Eating a healthy, balanced diet is essential for maintaining good health and well-being. In this blog post, we’ll share our top healthy eating tips for incorporating nutritious meals into your daily routine. From healthy snacks to meal planning, we’ve got you covered.
At Lauren’s Caterers, we believe that healthy eating doesn’t have to be boring or bland, and with that in mind, we came up with 10 healthy eating tips that tackle how to eat healthy food everyday.
Tips on How to Start Eating Healthy
All of our healthy eating tips revolve around one main habit – consistency. Try to make healthy eating a habit by incorporating nutritious foods into your meals and snacks every day. Start by setting small goals, such as adding a serving of vegetables to your lunch or swapping out sugary drinks for water. Over time, these healthy habits will become second nature.
Of course, at the start it is more about making sure it is a sustainable habit, you don’t want to go too hard too fast! Some people can just go cold turkey on their old ways, but the rest of us need to make sure we are still remaining satisfied. So keep these healthy eating tips in mind.
1. Treat Yourself in Moderation
Eating healthy doesn’t mean you have to give up all your favourite treats. In fact, by removing all the fun stuff from your life you are much more likely to break the healthy eating habit and binge all at once!
Occasionally eating unhealthy foods might not be one of the healthy eating tips you were expecting, but making sure you can live your life and enjoy yourself is definitely a tip for a happier mind.
Of course, ‘falling off the wagon’ is completely human and we all do it, we shouldn’t feel shame for indulging (what’s the point of living otherwise right?!). It’s all about recognising your eating patterns, and making sure you get back on healthy eating.
The biggest mistake is exacerbating a bad eating situation, thinking ‘Well I’ve already had the one might as well have another’. In the grand scheme of things, that one takeaway, that one tub of ice cream, whatever it is, is just a drop in the ocean.
If you have the willpower and the foresight to recognise it’s just a one-off, you can return to healthy eating without the guilt, and without any big repercussions.
Just be sure to enjoy them in moderation. For example, if you’re craving something sweet, try a small piece of dark chocolate instead of a candy bar. If that doesn’t scratch the itch, don’t beat yourself up for overindulging once in a while.
2. Get Your Protein Fix
Although as healthy eating tips go you might expect this one on a bodybuilding page, but prioritising protein helps you in many ways. Due to protein’s complex structure, it takes longer to break down than fats and sugars, making you feel full for longer.
Protein is a building block for your body and repair, not a fuel. This means that when it is digested, the body puts it to use instead of storing it. What calorie counting doesn’t take into account is the energy your body uses through digesting, breaking down, and using protein. As a rough guideline, 30% of your protein-calorie intake is used in this process.
So not only does protein help your body, but it also counts as less towards your daily calorie count.
If your aiming to gain muscle mass, a good goal is 0.8 to 1 gram of protein per pound of body mass.
Protein is essential for building and repairing tissues in the body. Good sources of protein include lean meats, fish, beans, and tofu. Try to incorporate protein into every meal to help keep you feeling full and satisfied.
Don’t Skimp on Healthy Fats Healthy fats, such as those found in avocados, nuts, and olive oil, are important for brain function and can help lower cholesterol levels. Aim to incorporate healthy fats into your diet in moderation.
3. Choose Nutrient-Dense Foods
Nutrient-dense foods are those that pack a lot of nutrients into a small number of calories. Examples include leafy greens, berries, nuts, and seeds. Incorporating these foods into your diet can help ensure that you’re getting all the vitamins and minerals your body needs.
Eating these nutrient-dense foods often is one of the best healthy eating tips you can come across – keeping your body rich in nutrients will make sure your body is functioning correctly.
4. Focus on Whole Grains
Whole grains are an excellent source of fibre, which can help keep you feeling full and satisfied. Examples of whole grains include brown rice, quinoa, and whole-wheat bread. Aim to make at least half of your grains whole grains.
The current advice is to aim for 30 grams of fibre a day.
Eating plenty of fibre is associated with a lower risk of heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and bowel cancer.
