Good Food

8 ways poor sleep wrecks your healthy eating intentions

2025-07-11T13:02:08.000Z

We’ve all been there. One bad night’s sleep and suddenly all we can think about is a chocolate croissant on the way to the office as opposed to those overnight oats you lovingly meal-prepped yesterday. You tell yourself you’ll make a healthy dinner, but by 6pm you’re too knackered to cook and instead find yourself scrolling through your takeaway app.

It's not just a lack of willpower or laziness; sleep – or more specifically, not getting enough of it – plays a powerful role in the way we eat. From how hungry we feel, to the foods we crave, our sleeping habits shape our daily eating decisions more than we might realise.

According to The Sleep Foundation, sleep and appetite are actually quite closely connected, and a good night’s rest can help promote healthy appetite hormones, impact how your body reacts to insulin and affect your digestion and metabolism, too.

So, if you’ve ever felt like your healthy eating plans unravel when you haven’t caught enough Zs, science says you’re probably right. Here’s how poor sleep quality sabotages your food choices – and why prioritising rest could be the best healthy eating hack you’ve ever tried.

1. Tired brains crave high-calorie foods

Ever noticed that after a rough night, your first instinct is to reach for a pastry? That’s not usually a lack of self-control – it’s your brain crying out for a quick energy release. Research shows that sleep deprivation enhances activity in the brain’s reward centres in response to junk food, meaning you’re more likely to crave high-fat, high-sugar options.

“Higher calorie foods, especially sugary, fatty and salty foods, can provide quick energy releases that our body craves when it’s tired,” explains registered nutritionist Jemma Joel. “However, that dopamine hit is often short-lived and can end up having a reverse effect, making us feel more tired and groggy.”

2. Your hunger hormones go haywire

Two hormones – ghrelin and leptin – control hunger and fullness. Ghrelin tells your body when it’s hungry; leptin tells it when to stop eating. But when you’re sleep deprived, ghrelin levels rise while leptin drops.

“As leptin decreases, this means we can end up overeating as there’s less of a physiological sign that we’re feeling full and satisfied,” explains Joel.

One UK study found that people sleeping fewer than six hours a night had a 14 per cent higher intake of calories the next day. The same pattern was been found in a later US study too, indicating people that sleep less consumed more calories.

3. Sleep debt messes with your metabolism

It’s not just about willpower; your metabolism actually slows down when you’re short on sleep. One early study observed a group of men go from eight hours sleep to just four hours a night for six days. The result? A 30 per cent drop in insulin sensitivity and a struggle to clear glucose from their bloodstream.

In short, this meant their bodies became worse at handling sugar, releasing more insulin to cope. This encourages fat storage, especially around the belly. Plus, sluggish glucose clearance means your metabolism slows down, making it harder to burn calories efficiently. While scientific research is still developing, it’s clear that sleep loss can affect how your body uses energy.

4. Cortisol levels spike – and brings belly fat with them

Chronic sleep deprivation can lead to elevated cortisol levels, your body’s main stress hormone. And higher cortisol is linked with fat storage around the midsection – the area many of us struggle with most.

“Sleep is the foundation for good health and when we’re not sleeping well it can have a strong impact on our cortisol levels, especially if they’re already elevated,” says Joel. “When cortisol is high, it can cause broken sleep, higher risk of mental and physical health concerns and generally can impact us from the moment we wake up in the morning with low energy, brain fog and poor mood.”

Add to the fact that stress can reduce insulin sensitivity, and you’ve got a hormonal cocktail that makes fat loss harder – even if you’re eating the same amount.

5. You’re too knackered to exercise

Sure, technically you could go for that run. But when you’ve had five hours of broken sleep, the sofa sounds much more appealing and your motivation to move your body takes a nosedive.

Studies have shown that physical activity levels drop after even one night of poor sleep – and that regular sleep deprivation reduces both performance and desire to exercise. The knock-on effect? Fewer calories burned, less muscle built and a much harder time sticking to a consistent routine.

6. Healthy cooking becomes a chore

Let’s be honest, no one is whipping up a green goddess salad on a few hours of sleep. Cooking requires energy, brainpower and the ability to resist the calling of a takeaway. When you’re running on empty, even the thought of chopping veg can feel like a task too far.

A 2020 study found that those that slept less and had poor sleep quality were less likely to adhere to a healthy diet and regular meal patterns. While an earlier 2016 study found that sleep-deprived subjects ate nearly twice as much fat when given snacks as they did when they’d slept for eight hours.

7. Comfort food becomes really comforting

When you’re tired, your brain is wired for reward. We become more naturally emotionally reactive, more stressed and more likely to crave a much needed dopamine hit. Food – particularly high-sugar or high-fat food – can temporarily scratch that itch. But it’s often followed by that inevitable crash.

Lack of sleep has been linked with increased emotional and binge eating, especially in women. Another study found that sleep deficiency also affected decision making and controlling emotions and behaviour, sometimes making that extra slice of cake feel not just tempting but almost impossible to resist.

8. Poor sleep habits can become self-fulfilling

One bad night is manageable. But consistent under-sleeping becomes a vicious cycle. Joel refers to it as a ‘sleep domino’ effect. “Poor sleep is caused by and can cause a mixture of physiological and psychological facts,” she says. “And this has a domino effect on our eating habits. Poor sleep equals less energy, less energy means your mood changes, a bad mood is less likely to motivate you to prepare and eat healthy meals. And all of that can cause poor sleep, it can be a vicious cycle.”

And long-term sleep deprivation has been associated with a whole host of health issues, including diabetes, higher BMI and increased risk of obesity. So, if you’re stuck in a cycle of low energy, poor food choices and frustration, your sleep might be the key to breaking it.

The bottom line? Sleep isn’t lazy – it’s foundational. In the world of wellness, sleep is often overlooked compared to food and fitness. But in reality, it should be leading the way. Without enough quality sleep, your hunger hormones rebel, your metabolism stalls and your motivation evaporates. Suddenly, that “lazy Sunday lie-in” starts looking more like a productivity hack than a luxury.

However, sleep can be too much of a good thing. While adequate sleep is crucial for your health, excessive sleep has also been linked to unhealthy eating habits and an increased risk of obesity, too. So don’t overdo it.

If you’re trying to eat better, move more or lose weight, start by checking your sleep health. Prioritise it in the same way you would your protein intake or your step count. Because if sleep isn’t on your side, everything else becomes that little bit harder.

What is intuitive eating?

2025-07-01T16:11:31.000Z

Developed in the US as a way to create a healthier attitude towards body image, intuitive eating is a framework rather than a diet. There are no set rules and it encourages the rejection of the notion that some foods are inherently ‘good’ and some ‘bad’.

History of intuitive eating

Although the name was coined in 1995 as the title of a book by dietitians Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch, the concept of intuitive eating pre-dates this. Earlier pioneers include Susie Orbach, who in 1978 published the ground-breaking book, Fat is a Feminist Issue, and Geenen Roth, who has written about emotional eating since 1982.

Discover our full range of health guides, whether it's how to talk to your teenager about food or pregnancy, food and body image.

What is intuitive eating?

