Nowadays, most of us live in a constant rush. Education, work, the desire for continuous development, and achieving ever better results mean that due to lack of time, we forget about the absolute basics. Among these are... a healthy diet. Nutritional education at a societal level or alternative methods, such as adding eatyx products to your diet, come to the rescue. But when is it worth introducing them? You'll find out in this article!

What does our diet look like today?

The most recent WOBASZ II study, conducted on a representative sample of Poles in 2016, revealed rather unpleasant results. As Poles, we:

• do not balance our diet correctly;

• consume too few vitamins and minerals (almost all of them);

• eat inappropriate sources of fat (e.g., fatty meat instead of olive oil or nuts).

And finally… the diet of only 15% of adult Poles was considered healthy, while for the vast majority of those surveyed, the quality of nutrition was low [1]. The conclusions noted that the dietary habits of most adult Polish society significantly deviate from the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO), which is a very regrettable finding. The WOBASZ II study did not analyze the reasons why our diets are not adequate, but other publications pointed to certain factors, including [2-3]:

• easy availability and convenience of consuming highly processed foods (unhealthy, e.g., fast food, sweets);

• emotional eating (so-called stress eating, where we often reach for snacks);

• eating out of boredom and fatigue (when we come home after a hard day's work and don't feel like cooking, our first thought is often something ready-made, or when we can't find a specific activity during the day, we are more likely to reach for snacks);

• lack of time to prepare healthy meals (we think that a healthy diet means hours spent in the kitchen daily and a lot of sacrifices).

What can we do to improve the diet of Poles?

As a dietitian, it is my duty to educate people about healthy eating, and this should always be the first step towards positive change. From my years of practice, I see that healthy eating is associated with a lot of sacrifices and complete dedication to cooking and living in the kitchen. The truth, of course, is quite different, and in practice, it doesn't look like that at all. Believe it or not, there's definitely room for your favorite sweets, cakes, or fast food in a healthy diet. What's more, you can prepare healthy meals for the entire day in 30-45 minutes!

 

Most often, it turns out that each of us has those 30-45 minutes a day to prepare healthy meals, it's just a matter of setting priorities. And considering that an improper diet is responsible for 22% of deaths worldwide, taking care of it should be high on everyone's hierarchy.

 

The main message I want to convey from this part of the article is that implementing healthy eating principles does not require much sacrifice or time. You can easily make quality meals for the whole day in 30-45 minutes and at the same time not eliminate the products you like most – the diet should be for you, not you for the diet, and nurturing your relationship with it will bring you and your health many benefits.

 

What to do when basic education doesn't yield the desired results?

Well, there will also be people who stubbornly claim that they cannot even spare those 40 minutes a day, and what then? In such a case, we have several options.

 

The first is to prepare the maximum possible number of meals at home yourself, and replace those for which we lack time with so-called "ready meals" from the supermarket. Nowadays, we have plenty of options, so everyone will certainly find something for themselves. However, you must know that in this case, there are many pitfalls awaiting you. Ready-made products, even seemingly healthy ones, are often not without flaws. For example, bean and tofu in tomato sauce sounds good and healthy, but by consuming the entire package, we can ingest about 5 g of salt - practically the maximum we should consume throughout the day. Excessive salt intake increases the risk of hypertension, which in turn is associated with serious diseases. Other ready-made products may contain a lot of saturated fatty acids, whereas for the health of our heart, we should replace them with unsaturated ones. However, we can also find ready-made meals that meet these health standards. Remember, though, that this is processed food, which should not dominate our diets – the more meals prepared at home from minimally processed products, the better. You can keep such a ready-made meal from the supermarket for an emergency, but remember the pitfalls. The ability to read food product labels is an extremely important issue here.

 

The second option is dietary catering. This is another option that is extremely popular nowadays. We can choose a diet (e.g., vegan, ketogenic, or Mediterranean), caloric content, and even select specific meals for a given day. This makes catering seem like a reasonable option, of course, if the owners and chefs are dietetically aware and ensure quality in the meals. The downside of catering is its high price and the fact that the content of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, fatty fish, and other products generally considered healthy is often suboptimal.

 

The third option is to sensibly incorporate "hyper food" products. By definition, these are ready-made products that provide essential vitamins and minerals, and at the same time require virtually no effort or, most importantly, time from us. The eatyx brand offers such products.

The positive aspect here is that everyone will find something for themselves. A savory warm meal? No problem. A sweet cold meal? No problem. A ready-to-drink liquid product in a convenient bottle or a high-protein, high-fiber bar? Also no problem.

 

And seriously, such meals can help you in a crisis situation. I intentionally say in a crisis, because this is still, like a ready-made meal from the supermarket, processed food, whose content in our diet should be properly balanced. However, looking at today's realities, most people in Poland eat a lot of ready-made products and fast food. I don't remember the last time I went into McDonald's and there wasn't a queue at the tills. So before we change our habits to ideal ones and at least 90% of our diet consists of minimally processed products, it is worth taking a small step forward and choosing the lesser of two evils. And among fast food, sweets, or many ready-made supermarket products, any eatyx product will fare much better in terms of health.

 

Let's compare a classic Cheeseburger, which we grab on the go, with eatyx's ready-made Italian-style pasta.

