This advice concentrates on the kind of lunch you can have. Create a lunch that is tailored exactly to how you live, for example, your size, sex, job and the tasks facing you. Replace what you used up during the morning and what you can provide in addition to cope with what’s needed for the hours to come. Every one of these meals should not only taste good and be easy to digest, but also contain carbohydrates, protein and fat which in the long term will promote your health in the best possible fashion.

For most of us, each day is much like another. By that I don’t mean it has to be boring, but the demands upon the body’s organism is similar, at least from Monday to Friday. In what follows, I’m making a few suggestions for various situations where the demands can be different.

1. Heavy Physical Work in general and Endurance Tasks in particular : Everyone in this category should, in the first instance, replace carbohydrates. The question is, how? The choice ranges over fruit and vegetables (potatoes excluded), milk products and foodstuffs that are rich in starch. Someone who has burned up a lot of calories, has been sweating for hours on end – in sport that applies, amongst others, to triathlon, cycling, long distance and marathon running, rowing and canoeing, swimming or biathlon and cross-country skiing – cannot do without products rich in starch such as potatoes, rice, noodles, bread, legumes and similar.

Suitable Meals would be:

• A tasty meal of rice with some beans or green peas with vegetables chopped up small which you cook at the same time or steamed earlier and added at the last.
• All-in-one of potatoes, beans, vegetables with a thick slice of tasty leavened bread.
• A dish of noodles including some vegetables (for example, broccoli, paprika, sweet pea or perhaps a few beans and green peas), fresh Parmesan cheese and sauce on top.

You can eat a slice of bread and butter before each of these meals, or better still, as is the custom in many Mediterranean countries, dip into some cold pressed olive oil (sometimes Uta gives herself a treat and has cold pressed walnut oil – mmmmm!) For a third, equally yummy variation, Uta puts some avocado on bread.

For Uta, it’s part and parcel to have a fresh salad before just about every lunch or evening meal. Most salads, especially ones with lots of green leaves, depend upon on dressing to give them some life. Cold pressed olive oil should always be the basis for this. Sometimes Uta mixes cold pressed rape seed oil and adds lemon juice to taste, or some balsamic vinegar and a dash of soya sauce. Or she might sprinkle fruit chopped up small (oranges, mandarins, mangoes …) over it. Cooking Thai-style is also possible, of course, especially if you include sesame seeds. In Germany, Uta prefers the small, dark green corn salad as a green leaf vegetable.

2. Light Physical exercise – Office Work – Mental Activity: Since you’re not burning up so much physical energy, you should be very careful about how much starch you eat. Not only because these products are enormously rich in calories, but also because they are often digested in a great rush that make blood sugar and insulin levels surge. This combination piles on the calories for thighs, bottom and stomach (See “The Glycemic Index”).

What should you eat? What about trying all sorts of variations of steamed vegetables with grilled chicken, turkey or fish? Having a salad beforehand is always a good idea. Vegetables are not only very healthy, but you can eat a huge amount of them until you’re full to bursting without consuming a lot of calories or sending your blood sugar levels sky high.

As a comparison: one-and-a-half slices of toast or an average sized potato has the same calorie content as about 1.25 to 1.5 liters of finely chopped vegetables (Brussels sprouts, broccoli, asparagus, cauliflower, tomatoes, paprika …) which also has, in addition, a very low glycemic index that doesn’t raise blood sugar levels to any great extent. That’s very good.

Of course, you can also eat something rich in starch, but not in any great quantity. What about a salad with a small bowl of lentil or bean soup and a slice of bread? Or a sandwich with just one slice of bread and salad with it? Or just one large Fit-Yoghurt?

Further General Tips on Nutrition

Mixing starch with protein is synonymous with a labored and decelerated digestion, leading to possible problems if you’re going to train after lunch. Anyone who is serious about endurance sport is better off having a drink from really tasty whey protein powder once a day, for example after training, along with carbohydrate replacement and then following – perhaps an hour later, after stretching, shower and getting changed – concentrating on a carbohydrate meal rich in starch, rather than giving themselves problems trying to digest their meal.

Whey Protein is not only relatively cheap and tastes very good, it is easy to digest and has the highest protein levels you can buy.

As I’m sure you’ve noticed, Uta doesn’t use any of the usual edible or vegetable oils or margarine. This is for two reasons: firstly, they contribute to an uneven build-up of a particular type of fatty acids, the so-called Omega-6 fatty acids, which can have a very unfortunate effect on hormone balance. Omega-6 fatty acids are the “Raw Material” for masses of hormones which have a significant influence on our health. Secondly, because in order to keep their shelf life, these products have to undergo an extreme production process which not only destroys a great deal but also creates “Trans Fatty Acids” that many experts have in the meantime judged to be worse than an increase in saturated fatty acids. If you want to know more, look up “Trans Fatty Acids” in the internet – they’re bad, bad news. So forget about the idea that grew up in the years after the war that margarine or so-called oil products are especially healthy.

Consumer Tip: cold pressed olive oil should not be exposed to great heat (cooking is okay), otherwise it loses its greatest benefit for health. It’s best suited for salads. For frying or roasting, use what is called “Olive Oil.” This is a good oil, especially made for the purpose with a neutral taste.

Organizational Tip: I often hear how it’s difficult to get hold of Whey Protein in Germany. A lot of people order it on the Internet from the Netherlands. If it’s going to take you some time to reach home after training, it’s a good idea to have something ready to eat in your bag. That way, you don’t have to hurry for the main meal, you’ve already had something to keep you going.

© Dieter Hogen