One of the most productive healthy eating tips we can give you is a tracker. There are a variety of free or paid-for apps that can help you track your daily fibre intake as well as all other macronutrients and calories. The most famous is probably MyFitnessPal, but with recent changes in the free model (removing barcode scanning), I’d recommend using LoseIt! which has plenty of functionality in the free version.
5. Incorporate Plenty of Fruits and Vegetables
Fruits and vegetables are packed with vitamins, minerals, and fibre. Aim to incorporate a variety of colours and types into your diet. One of the more visually appealing healthy eating tips is to try and eat the rainbow every day. Add some sweetcorn for some yellow, peppers for some red, onion for some purple, you get the idea.
Pad up your meals with an extra fruit or vegetable here and there, your body will thank you. Try adding sliced bananas to your oatmeal or spinach to your smoothies.
Processed foods are often high in calories, sugar, and unhealthy fats. Try swapping out processed foods for whole foods, such as fresh fruits and vegetables, lean meats, and whole grains.
Whole foods will not have any chemical alterations to prolong the food, which can have side effects and generally be a negative factor contributing to your overall health.
7. Plan Ahead for Success
Planning your meals ahead of time can help you stay on track with your healthy eating goals. When you plan your meals, you can ensure that you’re getting all the nutrients you need and avoid impulse eating. Consider preparing your meals in advance, so you have healthy options on hand when you’re short on time.
Make a time each week that makes sense for you to plan your meals. If you live with others, this can be a good group activity so you’re all on the same page and can look forward to meals together. Can’t go wrong with Mexican night every Thursday for instance!
8. Snack Smartly
Healthy snacks can help keep you fueled and energized throughout the day. One of the easier healthy eating tips is to try snacking on things like fresh fruit, veggie sticks with hummus, or a handful of nuts, in place of processed foods.
Too often, snack foods are built around being extremely tasty and easy to eat. How fast does a chocolate bar disappear? And it does anything but fill you up!
By prioritising food that has a large serving size, takes a while to eat, but also has a low-calorie value, you can control your hunger and eat in a more healthy way.
Conclusion – Healthy Eating Tips You Can Act on Now!
Incorporating these healthy eating tips into your daily routine can have a big impact. More energy, less bloating, and generally just a better day-to-day life!
We know how important it is to enjoy eating and not feel like these healthy eating tips are a chore, so find foods that work best for you and your body type. This might take some trial and error, but over time you will find a form of healthy eating that suits you.
And no, we don’t think you should never touch a chocolate bar again. You can have a healthy body but if your head is miserable, then there’s a middle ground to be struck somewhere.
This blog will teach you how to keep food fresh for longer, so if you’re out for a long day of work and want to keep your food delicious, these pointers are for you!
Eating on the go has become part of our fast-paced lifestyle, sometimes the only part of your day you have spare is the commute! With this in mind, making sure your food is prepped properly is essential – no one likes a soggy sandwich or a lukewarm meal.
With this in mind, we’re passing our knowledge over to you with these 5 handy tips. With a bit of creativity and forward planning, you can keep food fresh for your whole day.
Food Preparation
Before you dive in and make your food, it’s best to take a step back and make sure you’ve got everything in order first – have you thought about how your ingredients gel together through a long day?
For instance, when making your shopping list, keep in mind how much moisture your chosen food contains. And then, when preparing your food, think carefully about how you will order those fillings. Read on to know how we keep food fresh utilising these tips!
1. Choose the right ingredients
When choosing ingredients to keep food fresh for your on-the-go meal, think about how well they will hold up over time. Maybe not so much of a worry if you’re making a breakfast snack that will be devoured within a couple of hours of making it, but for your lunches and dinners, you’ll want to keep food fresh for much longer.
The first thing to think about is moisture – foods high in moisture such as fruits and vegetables should be packed separately so that the moisture doesn’t spread to your sandwich, leaving you with soggy bread. And speaking of soggy bread, maybe keep tomatoes out of it, for the same reason. A tomato has a very high water content, and over the course of the day that will be absorbed by the surrounding slices of bread. You can lessen that effect with good sandwich design.
