The Business Skills Collection: 30 Minute Reads. Bate Nicholas

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      Nutrition for a Healthy Body

      The Challenge

      This is not about “go on a diet”. This is not a debate about body shape. No, this is a simple, easy-to-implement, helpful plan so that what we eat gives us more energy. Energy to get us through the day and to avoid those dreadful slumps just as we go into the afternoon project review meeting or ensure that after supper our plans are more than just “watch TV”.

      The Detail

      It ought to be pretty simple. School science tells us that we need calories for energy: so food in, energy out! How difficult is that? Basic science can also tell us approximately how many calories we need per day for our particular lifestyle depending on whether we are a petite office worker who sits all day or a large-framed rugby instructor who is on their feet often outside and in cold weather. The problem is that food (and drink) doesn't just bring calories, it brings other effects: we all know that carbohydrates tend to be more about energy and that proteins are more (in an adult) about repair and that vitamins are essential to keep particular problems at bay. What's the right mix?

      And to make it more complicated we get “sound bite” messages thrown at us via newspaper headlines about what is good and what is bad which make any kind of consistent approach very difficult. So without getting complicated or too off the wall, what are good practices to give us great energy? Here are 10 simple approaches which work. Experiment with them:

      1. Calorie triangle. Most people work better with more fuel earlier in the day. A common routine is to leave the house with nothing and to grab coffee and muffin at the station, eat a sandwich for lunch at the keyboard and then eat far too much in the evening. Try inverting the calorie triangle so that more calories are going in at the start of the day when they are needed and the body has finished much of its digesting when it needs to settle down to sleep.

      2. More plant protein. Much data on what is good for us is contradictory. But one area that you can discuss with your doctor or Google for yourself is the simple benefits of a plant-based diet. Eat more and consider one or two vegetable-only meals. Learn how to steam them and roast them for a variety of wonderful tastes. Your favourite celebrity chef has probably introduced his or her “mainly vegetables” cookbook to support your shift. Study it.

      3. Respect your food. Eat slowly and do nothing else while eating. Don't do email, watch TV, cross the road …

      4. More variety. Try more grains, try more spices and herbs, try different breads and try more fruits: all to access other nutrients.

      5. More fresh (and by implication, local). It's a no-brainer, really. If it's fresher the nutrients will be more active.

      6. Less processed. Read the label and discover what's been done to the food you are about to purchase. Even better, buy food which has no label, because nothing at all has happened to it. If there's a label look for a simple list of wholesome ingredients and one that is chemical-free.

      7. Less sugar. One of the big “cheats” for any of us whose energy is low is to throw sugar at the problem: a couple of spoons of sugar into the coffee, perhaps knock back a cola … The trouble is the more we take it, the more we need it. Try an experiment: reduce the volume of soda you drink, and your dependency on it, by ensuring alternate drinks are simple water.

      8. Fewer stimulants. Another cheat is the caffeinated drink such as coffee or tea or, again, soda. Coffee can be a huge pleasure of course, but when it becomes something upon which you are dependent then again use the alternate drink strategy.

      9. Eating for nutrition not just fuel. Change the way you look at food: any drink, any snack, any meal, any bag of crisps. Apart from satisfying hunger and/or thirst, what is it doing for me?

      10. Know the calories and look for redundancy. For example, many coffee drinks have now become more like desserts or even confectionery.

      The Story

      Marcus has a diet that is appalling. He hasn't eaten breakfast for years; for a long time it was a cigarette in the car park of Brighton station then a coffee on the train. Now he buys a porridge on the platform: no sugar just sultanas and it's a nice reward for his brisk walk from home. He leaves the first coffee for when he gets to the office as it was messing up his meditation on the way in. Lunch had tended to be nothing or a pie and a pint but he now has switched to a vegetarian lunch from the nearby deli. The evening meal he was now cooking for the two of them, as the kids ate early, and he was doing something quick and steamed with more fish and more pure vegetables.

      He was enjoying the food, he was enjoying cooking and he had loads more energy.

      The Q&A

       If some foods are bad for us why are they still available?

      The quick answer is choice. Few foods are intrinsically “bad”. A soda with ice is well-deserved after a few lengths of the pool: who can argue with that? But many foods don't require much increase in their consumption before they do offer negative effects on our body. So – clearly – we allow people choice.

      A slightly longer answer is that for any food, there are generally those who support it and will “lobby” for its continued availability and do everything they can to avoid too much education about downsides. Just notice how the tobacco industry did and has protected its interests when selling a product that is generally agreed to be lethal.

      The Solution

      1. Think nutrition not just fuel.

      2. Make small, simple changes.

      3. As you feel better add another small, simple change.