VIDEOCAST: Diet for Man, Not Man for Diet

Why isn’t coffee necessarily an employee’s friend? What products can support work in creative professions? Which breakfast ingredients will make vending refrigerators unnecessary during the day? In the next episode of the “Wellbeing Summit” videocast series, dietitian Jakub Mauricz provides tips for an optimal employee diet.

The principle of flexible dieting in practice

Jakub Mauricz, one of Poland’s most respected dietitians, is responsible for the nutritional and supplementation care of many well-known athletes, including Joanna Jędrzejczyk and Zbigniew Bartman. In an interview with Jarosław Kuźniar, he stresses that the essence of diet is to form healthy eating habits. At the same time, he points out that it is the diet that should be for the person, not the person for the diet. “If the diet is associated with something we view as not nice, our brain will simply tell us that we need to get away from it,” he stresses.

Jakub Mauricz praises the principle of flexible dieting. According to it, the various products should be consumed in the right proportions. 80 percent accounts for healthy, unprocessed or low-processed, food (e.g. fruit, vegetables, fish, meat, dairy products) and 20 percent is so-called recreational food for special occasions (e.g. chocolate, crisps).

“I’m a dietitian, but sometimes I happen to go for ice cream or pizza, or eat crisps at a party,” admits Mauricz. “But it is the word “happens” that is crucial here,” he adds.

How to compose a healthy diet?

While it is easy to supply the aforementioned 20 percent (which, as the dietitian points out, is worth balancing the next day with, for example, more fruit and vegetables), more attention should be paid to the main, healthier part, which should make up 80 percent of meals.

First of all, the diet will not be the same in every case. Moreover, a person’s diet should also be varied, among other things, depending on the day. On a long, tiring business trip, the body has different needs than during a brainstorming session requiring as much creativity as possible.

Whatever the day, it is a good idea to give up on highly processed products and those containing wheat, sugar and trans fatty acids. In turn, the products desirable in the diet include:

• fruit and vegetables,

• sourdough rye bread,

• olive oil,

• nuts.

Proteins and fats for breakfast

A model that works well for office work might be to start the day with a breakfast of proteins and fats and end it with meals with carbohydrates. “Eat an omelette, soft- or hard-boiled eggs or kabanos sausages first, and add fresh vegetables so there’s fibre, water, minerals and vitamins,” Mauricz suggests.

The dietitian stresses that this choice of ingredients will ensure a feeling of satiety between 7:00 and 11:00 a.m., so you won’t be looking at the vending refrigerator every now and then.

Green tea for the creative

For creative professions, additional supplementation can help significantly. Ginkgo biloba, Korean ginseng, green tea tannin – all of these can tune the mind for creativity on any given day.

And what about coffee? In this case, some caution is advisable. First of all, it is good to drink the first cup only 90 minutes after waking up. Otherwise, coffee can make us feel tired relatively quickly. “Coffee may give us energy, but it also interferes with protein and iron absorption by up to 90 percent,” says Mauricz. “This causes a feeling of drowsiness, a need to get out in the fresh air or a desire to take a nap.

Learn more about healthy eating principles and ideas for tasty and healthy snacks for work in the next episode of the “Wellbeing Summit” series!