The concept of intuitive eating is about making the best choice for you – this means eating when you are hungry and stopping when you are full. Advocates of intuitive eating insist that hunger should be the cue to eat, although they draw a line of distinction between physical hunger and emotional hunger.

Physical hunger is experienced by a growling stomach, tiredness, or irritability. These pass when food is consumed.
Emotional hunger is described as being influenced by negative emotions that create cravings for food or are soothed by food, such as sadness, loneliness, boredom and stress.

Advocates of the concept argue that by eating intuitively, you learn to trust your body, and identify when it is a physical hunger rather than an emotional one. As a result you’re likely to make better choices about what, when and how often to eat.

How to practise intuitive eating?

According to American dietitians Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch, there are 10 guiding principles:

1. Reject diet mentality

Forget the idea that dieting or restricting the foods you eat will result in quick, easy or permanent weight loss. Intuitive eating is the opposite of restriction – it is about learning to trust that your body knows best.

2. Honour your hunger

Feed your body when you experience the early signs of hunger. If you leave it too long, you’re more likely to make poor food choices and overeat. Listening to your body and its signals sets the stage for rebuilding trust in yourself and your food choices.

Read more on how you can manage your appetite.

3. Avoid categorising food

Instead of thinking about different kinds of food as 'good' or 'bad', learn to listen to what your body needs. This way you are less likely to crave ‘forbidden’ food or to binge eat.

4. Challenge negative thoughts

If you experience negative self-talk or you find yourself totting up your calorie intake – challenge these thoughts. For example, telling yourself you’ve been ‘good’ if you didn’t go over your calorie goal for the day, or feeling ‘bad’ because you ate chocolate are not thought processes that benefit you.

5. Make the most of mealtimes

Enjoy eating – both the food and the environment. This will help you feel content and more satisfied.

6. Stop when you're full

Listen to your body's cues. Just as it gives you the physical signs when you are hungry, it will also tell you when you are comfortably full,

7. Manage emotional eating

Food can’t fix feelings, although it may offer a short-term solution to distract or numb them. Be aware of these times and develop alternative strategies to help you cope, such as walking, journalling or meditating.

Read six tools to manage stress and 10 diet and lifestyle tips to help manage stress.

8. Show yourself some respect

Learn to accept and respect your body whatever its shape or size.

9. Move more

Stay active and pay attention to how it feels to move your body, rather than tracking how many calories you’ve burned or the number of steps you’ve walked. Aim to build more movement into your everyday routines.

10. Balance nutrition with enjoyment

You don’t have to eat perfectly all of the time to be healthy and well. Make food choices that take both your health and your taste buds into account while also making you feel good about your decisions. You won’t become unhealthy or nutrient-deficient from one snack, one meal or one day of eating. It’s about what you do most of the time and that doesn’t require perfection.

Are intuitive and mindful eating the same?

No, intuitive and mindful eating are not the same although intuitive eating does include some elements of mindfulness and both methods are useful if you struggle with extreme dieting or binge eating.

In simple terms, mindfulness is the practice of present moment awareness, the overall objective being to slow down and savour the taste, smell and texture of the food on your plate. Intuitive eating encourages you to use your natural instincts and physical and mental cues to decide when, what and how much to eat.

Can you lose weight by eating intuitively?

Intuitive eating is not a weight-loss diet, it’s a way of managing your food intake by eating in tune with your body's hunger and fullness cues. Advocates say it may help create more ordered eating, which could lead to weight loss, if that is relevant for you. That said, they insist that being overly concerned with calorie counting or consciously choosing low-fat foods is contrary to the principles of intuitive eating.

This way of eating is not a short-term fix, it is a long-term approach that focuses on changing the way you think about food and becoming better attuned to your physical cues of both hunger and satiety. There aren’t any plans or recipes to follow, just a series of behaviours that are intended to redefine your relationship with food.

Is intuitive eating healthy? Our nutritionist's view

Intuitive eating offers an alternative approach to traditional ‘dieting,’ that aims to help followers get back in touch with their physical hunger and satiety cues. The principle of intuitive eating involves a mindset shift towards a healthier relationship with food and is not a tool for weight loss. That said, studies demonstrate a consistent association between the practice and a lower body mass index as well as improved psychological health.

Who shouldn’t follow intuitive eating?

While generally believed to be beneficial for most people, those with an active eating disorder or certain health conditions such as coeliac disease, type II diabetes, high blood pressure or food allergies, as well as those who need to gain weight or follow a structured eating programme, should refrain from the practice.

Interested in trying this way of eating? Why not let us know how it goes in the comments below?

What has working from home done to our diets?

2025-06-13T09:31:11.000Z

Before 2020, lunch often meant queueing at a cafe or eating a soggy sandwich 'al desko'. But in the post-pandemic world, with more of us working from home (WFH) than ever before, have our food habits shifted dramatically?

In the UK, around 40 per cent of working adults reported WFH at least once a week in 2023 (ONS), and in the US, 35 per cent of full-time employees are still remote all or some of the time. But what’s that done to our diets? Is it helping us to eat better, or are we just snacking more?

Office lunches: the bad old days?

Before the pandemic, office life left many of us at the mercy of overpriced meal deals, vending machines, and a rushed lunch break. Research shows only 37 per cent of European workers took a full lunch break when working on-site, while 10 per cent of UK workers skip their lunch breaks altogether.

Data suggests that office lunches can lean heavily on ultra-processed foods (UPFs) – quick and convenient, but low in nutritional value. One survey found that as many as 17 per cent of workers in the UK consider themselves addicted to UPFs at work, largely because of stress and convenience, with these options being widely available in the workplace.

However, the data is mixed, and it’s up in the air whether the move toward WFH has enabled us to improve our health in the lunch hour or whether new problems have arisen.

In the US, a 2023 survey suggests that workers are 40 per cent more likely to skip lunch than they were a year prior, with almost half reporting that they skip lunch at least once a week. Having back-to-back remote meetings was one of the reasons reported for not having lunch.

The British Dietetic Association (BDA) has highlighted challenges associated with home working, noting that it's easy to lose track of time and skip lunch when lacking the visual prompts from colleagues.

The shift to home cooking

Working from home has undoubtedly shifted the dynamic at lunchtime. In many cases, people now have access to their own kitchen, their own fridge and more control over what goes on their plate. That’s resulted in more home-cooked meals – at least some of the time.

An analysis of worldwide research during the pandemic suggested vastly different patterns emerging from different countries, such as increased fruit and vegetable consumption in Italy, Spain and South America, and a decrease in consumption of fruit, vegetables and lean proteins with an increase in processed meat and refined grains in the USA, and an overall reduction of fresh produce intake in China.

So it’s not all steamed broccoli and sourdough starters. While WFH offers more autonomy, it can also increase exposure to, and consumption of, calorie-dense foods, especially when boundaries between work and home blur. Having a fridge two steps from your desk can be both a blessing and a curse.

Interestingly, the Global Eating at Work Survey found that 67 per cent of hybrid workers make efforts to eat more healthily on days they are in the office and seek more guidance and support from employers to maintain healthy eating habits.

Jo Redmond, who works mostly from home in the UK, says: “I eat much healthier meals; homemade soups for lunch and balanced dinners. But I do find snacking hard as it’s all just there waiting for me!”