 

 

Let's assume that an average person eats about 2000 kcal and spreads it over 4-5 meals. Three main meals have 500-600 kcal each, and an additional one has 300-400 kcal. And such an additional meal, on the go, can be a Cheeseburger or an Italian pasta poured with boiling water from eatyx, ready in literally a moment – what to choose?

 

The fiber content immediately stands out. From a biological point of view, it is a substance from plant cell walls that is not digested and absorbed in our digestive tract. In practice, fiber is extremely important to us, and besides providing satiety and proper digestive function, it also protects against many diseases. It's 1:0 for the pasta.

 

Moving on, we can look at the salt content. This is almost 3 times higher in the burger compared to the eatyx product. As a population, we consume too much salt, so any intervention that reduces this intake is worth its weight in gold. We're already at 2:0.

 

According to the nutritional standards for the Polish population, we should minimize saturated fats, as replacing them with unsaturated fats reduces the risk of heart disease. Here again, the eatyx product performs much better, and we have 3:0, and I immediately add a fourth point for the pasta due to its higher protein content. A comparison of an eatyx bar with classic bars available on the market, even those considered healthy by some because they are "protein" bars, would show a similar outcome.

 

And quite frankly, every eatyx product will be better than eating a standard fast food or any other commonly consumed highly processed product. Similarly, an eatyx bar will be significantly better than standard bars you find in a supermarket. Remember, however, that preparing meals yourself is still the best choice, so I will now point out situations where we can use "hyper food".

Situation number 1: Complete lack of time

 

Work projects are chasing you. Or maybe exams are already on the horizon? In such stressful times and with a lack of time, we often reach for bars, store-bought ready meals, or order pizza or a burger. Keep eatyx products in your cupboard for such periods, and when the idea of ordering something comes to mind, remember what you have in the cupboard and reach for that instead. Eating an adequate amount of protein, fat, and carbohydrates, and supplying essential micronutrients supports our brains for optimal function, so a conscious choice will help you get through this difficult period.

Situation number 2: Travel

 

Another long journey and you're leaving home again without prepared meals? There's no time, so you don't want to leave the highway, and what do you do? We usually have hot dogs at gas stations or popular fast-food restaurants, which have little in common with healthy eating. In such a situation, it's also worth having your favorite eatyx product on hand for an emergency and taking it with you on the road. Remember the comparison above? You can easily get boiling water at a gas station or restaurant, and it's much better to eat such an Italian-style pasta than a hot dog or a cheeseburger.

 

P.S. Not to mention airplanes, which usually serve mediocre food even on flights of several hours. You can throw an eatyx bar in your backpack and, besides satisfying your hunger, you won't wake up the passenger next to you with a rumbling stomach.

 

Situation number 3: eatyx suits your taste

 

In dietetics, there is a rule like 80/20 or 90/10. In the case of the first option, 20% of products consumed during the day are for our own psychological comfort, and we choose those we like the most, regardless of their processing level and nutritional value. The remaining 80% consists of minimally processed products, such as vegetables, fruits, nuts, vegetable oils, etc. Let's assume your daily requirement is 2000 kcal, which means you can easily consume 300-400 kcal/day by eating your favorite products. Do you like a chocolate bar or a ready-to-drink vanilla beverage from eatyx? If your overall diet is healthy, there's nothing to stop such an item from appearing in your meal plan and staying there for good.

Situation number 4: Crisis is coming

I'll be transparent, if you are 100% sure that at a given moment you will eat fast food, even if you don't want to, just have an eatyx product on hand – consuming it will always be healthier than eating a standard highly processed product.

 

Situation number 5: Same old, same old at work!

Every day you promise yourself that you'll finally prepare meals for the whole day for work. Reality checks you, and once again you go with an empty bag and eat at the company restaurant. Of course, today's lunch special is fried pork chop with a mountain of potatoes and a small amount of vegetables + soup – and how can you not choose that? Seriously, if for X amount of time a certain situation repeats itself and you always end up in the company canteen, eating mediocre quality dishes, or you run downstairs for a ready-made meal from Żabka, then invest in eatyx – it will be a better choice for your main meal at work.

Summary

As Poles, we still have a problem with the quality of our diet. The first step we should take towards positive change is public education on healthy eating. However, this requires an enormous amount of time and human resources, and as a helpful alternative for crisis situations, it is worth having healthy, ready-to-eat products, for example from the eatyx brand. Such products should not be the basis of our diet, but there are times when their consumption is reasonable and can help us save time while maintaining dietary quality. Let me remind you that the eatyx brand offers a wide range of products, and everyone will find something for themselves. The offer includes:

• cold meals;

• hot meals;

• liquid meals;

• meal bars;

• accessories in which you can prepare and take these meals with you.

P.S. As a dietitian, I am not a proponent of completely replacing traditional meals with ready-made ones. However, it is an undeniable fact that we often reach for highly processed products, and virtually all of them will be of poorer quality from a health perspective than eatyx products, hence in this case, the choice is clear.

Bibliography

1. A. Waśkiewicz et al., “Are dietary habits of the Polish population consistent with the recommendations for prevention of cardiovascular disease? - WOBASZ II project,” Kardiol Pol, vol. 74, no. 9, pp. 969–977, 2016, doi: 10.5603/KP.A2016.0003.