So, are you a planner or casual when it comes to meal-times? With the busy lives we all lead we are rushing from event to event, work, social activities, children’s parties, sport, we are continuously on the run. Also with both adults in the household generally working, who has time to plan meals or even cook them?
This busy lifestyle may be having an impact on our health, the quality of ready-made convenient foods is not good, and we are not even talking about fast food here, which is ultra-processed and definitely not meant for our bodies.
Is planning the key to healthy eating or can spontaneous meal decisions be as effective?
Take the cooked chook a staple in most houses, add some salads and oven chips and the meal is done. But when you look at all the ingredients its definitely not a healthy option.
Cooked Chook
Ingredients: RSPCA Approved Chicken(84%), Marinade [Water, Salt, Sugar, Rice Starch, Citrus Fibre, Natural Flavouring (Milk), Spice Extract], Stuffing Core [Water, Crumb (Wheat Flour, Salt, Mineral Salt (Ammonium Carbonate)), Onion, Sugar, Canola Oil, Salt, Herbs, Garlic, Spices (Natural Colour (Turmeric))], Sprinkle [Salt, Wheat Flour, Spice (Paprika), Vegetable Powder (Onion), Herbs, Dehydrated vegetable (Onion), Sugar, Natural Flavouring, Canola Oil].
Oven Superfries
Ingredients: Potato, Canola Oil, Dextrose (from Maize)
Premade Coleslaw
Ingredients: Cabbage (68%), Coleslaw Dressing (20%) [Canola Oil, Sugar, Vinegar, Egg, Salt, Thickeners (415, 412), Milk Solids, Acidity Regulator (260), Lemon Juice, Citrus Fibre, Spice Extracts, Rosemary Extract], Carrot (10%), Onion (2%).
Kitchen Cheesy Tomato Pasta Salad
Ingredients: Cooked Pasta (52%) [Durum Wheat Semolina], Tomato Basil Dressing (35%) [Water, Sugar, Canola Oil, Tomato Paste (8%), Vinegar, Salt, Modified Starch (1442), Onion Powder, Mustard, Herbs and Spices (Basil (0.1%)), Stabilisers (415, 412), Capsicum, Garlic, Natural Antioxidant (307b)], Capsicum (4.0%), Cheddar Cheese (4.0%) (Milk), Shallots, Cheese Flavour (Milk) (0.75%), Preservative (Potassium Sorbate).
Who would have thought the spontaneous decision above contains so many ingredients. This chicken has at least 28 ingredients, most of which you would not find in your kitchen at home.
If you were to cook this meal from scratch the ingredients would be significantly less. We often think we are choosing healthy options, but we are choosing for convenience.
Is planning the key to healthy eating, research suggests that it may have its benefits. In the research they suggest that individuals planning their meals were more likely to have a better-quality diet, including an increase of variety of foods. It also suggested meal planning was associated with lower odds of being obese in men and women. (Ducrot et al., 2017) Research also suggests if you plan your meals you tend to home cook more often, the planning also tended to be done on a weekly basis.
So why not do some planning, you’ve got nothing to lose, it may save you time in the long run, money and even a few kilos.
Below are some tips, don’t overthink your menu plan and why not create a few of them and then just rotate them.
Tips for meal planning
References
Ducrot, P., Méjean, C., Aroumougame, V., Ibanez, G., Allès, B., Kesse-Guyot, E., Hercberg, S. and Péneau, S., 2017. Meal planning is associated with food variety, diet quality and body weight status in a large sample of French adults. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 14(1).