Snack attacks

So let’s talk snacks. When the vending machine is replaced by your pantry, are we more or less likely to indulge?

Despite research on home-cooked food intake among home workers varying dramatically depending on research paper and location, making it difficult to detect trends, one trend has been consistent in the literature and that is the increased consumption of sugary and high-fat snacks, backed by both large-scale global data, and small-scale qualitative research. Gen Z had the biggest uptake of snacking in the UK, averaging four snacks per day when working from home, often substituting main meals for snacks.

Unstructured workdays and stress can make us graze more than we realise. One of the biggest changes I see in my nutrition clinic is that people feel constantly ‘on’, so they snack more to break up the day or to cope with boredom, stress and fatigue. But if you’re regularly reaching for quick sugar fixes or caffeine, that’s often a sign your overall routine needs rethinking, especially your sleep, movement and meal composition.

In the US, emotional eating was also reported more frequently among those working from home, especially during the pandemic’s peak. However, this has started to stabilise as people find more sustainable routines.

Janine Ryan, an NHS worker in the UK, says her eating habits vary by environment. “If I’ve not packed a lunch, it’s a meal deal or samosas. At home, I’m more likely to take a break and make something healthy. Snack-wise, it’s more about workload – if I’m busy, I don’t snack much.”

Are we healthier now?

So, is this all good news for public health? Not entirely, though the data is mixed.

A 2023 Public Health Wales report noted that as of late 2022, about 30.4 per cent of the Welsh workforce primarily worked from home, a significant increase from the pre-pandemic figure of 12.4 per cent. While eating patterns were not specifically discussed, people did report a more sedentary lifestyle as a result of working from home, and almost half reported a decline in mental wellbeing linked to loneliness and isolation.

Contrary to the Welsh report, the Global Eating at Work Survey suggested that people who work from home are more likely to exercise during the day, unwind more thoroughly during breaks and spend time outdoors, which suggests there are more complex factors at play, such as health inequalities marked by social determinants of health.

Comparing pre- and post-pandemic obesity statistics, in the UK, the most recent data shows that 26.5 per cent of adults are obese, with women (26.9 per cent) slightly more affected than men (26.2 per cent). In the US, rates are even higher, with over 40 per cent of adults reportedly being obese. In England, 64.5 per cent of adults are overweight or obese – a figure that’s risen slightly from 64 per cent pre-pandemic in 2019. Interestingly, while the overall obesity rate has declined since before the pandemic (especially among women), the rise in people classified as overweight has been driven entirely by men.

These shifts may reflect changing behaviours, or perhaps the growing use of weight loss medications. One recent survey suggests that more than one in 10 UK women may be using weight loss jabs, raising questions about how medical interventions might be shaping public health trends.

Remote work may support better food choices for some, but it doesn’t guarantee them. Food insecurity, stress and loneliness can all impact how, and what, we eat. As the Wales report warns, home-working can exacerbate inequalities, especially for those living alone or without adequate kitchen facilities.

And while some enjoy leisurely omelettes between video calls, others are skipping meals altogether. A 2024 review of the evidence found that some people may be eating less frequently at home – not because of discipline, but due to workload, stress or social isolation.

Final thoughts

In short, working from home has changed the way we eat, but not always in predictable ways. For some, it’s meant fresher food, more home cooking and fewer impulse lunches. For others, it’s increased snacking, irregular mealtimes, isolation and even more sedentary hours.

The biggest takeaway? Our eating habits are tightly tied to our routines, environments and sense of wellbeing. As remote work continues to evolve, so too will our relationships with food.

How a sleep clinic helped me overcome my tracker obsession and solved my nighttime worries

2025-06-13T09:31:57.000Z

My midlife crisis came in the form of a black silicone wristwatch. I turned 40 this year and right on cue became hyper-fixated with my wellbeing and longevity. As well as rattling through life plied with supplements, the sleep tracker I was gifted for my 40th became a handy lifestyle aid. But it wasn’t long before it began to rule my life.

Sleep trackers are phenomenally popular (one study showed one in three Americans have used one), whether they are integrated within a fitness tracker or a device in their own right, like an Oura Ring.

But their effectiveness is questionable – while they do a good job of tracking overall sleep duration, the sleep cycle monitoring is more indicative than an exact science. This information didn’t stop me instantly checking my deep sleep levels and daily readiness score (a tracker’s calculation of how well recovered your body is after sleep) each morning – and the results were usually disappointing.

My quest for optimum rest became an obsession. I have an entire library of lavender-based products. White noise is my most-played jam on Spotify. My days became framed around how early I could get into bed. Despite these militant efforts, I was constantly tired as well as downbeat from my poor tracker credentials. I started to struggle to drift off due to fretting about achieving sleep perfection.

Being knackered is no new thing – I have two small children and a busy career, travel a lot and do intense exercise. And, of course, these issues are far from unique to me. We’re living through an ‘exhaustion epidemic’ – 50-70 million Americans have disordered sleep and one in eight Britons is tired all the time. Studies have shown we’re sleeping more than ever but we’re just as tired.

For my fellow worn-out warriors, the impact of poor-quality sleep will be grimly familiar: physical and mental health problems, reduced cognitive function, poor productivity, appetite dysregulation and mood changes. It even carries a higher risk of death. It can impact every element of your life, including relationships, work and socialising. Sleep deficiency has played a role in major nuclear disasters and plane crashes. While the effects of my sleeplessness weren’t on quite such a scale, I was keen to tackle it.

Asking the sleep experts

Sleep clinics are part of huge boom in the sleep treatment market – an industry that was worth $12.8 billion in 2024. These specialised facilities investigate and help treat sleep disorders, including conditions like fatigue and sleep apnoea. While my issues felt more holistic than medical, I made an appointment with ResMed (which focuses on helping people with sleep issues) and came armed with pages of questions for sleep clinician Joshua Piper.

It turns out there’s a name for this fixation with improving your sleep: orthosomnia. Joshua explained: “Orthosomnia is the term used to describe an obsession with quality sleep – this strive for sleep perfection which is unattainable. It’s a vicious cycle. Stressing about the fact that your sleep isn’t perfect has the opposite effect.”

I told Joshua how my sleep tracker had fuelled my fixation. He said he’s pro tech but it has a time and a place. “I always recommend going by how you feel rather than what your app is telling you. That should come first, then use the tech to back it up. A tracker is a bit like a smoke alarm – it will tell you your house is burning but it won’t tell you the cause of the fire. The only way to truly know your sleep cycles is via an EEG [a scan that measures brain activity].”

Is your sleep tracker picking up anything serious?

“It can be difficult to know when things are chronically wrong,” says Joshua, “but traditional measures can be whether you’re falling asleep on the sofa every night. Are you suffering from mood changes? Do you get morning headaches? Do you find you need to visit the loo a lot in the night?”

Frequent wakings are often a worry for tracker users – mine shows around an hour is typically shaved off my total sleep time. But Joshua suggests these are to be taken with a pinch of salt – turning over in bed can be classed as a ‘waking’ – however, given a family history of sleep apnoea and my notorious snoring, it could be worth exploring further with my GP.