Dry food products, such as crackers, seeds, and nuts, can be packed together with no problem. Drier foods will survive the day better, although they may not make for the most exciting food on the go. So, if you want to keep food fresh and delicious while also not just eating dry crackers, you will need to …
2. Pack food in the right order
The order in which you pack your food can make a world of difference. Apart from being delicious, butter in a sandwich acts as a natural barrier. Same as some crunchy lettuce holding the juices from your burger at bay so your bun stays light and dry. So, when making a sandwich, start with the spread.
Your main ingredients go next, your cheese or meats, whatever you fancy. If you are using something particularly juicy as the main ingredient, put some lettuce in first to back up that barrier.
Add your garnishes on top, your pickles, tomatoes, maybe some sauce, whatever takes your fancy. As long as your sandwich is properly stored upright, the top layer of bread won’t be as affected as the bottom one. Again, if you’re concerned that your sandwich’s top layer has too much moisture, a fresh layer of lettuce will protect the top too.
When prepping a salad, it’s good to do the opposite! Pack your wet ingredients first, and cover them with the dry ones. This will prevent wilting over a long day. It might seem strange to do, but add your salad dressing first, and cover with your other ingredients with the juiciest stuff on the lowest layers. Then, when it’s time to eat simply mix it all up – your salad will be much better for it. The crunch of the veggies will be much more satisfying if it hasn’t been marinating in dressing for a few hours.
Food Storage
After you’ve chosen your food and prepped it, the next thing to do is store it correctly. Best not to stuff your lunch in some tin foil and leave it at the mercy of whatever else is in your bag – try and give it a bit more protection so it’s not smushed by lunchtime.
To keep food fresh you need to make sure that you don’t neglect its temperature and packaging.
3. Store food at the right temperature
This is key to making sure that it is tasty once you get around to eating it! At Lauren’s Catering our vans have refrigerators and ovens installed to make sure that the food is always at peak deliciousness, but we understand you probably don’t want to pimp your car out with a mobile oven. There are other ways to keep food fresh without resorting to buying a snack van.
A quality flask like a thermos can keep your food warm for hours. Tired of sandwiches? Bring in some soup, some fresh pasta, or chili. A thermal container is a game changer when it comes to the options at your disposal. You also negate the risk of your meals becoming stodgy or thick, the thermal container will keep everything as if it were still cooking on the pan. Just make sure you remember some cutlery!
To keep food fresh and cold at the same time, a freezer pack is a great addition to a lunch box. Keep your drink nice and cold, the same for your yogurt of choice. It will also keep the salad in your sandwich nice and crispy. It’s all personal preference but an ice pack can be a great addition. If you don’t want to buy a freezer pack, check out this video on how to make one from home using a water bottle.
Just make sure you have a thermally insulated lunchbox to keep it in, which brings us to…
4. Invest in quality containers and packaging
This is a must for making sure that your food is fresh and delicious. As said above, a thermally insulated lunchbox will keep the temperature inside separate from the outside.
It’s always good to look for quality containers, you don’t want any leakages or cracks. Look for tight locking lids and think walls. This will also save you individually wrapping sandwiches in cling film, making it a double whammy as you’ll also reduce waste and save money in the long run.
5. How to keep fruits and vegetables fresh longer in fridge environments
As you are most likely busy all week, it’s also important to keep food fresh in your fridge all week so that when you make your meals, the ingredients are up to snuff.
We recommend using ziplock bags, so after you’ve opened a packet of tomatoes for instance, seal the rest in one of these. This will hold in moisture and make sure that the ingredients don’t dry out quickly.
Bonus – don’t forget to be creative!
Finally, don’t forget that food prep doesn’t have to be boring and monotonous! Switch things out, go for a tortilla instead of a sandwich. Maybe a pitta bread? Variety is the spice of life after all. You might find new ways to keep food fresh that you hadn’t thought about before. The more visually appealing your food is, the better your meals on the go will be.
Final Thoughts
To keep food fresh on the go, you will need to be creative, thoughtful, and prepared. By following our tips, you will be able to enjoy your meals without sacrificing flavour or variety. At Lauren’s, we are well accustomed to food on the go, so if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to get in touch!
