Recipe of the Week

Fun, Facts & Fitness from Mary Morris MSc.

I remember when I was a little girl my Mother would be outraged if she saw people eating in the street - she considered it to be very bad manners! This was in the 1950s when rationing was still around and food was in short supply, so snacking was virtually non-existent. How times have changed! Now it is a common sight on our streets and nobody is too bothered.  

However, I am sometimes confused when I see a burger, for example, being eaten in the middle of the afternoon, and I ask myself whether it is a late lunch or an early dinner!  Sadly, the chances are that it is simply a 'between meal' snack!

The food industry had a new opportunity to change the way we eat after the publication of the 1977 dietary guidelines. Previously a common breakfast was often the full-English, but we were then told that it was killing us with too much highly saturated fat. So, the new 'healthy' low-fat, high-sugar breakfast cereals were produced. That resulted in a craving for a mid-morning snack because they just didn’t satisfy us.  

Those of us of a certain age will remember the advertising slogans that used to encourage us to eat between meals: ‘A Mars a day helps you work, rest and play!', ‘Have a break, have a Kit Kat!’ and I think it was Milky Way that boasted that it was 'The sweet you can eat between meals without ruining your appetite!'  We were led to believe that you needed a snack to get you through from one meal to the next and it needed to be high fat and high sugar!  We now see it for what it is – just a marketing ploy, as the snack industry is now worth billions!

In the UK we are now very used to seeing people eating in public yet some of our European neighbours, such as in Italy for example, will never be seen eating on the run. It is just not a part of their culture. It is also estimated that in the UK we eat 6 - 7 times each day, whereas in France it is only 3 - 4.  In Spain they tend not to eat breakfast at all and begin eating around lunchtime. A significant difference then, between us in the UK and the rest of Europe, which is why, maybe in part, we have a far bigger obesity problem.

One of the important features of The 28-Day Immunity Plan is the suggestion that you do not have any snacks for the entire 28 days – and there are many reasons for this. The premise of this eating and fitness plan educates us away from the unhelpful habit of calorie counting and toward eating healthy, regular meals that satisfy your appetite so you don’t feel hungry.

Snacks can add 100s, if not 1000s, of unhealthy calories every day. Most of them are from ultra-processed foods and are loaded with fat and sugar. They contain little or no goodness - just unhealthy, unnecessary calories. Even the so-called ‘health bars’ are sugar-laden so sadly they are far from healthy!   

So, what is ultra-processed food? In a recent television programme with Professor Tim Spector, he highlighted the ultra-processed nature of snacks, and in a recent podcast he encouraged us all to never snack. Most ‘ultra-processed’ food is disguised as real food, and mostly combines highly refined carbohydrates (bad carbs), saturated fat (bad fat) and little or no fibre (which is bad for our gut). Such foods are absorbed very quickly, giving almost no nutritional benefit. He terms it as causing 'metabolic chaos'! A message Rosemary and I totally endorse.  

So, let's explore why we need to eat healthier food to help us to ditch that mid-morning and mid-afternoon snack.


The Sugar Roller Coaster

If someone eats a highly refined sugary breakfast - typically a processed (as opposed to a natural) cereal and/or white toast with jam or marmalade - they will most likely get a sugar spike soon after.  By mid-morning their blood sugar levels will have plummeted so much so that they may well get a terrible craving for more sugar. At their mid-morning coffee break, they are likely to grab a biscuit or two or even a chocolate bar!  

Similarly, an energy dip can occur mid-afternoon following a white bread ham sandwich and blueberry muffin eaten at lunchtime. Again, temptation beckons from the biscuit tin two hours later. Finally, and the worst timing of snacking we can have, is one late evening (after 9pm). The reason late evening snacking is discouraged is because it needs to be digested, preferably before you go to bed.  

We now know that the very best thing we can do to boost our immune system is to go for a longer period of not eating overnight to give our gut the opportunity to be 'cleansed' as we sleep. Studies have also shown that the later we eat, ironically. the greater our hunger we will be the next morning.

This constant roller coaster of eating processed foods that don’t sustain us, and eating unhealthy snacks in between meals, leads ultimately to inflammation of our gut, putting us at higher risk of illness and disease. So, let’s make our eating times work to allow for our digestive system to work, rest and repair.


Make your own lunch or picnic

How about this for a scary statistic: Fast-food outlets can number as many as 69 in one square mile! Add to this frightening fact that it is often difficult to access fresh, wholesome food on the high street or at the adventure playground, so it is not surprising the fast-food outlets are winning! 

Whether you need to take something to eat for lunch at work or for a day out with the family, it makes so much more sense to try to develop the habit of planning in advance, so you can make your own healthier alternatives.

Some useful tips:

• Ensure your meals are high in fibre and contain some protein because they both take longer to digest and will keep you feeling fuller for longer so you won’t get ‘energy dips’.
• Avoid snacking just because it is a habit.
• If you do need to snack (due to a delayed meal perhaps) then go for a piece of fruit or carrot sticks to tide you over.
• Keep alcohol to the recommended maximum number of 14 units a week. Alcohol is sugar and the calorie content of alcohol at a meal can often be higher than the food!
• Amazingly, 40% of people who eat a high-quality diet (which we recommend through The 28-Day Immunity Plan) don't ever snack, simply because they don't need to!
• Following an exercise session, don't ever think you have burned off the equivalent calories of a sugary, high fat snack because the chances are you haven't – nowhere near!

When I was growing up, I also remember a couple of other common slogans that became stuck in our minds... 'An apple a day keeps the Doctor away' and 'Go to Work on an Egg' … now I believe both of those could be re-invented for this next generation!

Did you know... 

Back in the day when there was only one TV channel that carried advertising, we all seemed familiar with the slogans, but just who wrote them?

‘A Mars a day helps you work, rest and play’. That was the advice written by the late Murray Walker, the Formula One commentating legend, who had a career in advertising before he moved into sports commentary. 

'Go to work on an egg'  was attributed to the late author Fay Weldon. Like Murray, she worked in advertising before finding fame, and helped to create the campaign for the Egg Marketing Board in the 1950s.

"Naughty but nice." In the 1980s Les Dawson and Roy Barraclough, dressed as their alter-egos Cissie and Ada, sold us fresh cream cakes - using the slogan conjured up by the "Satanic Verses" author Salman Rushdie.


In 50, 60, or 70 years' time will we still remember any of the current slogans and reminisce about how advertisements used to be in the 21st century?