“One hour plus of wakings a night could be something to look into. Visit your GP and don’t minimise your symptoms – just saying you’re tired is the wrong language. Go the whole kaboodle and mention the suspected apnoea and ask for a test.”

Anyone who uses a sleep tracker will be familiar with the habit of chasing deep sleep – the hallowed stage that’s the most restorative. My own deep sleep range is between 45 minutes and 1 hour 30 minutes per night. However, Joshua suggests I shouldn’t put too much store by this: “The deep sleep measurements on a sleep tracker are not accurate enough to draw any concrete conclusions, but generally speaking 12-20% of deep sleep is typical.” It’s normal to cycle between the stages of non-REM and REM sleep, with four to six cycles per night, and potentially a slight wake up between cycles.

Less stressful ways for better sleep

So now Joshua has enlightened me on the science of sleep stages, the dubiousness of trackers and the dangers of sleep perfectionism, what can I do about it?

While I’d love to practice consistent sleep rituals, not all of us have the luxury of being able to do so – shift workers, parents, carers and frequent travellers all face external factors out of their control that compromise being able to stick to routines.

Joshua says: “There are general good habits that you can get into. Nutrition, a balanced diet, staying active and keeping a healthy weight will all naturally help. And keeping alcohol to a minimum. A nightcap is a fallacy – it sedates you, which isn’t sleep. You wake once the alcohol has worn off. And you snore more as the muscles have relaxed.”

Also important for sleep are light and food. “You need to give your body cues so it can go to sleep – food is the antithesis of that. Eating at least 2-3 hours before bed is best practice. If you eat close to bedtime, your brain thinks it’s time to be awake.

“Light can be used for good. In the morning, being exposed to sunlight as soon as possible – at least 20 minutes of sun within the first hour of being awake – acts as a huge reset. This will have a positive knock-on impact at bedtime as you’ve preset your bedtime rhythm from the moment you woke up.”

This light therapy is free (hurrah!) but can have a profound impact. And it doesn’t need to be bright sun, cloudy days count.

On the flipside, how about the late night doomscrolling and evil light omitting from your phone?

According to Joshua: “It used to be that blue light was seen as a problem but it's actually becoming more acknowledged that it’s the act of scrolling that’s the issue as the brain sees this as a daytime activity.” Either way it’s best practice to put your phone down well before bedtime.

Other tricks Joshua recommends are temperature control, including keeping a cool bedroom whatever the time of year. You can utilise your bathroom, too. “Having a warm shower before bed means capillaries come to the surface. Your body then dumps this heat and your core temperature drops, which is a cue to fall asleep.”

“If you’re struggling to get to sleep, often the problem is that you haven’t given your brain the time it needs to shut down. For most people, the first act of switching off is when they get into bed to go to sleep. But your brain switches off its rational side first, then the emotional side shuts off second. This means irrational thoughts can pervade in the period before you drift off.”

Josh has a simple technique: “Think about a topic like animals, then run them from A-Z in your head. It’s a simple tactic as it’s not so engaging that you can overthink it.”

If you're stuck tossing and turning, it can be effective to remove yourself from the situation. “Go into a calm, new room, read, then go back into bed – the body needs calm to sleep and to not associate the bed with stress. The only healthy things to associate a bed with are sleep and sex.”

Making the changes

Armed with Josh’s wisdom, I made some changes to my habits. Firstly, I try to keep a consistent waking window of 6.30am-7.30am, even on weekends. My early bird kids are helpful in this respect, although I sadly mourn the 10am weekend lie-ins of my youth. I sleep with my curtains open so I wake up to instant sunlight. I’ve stopped wearing my tracker religiously every night. Finally, when possible, I’ve reduced my eating window so I finish eating several hours before bedtime.

Did it work? The morning sunlight hack undoubtedly helps my mood. Being less obsessed with my tracker means I’ve generally found it easier to get to sleep. I’ve stopped chasing deep sleep and instead base my readiness on how I feel after a shower, some stretches and a coffee. I don’t think I’m ever 100% ready for what life throws at me each day (who is?) but I don’t need a tracker to tell me that.

For those days when my new sleep virtues fall short, I asked Josh to give me one key sleep trick to live by, something that’s applicable to everyone regardless of their personal circumstances. “I bang on about routine because it is very important to long-term good sleep. But arguably more important is not to worry. One bad night doesn’t undo everything, so don’t panic. Short-term sleep blips are normal. The more you chase sleep, the harder it can be to find. Sleep thrives on rhythm not pressure.”

More wellbeing guides...

The benefits of exercise and mental health
Why am I always tired?
5 reasons you're waking up tired with no energy
What is burnout?
How much sleep do I need?
'I tried four ways to cut down on alcohol – here are the tactics I'd recommend'
You're not sleeping wrong, you're just overthinking it
Why stress makes you hungry
Best running hydration vests

What is burnout?

2025-06-11T12:21:52.000Z

What is burnout?

Burnout is a state of physical, mental and emotional exhaustion caused by long-term or severe stress. There are three main aspects that characterise burnout. These are:

feeling exhausted or lacking energy
being less effective professionally
feeling removed, cynical or negative towards work

In 2019 ‘burnout’ became recognised by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as an ‘occupational phenomenon’, but it is not classed as a medical condition.

What are the signs of burnout?

Common symptoms of burnout include:

Feeling tired or drained most of the time
Feeling helpless, trapped or defeated
Feeling detached or alone in the world
Having a cynical or negative outlook
Experiencing self-doubt
Procrastinating and taking longer to get things done
Feeling overwhelmed

There may also be physical symptoms such as:

Sleep disturbances or insomnia
Digestive issues
High blood pressure
Headaches
Poor memory or concentration
Weight loss or weight gain

Am I close to burnout?

It can be difficult to determine whether you’re on the brink of burnout but classic signs may include the development of bad habits, such as over-reliance on alcohol at the end of a hard day. There could also be a craving for sugary foods to get you through the afternoon, less motivation to exercise and feelings of constant tiredness and fatigue.

Other indicators include feeling under-valued, avoiding social connection and becoming more susceptible to disappointment. You may also feel that the quality of your work is beginning to slip.

Check out the Maslach Burnout Inventory for a more definitive opinion, based on a test designed to measure levels of burnout.

Can diet help burnout?

Our physical health influences our mental and emotional well-being, and vice versa, so a nutritious, balanced diet is a great foundation on which to build better coping techniques.

Start with these practical tips:

Eat a balanced diet

Make sure that you are getting all the necessary nutrients – and that the focus of your diet is on whole foods – rather than heavily processed options, like refined carbs and sugars.

Find out more about a balanced diet.

Stay hydrated

Hydration is the number one rule of nutrition because it plays an important role in both our physical and mental health.

Learn the top 5 health benefits to drinking water and the 10 best foods that help you to stay hydrated

Limit or avoid alcohol

Studies have shown a strong link between alcohol use and misuse and the incidence of burnout. If you find yourself relying on alcohol, seek professional advice.

Consider these strategies to cut down on alcohol.

Include more foods rich in omega-3 fats

A 2019 study found that omega-3 fatty acids helped reduce symptoms of occupational burnout, so be sure to include these foods regularly in your diet – here are our top 10 sources of omega-3.

If you need recipe inspiration, try our salmon stir-fry or plant-based chia pudding (for a plant-based dose of omega-3).