Sandwich delivery vans are a great benefit to any workplace. It makes it easy for employees to get food without leaving the building, and they can choose exactly what they want without having to go out on their own time. It also helps with dietary restrictions or allergies because there’s usually a variety of options available.
We are very proud of our snack vans (technically known as ‘jiffy vans’) and you may well have seen them delivering to all parts of Gloucester as well as Bishops Cleeve, Cheltenham, Stonehouse, Stroud and Wotton-under-Edge.
Each of our 6 vans is refrigerated and has a hot oven, allowing us to provide a wide range of hot and cold snacks including:
Hot breakfast rolls
Burgers
Freshly prepared sandwiches, wraps & rolls
Crisp salads
Cakes
Confectionery
Cold drinks
It’s convenient!
You don’t have to leave the office. The lunch hour is for eating, and when you’re enjoying some really good food, it’s no fun sitting at your desk with a tray of limp salad greens and overcooked chicken. With sandwich delivery from Lauren’s Catering, you can enjoy delicious meals without stepping foot outside of your workplace—and that means more time working instead of trekking across town only to find yourself waiting in line at a crowded deli counter or restaurant.
One of the most important benefits of delivery is that it allows employees to get exactly what they want, when and where they want it. This means that you can avoid traffic and parking hassles by ordering in advance, as well as getting something more filling or healthier than you might have otherwise considered. This can be especially useful for those who from an office with limited access to food options nearby.
Having the sandwich delivery service from our Jiffy vans means that you can check out the menu available on our website priori to delivery. This allows you to see what will be available when the van arrives and you can decide what drink and snacks you might need at lunch time!
Days and times of your choosing
Your designated van will show up on the same days each week at the same time so your employees/visitors can plan around that and get exactly what they want. If you’re a person who uses lunch as an opportunity to catch up with colleagues, this is particularly useful if your company has designated break times to stick to.
No need to be bringing food back and forth from either! Our drivers will deliver everything straight into your office kitchens so there isn’t any heavy lifting involved during this busy work day–just grab what looks appealing on the menu board today, sit back down at your desk with co-workers who’ve ordered different meals than yours…
It’s an alternative to vending machines
Sandwich vans are an alternative to vending machines, Vending machines don’t always have what you want and can be expensive, but sandwich vans offer a wide variety of options. Also health is a major concern with vending machines, especially if they’re not well maintained or kept clean.
If you would like to see if one of our vans can visit your workplace please do get in touch on 01452 382690 or visit our website www.laurenscatering.co.uk for more information
The nutrient value of some popular vegetables, from spinach to asparagus, has dropped massively since 1950! A study conducted in 2004 in America has found that important nutrients in some of the garden crops are up to 38% lower than they were during the middle part of the 20th century. On average, across a range of 43 vegetables that were analysed, calcium content had declined 16%, phosphorus by 9%, and iron by 15%. The vitamins ascorbic acid and riboflavin both dropped massively, while there were also slight declines in overall protein levels.
What’s happening?
Prompted by the food shortages that occurred after the Second World War, scientists then developed a new set of high-yield varieties of crops and different breeds of livestock to boost food production. Couple this with improvements in different varieties of irrigation and the creation of affordable tractors, and crop productivity began to increase drastically.
While yields increased, levels of nutrients in the crops declined massively, bringing the intensive farming techniques seen here under intense scrutiny.
Should we be worried?
While there are scientists who feel the decline in nutrient levels within our food over the many decades is too small to be potentially significant, the health of our soils is still a massively important relationship to the nutritional quality of all of our food. A US trial has been examining vegetables that are grown under a variety of different farming techniques in order to better understand exactly what this link really is.
A single teaspoon of soil contains more microbes than there are number of people on the planet itself. Intertwined with this network of mind-boggling life is another network of fungal filaments that are called mycorrhiza, a symbiotic relationship between microbes and plants that act as extensions of their roots.
