindfully we not only eat less, but may even absorb more of the important vitamins and minerals from our food, which of course has benefits throughout the body. All of this makes us more sensitive to the way our food makes us feel rather than just whether we enjoy it, strengthening our intuition around food that uplifts us. Not to mention, the longer you take to eat your food, the more your body is likely to benefit from what you’ve eaten.

3 tips on how to eat mindfully:

1. Ask yourself if you're hungry before you eat, and note the difference between fancying something because you're tired, bored or emotional, and actual stomach growling hunger. This can take time to work out because many of us are programmed to eat when we often don't really need to. Getting used to recognising real hunger pangs is an important step to learning better eating habits.
2. Slow down, put that screen away, acknowledge and appreciate your food before you eat it - chew your food for longer than you are used to, breathe deeply between bites. These habits may seem unnatural at first, as I’m sure we are all party to the lunch-al-desko culture. However, they are all sustainable ways to appreciate and enjoy the nutrient-rich food on your plate as well as helping your digestion.
3. Focus on what you are about to eat (the smells, tastes, colours and flavours) and chew! This will trigger the parasympathetic nervous system via the vagus nerve, which puts our gut into digest mode. Signals are sent from the brain to the gut to release acid into our stomach and enzymes into our intestine, which together ensure we break our food down properly. This in turn discourages indigestion, bloating, gas or changes to bowel movements that can be uncomfortable and sometimes even debilitating.

Here are our top 5 lunches at the moment:

Your speedy 15 minute lunch sandwich edition: rye bread open face sandwiches.

Your speedy 15 minute lunch salad edition: asparagus salad with a miso-avocado dressing.

The ultimate packed lunch: summer rolls.

A lunch that the eyes feast on first: beetroot buddha bowl.

A bowl with all the trimmings: veggie poke bowl.

To make the ultimate, filling and abundant for lunch, follow our guide to building the ultimate salad here.

Snacks

Have a snack to keep you going in the afternoon and curb the cravings, and try to ensure this snack is rich in protein to prevent blood sugar fluctuations. Drink lots of water and fluids throughout the day to ensure you keep hydrated. Cold-pressed juices are a great way of absorbing the optimum amount of nutrients, whilst also giving your digestive system a bit of a break.

A fresh juice recipe that packs in all the essential nutrients and vitamins.

Our top 4 snack ideas:

Savoury: squash bread topped with white bean mash.

Sweet: blueberry oat bites.

Picky: edamame and seeds.

Smoothie time: avocado, almond and cacao smoothie.

Dinner

Make yourself a lovely dinner that will be easy and light on your digestive system, and won’t leave you feeling sluggish before bed. Your systems won’t be overworked at night, allowing your body to focus on other essential household tasks so that you wake feeling far fresher and rejuvenated. This can also enhance metabolic efficiency because your energy will come from a true source rather than a reliance on stimulants.

Our top 6 dinners of the moment:

A cleanser: mushroom and ginger broth.

Your speedy 15 minute dinner: marinated tofu with noodles.

Your easy one-pot dinner: chickpea, squash and caper stew.

Your easy one-pan dinner: Mexican traybake.

A dinner high in plant-based protein: spicy tofu traybake.

A dinner that uses minimal ingredients: creamy tahini butter beans with roasted veg.

Pudding

If you are accustomed to getting a pang for something sweet at some point during the day, we would recommend drinking a herbal tea that contains either liquorice, cinnamon or dandelion root that might satisfy that craving. Otherwise, if this doesn’t do the trick, we suggest making the following recipe for a nutritious but delicious pudding. You can make them in batches and either keep them in the fridge all week or pop them in the freezer, where they will remain fresh for 4-6 weeks! They’re small yet satisfying, as you will get that hint of sweetness from the natural sugars of the dates and cacao, and the richness of the nuts. However, you won’t feel the repercussions of blood sugar levels spiking after.

Cacao truffle recipe.