Dislike or are allergic to fish? Read our guide to get more of these healthy fats in your diet.

Boost your B vitamins

B vitamins may help relieve stress, promote better mood and, as a result, help you cope more effectively. Consider adding B-rich foods such as yeast extract (Marmite) to your everyday routine.

Find out more about B vitamins and the benefits of Marmite.

High five!

Get your five-a-day of fruit and vegetables – this means you’re more likely to get adequate vitamin C. Low levels are linked with high stress levels and burnout.

Learn more about vitamin C and the top healthiest sources of vitamin C.

Mighty magnesium

Known as the body’s natural relaxer, a magnesium-rich diet may help both the mind and body. Chronic stress can negatively affect the body’s magnesium levels, causing a deficiency. What’s more, a magnesium deficit is thought to increase the body’s susceptibility to stress.

Include plenty of magnesium-rich foods in your diet, perhaps pumpkin seed butter on rye & pumpkin seed crackers for a snack, or dark green leafy vegetables in a smoothie or soup.

What other coping strategies are there for burnout?

Making slight adjustments to your daily routine can promote relaxation or at least help to make you feel more cheerful. If you think you’re suffering from burnout, there are a number of self-help approaches you can try – consider these additional steps:

Reflect – take a moment to determine the cause of your exhaustion and overload
Set boundaries – consider the tasks and activities you need to do and prioritise. Be ready to say ‘no’ when necessary
Seek support – talk to friends, colleagues and family and help them to understand how you’re feeling
Be selfish – self-care is essential, so always put yourself first – this includes getting adequate sleep, including physical activity and engaging in activities that make you happy
Think outside the box – be prepared to try new things. Mindfulness techniques may help promote a new set of coping skills and, as a result, reduce the over-reliance on less favourable coping strategies

Don’t forget

You are not alone – a recent survey revealed that as many as nine in 10 adults experienced high stress or pressure over the last year. If symptoms continue, seek further professional help and guidance. Start with your GP; they may be able to advise you on appropriate therapies or refer you to a counsellor.

For more support and guidance, try these resources:

How to be mentally healthy at work
Half of work-related ill-health is down to stress, depression or anxiety

What to eat before an exam

2025-06-03T08:53:45.000Z

Having just started studying again in my late twenties, I am reminded of all the desperate ways we try to overload our brains when exams loom. Record cards, corkboards, exercise books, revision plans, mock tests and lots of sticky notes jostle for space, and while everyone's capacity for learning is different, there are practical things you can do to ensure your brain is ready to absorb all that information.

How to optimise your exam performance

Late nights, stress, missed meals and quick food fixes all play havoc with our ability to concentrate, absorb information and function properly. So, if you're in the midst of a revision frenzy, give yourself the very best chance with our top tips to optimise your performance.

In the lead up to the exam and on the day

Eat wisely in the lead up to an exam and on the day itself, and you’re more likely to fine-tune your problem-solving capabilities and enhance your overall performance.
Foods that supply a steady source of energy (known as low glycaemic foods) are ideal fuel sources for a hard-working brain, as are foods rich in essential micronutrients like zinc, iron and vitamin B12.
Don’t neglect your hydration levels either – water is essential for your brain cells to communicate. Even mild dehydration may slow the speed at which your brain processes information. The NHS recommends you drink around 1.2 litres (or six to eight glasses) of hydrating fluid a day, most of which should be water.

The night before the exam

The final piece to your exam strategy has to be a good night’s sleep – this improves your brain’s ability to adapt to inputs, which helps you learn better, process memories more accurately, and clear out the waste products more efficiently. Lack of sleep will make revising more difficult, and you'll be much more likely to reach for a sugary fix to get you through the learning lulls.
Practical strategies include warm milk and herbal teas before bed – these may have a sedative effect, while a carb-rich snack an hour or so before you head upstairs will clear the way for sleep-inducing amino acids to reach the brain.
Ditch your phone, tablet or laptop at least 30 minutes before bed.
If you must use these devices, ensure they are set to 'night shift mode' and avoid taking your tablet or phone to bed with you.
Rather than using your phone as an alarm, try an old-fashioned alarm clock or a body clock that wakes you gently with increasing light – this way, you won't be disturbed by incoming messages or tempted to go online if you wake up in the night.

Read our guide to getting a good night’s sleep for more suggestions to help you nod off.

Best foods to eat before an exam

From wholegrains, nuts and seeds to tomatoes and sage, make sure you're opting for brain-boosting foods. In the build-up to the big day, try out a few different foods so you know which ones make you feel your best. Here are our favourite foods to keep your brain well-oiled and your memory sharp:

Dark chocolate – thanks to its ability to improve blood flow to the brain, eating dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids) within 2 hours of your exam may help verbal memory and mood.
Eggs – one of the best dietary sources of choline, this little-talked-about nutrient is needed for the formation of cell membranes and for brain function, including all important memory.
Avocado – rich in healthy, mono-unsaturated fats, avocado is another useful food for promoting blood flow, this oxygenates the brain helping it work optimally, avocado is also rich in protective plant compounds that may boost brain function.
Oats – providing a steady source of energy that helps to power you through those long-cramming sessions and will keep your focus and concentration sharp on the day itself
Oily fish – studies suggest oily fish, like salmon, sardines and mackerel, may improve brain function and flexibility and help maintain your attention. Not a fish fan? Try chia seeds or flaxseeds.

Best energy-boosting breakfasts for exam day

How you fuel your body on exam day is critical to your success so fill up at breakfast on slow-release wholegrains like oats, these provide a steady supply of energy and don’t forget eggs, for that all-important recall.

Here are our five favourite pre-exam breakfasts and why they may help fuel you to success:

1. Poached eggs with smashed avocado & tomatoes

Designed to keep you full all morning, this breakfast provides a winning combination of carbs, protein and fats. With eggs for memory, avocado to support blood flow and wholemeal bread for a steady supply of fuel.

2. Banana oat pancakes

Who doesn’t love pancakes? The combination of oats with their slow-release energy as well as banana for its natural sweetness makes our pancakes perfect for energising you from the start of the morning until lunchtime.

3. Cinnamon porridge with baked bananas

Packed with fibre-rich oats and potassium-loaded bananas, this comforting porridge delivers sustained energy to keep your mind sharp and focused.

The addition of bio yogurt supports digestion and immune health, while a sprinkle of cinnamon adds a warming touch to this nourishing breakfast.

4. Cottage cheese pancakes

These protein-packed cottage cheese pancakes are made with porridge oats to provide slow-release energy, keeping you focused and full.

Top with fresh raspberries and blueberries for a natural boost of antioxidants, or a poached egg and roasted tomatoes for a savoury twist that fuels both body and mind.

5. Superfood scrambled eggs

Packed with brain-boosting ingredients, including salmon, pumpkin seeds, turmeric and eggs this is a breakfast of winners.

Is it good to have caffeine before exams?

A low to moderate amount of caffeine might be your secret weapon to exam success because it appears to boost your concentration and mood during sub-optimal times of the day, like early morning.

This may be helpful for those stressed out by their exams and especially if the exam is scheduled to take place in the morning.