There is a consistent dance of nutrient pass-the-parcel going on from soil to the plant. The influence of mycorrhizae is evident because it has been commercially harnessed in order to improve the productivity of crops. Specialised soil fungi will effectively extend the system of the plant root with mycelium, with a web of microscopic, long filaments called hyphae too.
Whether human selection or natural, weather or farming techniques, the nutritional content of food is influenced by many different factors. Ensuring that we do get the best version of the foods that are grown requires a truly in-depth understanding of the network of nutrients that ultimately flows around us. What is needed is a production of food system that monitors nutrition in our food and allows it to be universally comparable, and a commercial model that truly values nutrition above everything else. If this sounds like the kind of food you’re interested in, then come to Lauren’s and get ordering today! You wont regret it, we can assure you.
If you are looking for a reliable buffet caterer to provide you with delicious and exciting food for your Jubilee party, look no further than Lauren’s Catering.
We are a family run firm and have been catering for the people of Gloucester for over 25 years, so you may well know us already. We are incredibly talented when it comes to cooking up a variety of tasty food. We take pride in delivering a service that leaves our customers feeling best pleased! When it comes to catering, we understand that the customer is always king. So we have included as much variety in our sandwich options as we can!
Find out more about our buffet catering services here or, discover what else we get up to here at Lauren’s Catering, and whether we can help you with your catering journey.
Breakfast has to be termed the ‘most important meal of the day.’ But why is that? While this might be slightly overexaggerated, there’s good reason to suggest that breakfast can be such an important meal. Replenishing glucose levels in the body to boost alertness and energy levels in the morning is the least of it. Here we cover some of the most fundamental reasons why breakfast is so important, and don’t forget, Lauren’s Catering are here to help should you need some tasty food options!
Energy
The body’s main source of energy comes from glucose. This simple sugar is broken down and later absorbed from carbohydrates that you consume. The body will store most of the energy that it gets as fat, but your body can also store some of the glucose that it gets as glycogen, mostly in your liver. In the morning, glycogen stores are at their lowest. Once all of the glycogen stores have been effectively used up, the body will begin breaking down fatty acids to produce the kind of energy that is needed. Without carbohydrates, however, fatty acids are just partially oxidised, reducing your energy levels.
Eating breakfast can boost your levels of energy and restore glycogen levels to what they should be, keeping your metabolism where it should be for the day.
Essential nutrients, minerals, and vitamins
Breakfast foods tend to be rich in key nutrients such as iron, folate, calcium, fibre, and B vitamins. Breakfast provides plenty of your day’s total overall nutrient intake. People who consume breakfast are more likely than others to meet the recommended daily intake of minerals and vitamins.
Weight control
It’s true that those who consume breakfast are not as likely to be obese or overweight. This may because it prevents larger fluctuations in blood glucose levels, helping to control your appetite. It could also be because breakfast fills you up before you start becoming ravenously hungry, so it makes you less likely to grab whatever food is around when hunger strikes.
Brain health
Not eating breakfast can lead some people to feel sluggish and a loss of focus. This might be because the brain has not received the energy, or glucose, that it truly needs in order to get going. There have been studies which suggest that not having breakfast can affect your psychological performance, including abilities to concentrate, attention, and memory. This can subsequently make certain tasks feel much harder than it normally would.
Better food decisions
Compared with those who choose not to have breakfast, people who frequently eat breakfast will tend to have a lower risk of type 2 diabetes and obesity. There is additional evidence which suggests that people who choose not consume breakfast might be at a higher risk of diseases such as cardiovascular.
If you are looking for a reliable buffet caterer to provide you with delicious and exciting food for your Jubilee party, look no further than Lauren’s Catering.
We are a family run firm and have been catering for the people of Gloucester for over 25 years, so you may well know us already. We are incredibly talented when it comes to cooking up a variety of tasty food. We take pride in delivering a service that leaves our customers feeling best pleased! When it comes to catering, we understand that the customer is always king. So we have included as much variety in our sandwich options as we can!
Find out more about our buffet catering services here or, discover what else we get up to here at Lauren’s Catering, and whether we can help you with your catering journey.
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