Don’t forget though, caffeine is a stimulant to which we all react differently – this will depend on your genetic make-up and your age, so be sure to understand how you react to caffeine before adding it to your pre-exam routine.

Whether you’re drinking coffee, tea, caffeinated soft drinks or even hot chocolate, low doses of caffeine may make you feel more alert and mentally sharp.

Don’t be tempted to increase your caffeine intake to higher levels though – caffeine in excess may work against you causing agitation and anxiety as well as dizziness, tremors and an inability to sleep well.

This means you should avoid energy drinks because their caffeine levels are typically high (and much greater than the maximum 150mg caffeine per litre permitted for regular fizzy drinks), energy drinks are not suitable for children, young people and certain other groups.

Other tips for a strong performance

Swerve the sugar

Tempted to reach for something sweet to get you through? Sadly, that’s not the answer – the brain needs a steady and consistent source of energy to function optimally. The temporary high you'll get from sugary treats will be quickly followed by a crash in blood sugar levels, this is likely to lead to fatigue and muddled thinking.

So, ditch the sugar and prepare some tasty snacks instead – check out our healthy snacks including our lemon & coriander hummus and our healthy cookies, or enjoy blueberries, strawberries and other berries – they're full of vitamin C, which is thought to improve mental agility. Vitamin E and zinc are also believed to have a positive impact on the brain, so have a handful of pumpkin seeds or walnuts the next time hunger strikes.

Try these 10 healthy snacks you can make in minutes.

Stay calm

No matter how close your exam is, keep calm. Stress can have an adverse effect on your appetite and skipping meals or eating the wrong foods won't do your concentration any favours.

Discover our top diet and lifestyle tips to help manage your stress levels.

Keep active

Studies suggest physical activity promotes blood flow to the brain including the parts of the brain that control our thinking and memory. Keeping active also appears to help us be more creative and perform better academically. Even 20 minutes of exercise before you sit down to study may be enough to improve your concentration and help you focus on your learning.

Support your immunity

If you've been suffering from stress or sleepless nights or had a poor diet during revision, your immune system will likely need a helping hand. Avoid having your hard work scuppered by a cold or worse, instead be sure to fill your plate with the foods you need to stay well including fruit, vegetables and wholegrains.

Check out these immune-friendly recipes.

Enjoyed this? Now read…

How much sugar should children have?
Healthy eating: what school-aged children need
Healthy eating: What teenagers need
Top 5 foods to boost your child's brainpower
10 foods to boost your brainpower
Foods that improve memory

What are your top foodie tips for exam success? Leave a comment below...

This article was last reviewed on 26 April 2024 by Kerry Torrens.

All health content on bbcgoodfood.com is provided for general information only, and should not be treated as a substitute for the medical advice of your own doctor or any other health care professional. If you have any concerns about your general health, you should contact your local health care provider. See our website terms and conditions for more information.

How much sleep do I need?

2025-06-25T13:46:37.000Z

We spend about a third of our lives asleep, originally thought to be a passive activity, studies now show that when we’re asleep, our brain is engaged in a number of activities that have important implications for our health and well-being. This means sleep isn’t the absence of wakefulness, but an active and metabolically different state. As such, it needs to carry equal standing alongside balanced nutrition and adequate exercise as essential components for achieving and maintaining good health.

Discover our full range of health benefit guides, including how to sleep better and how to get to sleep.

What is sleep?

There are two main types of sleep that our brains cycle through: REM (rapid eye movement) and non-REM sleep. First, we’ll enter non-REM sleep, which typically involves four stages: the first occurs just as we doze off, the second is light sleep (when our body temperature drops and our breathing and heart rate regulate) and the third and fourth involve deep sleep. The majority of stages three and four takes place during the first third of the night, making the time you go to bed a really important factor for getting a good night’s rest.

Although we originally believed REM sleep, which occurs after stage four, to be the most important, research now suggests that the early stages of sleep are just as essential for learning, memory, restoration and repair. As we cycle into REM sleep, our eyes start to move rapidly behind our eyelids, and brain waves are similar to those when we are awake. Our breath rate increases and our body will become temporarily paralysed as we dream – if you wake during REM sleep, you’re 80% more likely to vividly recollect your dreams.

Sleep cycles repeat about four or five times during the night, but with progressively less time spent in the initial sleep stages and more time spent in REM sleep.

Why is sleep important?

If you’ve ever risen after a poor night’s sleep, you’ll be well aware of how it makes you feel: tired, irritable and with a less-than-clear-thinking brain. Getting a good night’s sleep is important to energise us through the following day, but also for our brain to work well as well as to process what happens to us.

A good night’s sleep improves our brain’s ability to adapt to inputs – it helps us learn better, process memories more accurately, develop young brains and perform biological ‘house-keeping’ tasks like clearing our brain's waste products more efficiently.

That said, a good night’s sleep doesn’t just impact how we learn and remember, it also has important consequences for our immune function, metabolism and hormonal balance. Poor sleep can make us more prone to infection and illness, disrupt our blood sugar balance and lead to high blood pressure, increase depressive states and make headaches and migraines worse.

The stages of deep sleep are especially important, because they enable the brain to process and file memories, deal with anxiety and initiate repair and restoration. Failure to do so has been associated with conditions like post-traumatic stress disorder.

How much sleep do I need?

How much sleep each of us needs depends on our own unique characteristics – including gender, genes, life stage – as well as environmental and behavioural factors. The following are guidelines and relevant for healthy individuals who do not suffer from a sleep disorder.

Children (three to five years): 10-13 hours regularly per night

For optimal health and to meet development needs, young children need to sleep for 10-13 hours – this includes daytime naps.

Children (six to 13 years): 9-12 hours regularly per night

Helping your child reach their guideline number of hours on a regular basis is associated with better outcomes, including improved attention, behaviour, learning, memory and emotional regulation. This may be partly explained by the fact that younger children spend a greater length of time in the deep sleep stages three and four.

Adolescents (14-17 years): 8-10 hours regularly per night

This group is one that is at risk of sleep deficits, that’s because they are more likely to be exposed to artificial light in the hours preceding bed; this, combined with the hormonal shifts of puberty, may predispose them towards an evening chronotype, making them less likely to benefit from morning daylight and the positive influences that has on circadian rhythms. Add to this the demands of a school timetable, and it’s easy to see how sleep deficits can arise. Sticking rigidly to a fixed bedtime, although likely to be unpopular, will support REM sleep.

Young adults (18-25 years): 7-9 hours regularly per night

Younger adults, similar to adolescents, may require more sleep, especially if they are recovering from sleep debt. They too may be influenced by late-night use of electronics, lack of physical activity and over-consumption of caffeine.

Adults (25-65 years): 7-8.5 hours regularly per night

Adults have the additional demands of work worries, social commitments and family dynamics to contend with – all of these may influence their ability to fall asleep and stay asleep. During our younger adulthood, fragmented sleep often involves waking from REM sleep; this tendency protects the important deep sleep stages. However, this protective mechanism declines with age, resulting in disturbances to non-REM sleep, too.

Older adults (from 65 years): 7-8.5 hours, regularly per night

As age increases, we find it harder to fall asleep and stay asleep. At this life stage, we may also experience a circadian shift towards a morning chronotype, which means earlier bed and rise times. For the elderly, sleep duration may appear good, but it tends to be sleep quality that is affected by frequent waking.

Is quality sleep more important than quantity?

Although we tend to focus on the amount of time we perceive we’ve been asleep, there are other relevant factors that determine how beneficial our sleep may be. By asking yourself the following questions you may help clarify just how restful your sleep is:

Efficiency – how much of the time in bed do you actually spend asleep?
Timing – are your bedtime and wake times appropriate to allow you to reach your recommended sleep time?
Consistency – is there any variability to your sleep from night to night?
Satisfaction – how rested and restored do you feel next morning?

In addition to this, your sleep quality will be dependent on adequately completing the required cycles and stages of sleep; this requires your brain to consolidate and organise the cycles satisfactorily across the night.

What are the downsides of getting too little or too much sleep?

Sleeping less than 7 hours regularly each night is associated with weight gain, obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke and depression. It’s also likely to increase our chances of illness, put us at greater risk of accidents, heighten the sensation of pain and result in poor physical and mental performance. This applies to children and young adults too; they are likely to experience decreased glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity, increased evening cortisol and disruptions to the hormones (ghrelin and leptin) that control appetite.

Growth hormone is released around the clock, but it is at night that it peaks, typically during the first 90 minutes of sleep. If we stay up late and delay sleep, we don’t experience the growth hormone peak that night – if we do this on a consistent basis, it may affect growth and development and result in decreased muscle mass and exercise capacity.

Sleeping too much can be just as damaging to our health, being associated with psychiatric illness, higher body mass index (BMI) and an increased risk of cardiovascular disease.

Is a sleep tracker helpful?

Fitness trackers and smartphone apps are increasingly popular – they assess sleep duration and, in some cases, sleep quality. The algorithms used on these devices are proprietary, and evidence suggests in some cases they may underestimate sleep disruptions and overestimate sleep duration and quality. That said, many users find them helpful because they highlight the importance of sleep and provide some form of indicative measure, although more guidance is needed as to how the information they collect may effectively be used.

Are blue light blocking glasses a worthwhile investment?

These glasses contain lenses designed to reduce the amount of blue light that reaches the eye. Some advocate that by reducing blue light, during the evening, you may promote restful sleep. Whilst the lenses, which typically have a yellowish tint to them, are effective at filtering blue light rays there is limited scientific evidence to support their use for the improvement of sleep.

Tips for a quality night of sleep

Creating the right environment and easing yourself towards restful sleep may make all the difference. Follow these tips to promote a relaxing night:

Try some sleep supportive foods
Have a warm bath leading up to (but not immediately before) bedtime – sleep is accompanied by a decrease in core body temperature, and warming up in the hours before bed appears to help promote sleep and improve its depth
Make your bedroom a quiet and relaxing space, and keep the room temperature at a comfortable 19-21C
Set a bedtime that is early enough for you to enjoy your recommended hours of sleep
What you wear in bed influences both how quickly you fall asleep and how deep the sleep you enjoy – at cooler temperatures (17C), wool nightwear works best, while at hotter room temperatures (22C), consider cotton

For more tips, check out our guide on improving sleep hygiene and for those who regularly experience problems check to determine whether your symptoms are classed as insomnia.

So, how much sleep do you need?

Sadly, there’s no magic number for the ideal duration of sleep – it depends on many factors unique to each and every one of us. Plus, a truly restorative slumber involves smoothly transitioning through the sleep cycles. This means the best measure has to be the amount of sleep that allows you to wake refreshed, well-rested and able to perform at your best the next day.

Now read:

The best sleep trackers reviewed
10 top tips to support your child's sleep
8 late night snacks for a healthier bedtime
Why am I always tired?
5 reasons you're waking up tired with no energy
Best sleep supplements
Best sleep trackers

Do you have trouble sleeping? What helps you nod off? Let us know in the comments below.

This page was reviewed on 14 April 2025 by Kerry Torrens.

All health content on goodfood.com is provided for general information only, and should not be treated as a substitute for the medical advice of your own doctor or any other healthcare professional. If you have any concerns about your general health, you should contact your local healthcare provider. See our website terms and conditions for more information.

I tried four ways to cut down on alcohol – here are the tactics I’d actually recommend

2025-05-16T12:02:20.000Z

Nine out of 10 of us are apparently looking to moderate our drinking, and this is one statistic I’m happy to accept without argument. Whether trying to organise a catch-up with friends or hearing about colleagues’ weekend plans, examples of abstinence abound. I’m starting to feel like a relic (a pickled one) around younger co-workers, and a bad example to my teenager. That’s not to say I’m permanently sozzled – far from it, as I’m a health editor! I’m generally within the guideline of 14 units, spread across the week. But, I’m also aware that ‘little and often’ can easily become ‘a bit more, a bit more often’, and in mid-life, there’s a lot that can drive you to drink. So, here’s how I approached reducing my intake, and just some of the 50 or so products from an ever-expanding market that I tried in the process.

Let’s address my main resentment about going alcohol-free right off the bat: it doesn’t save you any money. Considering the duty on a bottle of 12% ABV wine would be £2.66, the wine alternatives I most enjoyed were still costing £17. And, while a bottle of mid-range branded gin costs around £20 (of which £9 is duty), most of the 0% options I tried were also around the £20-25 mark.

This means that you need to be viewing these alternatives as a ‘treat’ in the same way you might look at a glass of wine with your dinner or Aperol spritz on an evening out. Choose something you can savour so it’s worth it, and serve it properly: chill, garnish, use plenty of ice – make it with as much care as you would if serving G&Ts at a dinner party. Just as with alcoholic drinks, they suffer if they’re lukewarm or mixed with cheap tonic.

With that as our starting point, here are the different approaches I tried for cutting my units:

1. Try to hang out with other non-drinkers

On nights with sober friends, the lack of alcohol was never an issue. When I was pregnant a decade or so ago, I was irritated by being in the pub and watching other people getting gradually sozzled when I wasn’t drinking. Maybe it had been the hormones, but more likely it’s that you don’t miss what you aren’t seeing! I was very happy to prop up the bar with abstinent friends and didn’t feel like I was missing out on anything.

We made the most of my new-found interest in booze-free options by trying out each others’ recommendations, an experiment that led me to discover a few new favourites (see below) as well as finally finding a drink I like that works with Japanese food. (Weirdly, that turned out to be a can of lemon soda, and I’d never have known that if my non-drinking hosts hadn’t made the suggestion.)

Going out late but not feeling rough the next day was the icing on the cake.

What worked for me:

Take a bottle of something interesting round to friends that you can all enjoy trying, and make the alcohol-free option central to proceedings.

Drinks to try:

The stunningly packaged Saicho jasmine sparkling tea (£19.50) makes a great dinner party gift. It looks fabulous, and the combination of sparkling green tea scented with jasmine blossom will have everyone intrigued.

Pathfinder was among the most recommended, even being enjoyed by committed drinkers, as it’s the most alcoholic-tasting of all the 0% ‘spirits’ I tried. It's reminiscent of a Martini Rosso with a dash of Campari. Other popular options among the Good Food teetotallers (which I’m also happy to vouch for) are Mother Root ginger aperitif, Infinite Session pale ales and Lyre’s amaretti for a sweet something at the end of the evening.

2. Give ‘zebra striping’ a go

Mentioned in several trend reports last year, zebra striping is when you alternate alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. I tried this at a big birthday party, in a pub that served a few alcohol-free beers. Although I was very good at buying myself a 0% pint on my rounds, I did find it tricky to request these (whether from lack of memory, fear of judgement or assumptions about my usual order) as often as I should have.

Having those few drinks, plus the general excitement of a big night out, also meant my motivation faltered – and by the time shots were being bought, any level of sobriety was a lost cause. However, at least a few alcohol-free drinks had been subbed in, so strictly speaking my total units for the evening were lower than they might have been. Just tell that to the next day’s hangover…

What worked:

Start on a 0% to quench your thirst and get you off to the right start. Otherwise, you might as well forget it!

Drinks to try:

If you’re in a bar or pub, you’ll be limited by what it offers. Guinness Zero is increasingly stocked and has more of a developed ‘mouthfeel’ than a lot of 0% lagers, so it tends to be my go-to. Big Drop’s Galactic milk stout is also very tasty, with various beers in the range available in big-chain pubs.

3. Go 'low' rather than 'no'

‘Coasting’ is an alternative to zebra striping – drinking mid-strength throughout the evening. It turns out I’ve been coasting for years without even realising it. My absolute favourite at-home beer is the Kernel table beer – a drink that loses nothing with its session-style 3% ABV. According to founder Evin O’Riordain, ‘it drinks like a beer should.' As well as the taste, I like the gentle buzz while not pushing it too hard for an evening in.

My current main objective, summer spent in the pub garden, has generally meant diluting full-strength drinks to make them less potent in the heat. Wine spritzers (white wine and soda) are refreshing in the sun, and I’m also partial to a lager shandy (lager and lemonade), even if it’s not the most fashionable option.

What worked:

This is undoubtably the easiest way to reduce units, albeit not cutting them as much as if you opted for 0% drinks. Low-alcohol options taste similar to their full-strength counterparts, so, if like me, you like the taste as well as the effects of alcohol, this is the way to start. It took me a while to understand that non-alcoholic alternatives often wouldn’t taste like I expected without that booze ‘kick’, so session or half-strength is your gateway drug to sobriety.

Drinks to try:

While most session beers tend to be around the 4% mark, if you’re mid-strength curious, 2-3% should be what you’re looking for. If you like Beavertown’s Neck Oil, its lower-strength Satellite (2.8% ABV) could be a winner. Small Beer also produces a range of tasty and award-winning ales and lagers at 2.1-2.6% ABV.

A revelation to me were mid-strength spirits, which I didn’t even know existed. Session Spirit London Dry is a 25% ABV gin (gin is usually around 40%), while Quarter Proof’s gin, tequila and vodka alternatives weigh in at 15% ABV. The former made a delicious G&T, while Quarter Proof tequila is great for spicy margaritas.

4. Try another mind-altering substance

As CBD drinks have become mainstream (Trip was recently the fastest-growing soft drink brand in the UK), manufacturers have explored other mood-enhancing and functional drinks that promise to deliver the buzz or relaxation benefits of alcohol.

SENTIA drinks, developed with former government ‘Drug Tsar’ Prof David Nutt, claims to harness a neurotransmitter known as GABA that moderates your nervous system to help you feel more relaxed and calm. ON beer is based on the same principle, and contains many of the same ‘adaptogens’, like ginseng, rhodiola and damiana.

What worked:

I’m not sure whether any of these magic ingredients had any effect on me – it’s more the vibe and company that make me feel sociable or relaxed.

Drinks to try:

The woody, citrussy, mellow Nightcap is a lovely drink to wind down with at the end of the day. Maybe it’s the valerian, lemon balm and hops inducing a calming effect, but I did sleep well after one of these.

Described as a ‘functional wine alternative’, I also enjoyed Three Spirit’s Spark (with caffeine, L-theanine and guayusa) and Sharp (electrolytes, amino acids and vitamin D).

Top 30 non-alcoholic drinks ideas
Non-alcoholic drinks collection
Mocktail recipes
What I discovered when I gave up drinking for a month

I was a UPF addict – here’s how I gave up my habit and what it did for my health

2025-05-08T11:20:58.000Z

As told to: Emily Burg

My name is Brian, and I’m an addict. Not to anything illegal or scandalous – unless you count ultra-processed food. While the rest of the world seems to be buzzing about gut-friendly ferments, Korean kimchi or avocado toast sprinkled with hemp seeds, I’ve remained blissfully devoted to the beige classics: fish fingers, potato smiley faces and anything breadcrumbed and oven-ready have been the staples of my life for as long as I can remember.

Why? It’s simple: they’re quick, familiar and taste good. After a long day at the office, the last thing I want to do is faff about with spices I can't pronounce or try to wash the smell of garlic off a chopping board. I’m not looking for a culinary adventure, I’m looking for dinner in under 20 minutes with minimal washing-up. Breaded chicken in the oven, a few microwaved peas for health, and I’m done. That’s a meal, isn’t it?

I don’t eat breakfast – extra time in bed trumps porridge every time. Lunch is usually hummus and pitta – it feels like the kind of thing a healthy person might eat, although admittedly it’s still beige. Then, dinner is where I go full comfort mode. On a good day, it’s smiley faces and fish fingers; on a lazier day, it might be a McDonald’s; and on a really lazy day, it’s both. I try not to think too hard about what that’s doing to my insides. Instead, I focus on the fact I’ve earned more than a few free meals thanks to the reward points. That counts for something, surely?

To be fair, my food world has expanded slightly in recent years. My list of go-to meals used to fit on one hand; now, I’m up to two. Pasta plays a vital role in the mix. And, when I go home, I’ll dive into my mum’s homemade lasagne, legendary roast dinners and breaded chicken cutlets. If someone else dares cook for me? I politely decline. If it didn’t come from my mum’s kitchen or the frozen aisle, I’m suspicious. Yes, I’m what some might generously describe as an oversized child – but I prefer to think of myself as loyal. Loyal to beige, loyal to Mum.

Time to change

You might assume the turning point came after a serious health scare. I'll admit, I’ve had a few that should’ve been wake-up calls: a cancer diagnosis in my early teens and, more recently, some mild nerve damage in my feet. With the latter, the doctors did tell me it was due to a lack of nutrients and I was told to add more fruit and veg to my diet. But, none of that really moved me. What finally convinced me to consider abandoning the comfort of smiley faces and fish fingers was my housemate. A friend since primary school, she looked me dead in the eye and said, “You couldn’t go a week without UPFs.” So, now I have to prove her wrong.

I’m not blind to the risks that maintaining a high-UPF diet has. The headlines around ultra-processed foods aren’t exactly comforting, with links to obesity, type-2 diabetes, heart disease and even certain cancers. Good Food has a great explainer on it all. But, while fear isn’t my primary motivator, I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to be slightly less of a medical mystery to my GP.

However, I am pretty terrified about taking on the challenge. I don’t like new foods and am, in many ways, a culinary coward. There’s a fair bit of mental gymnastics involved in convincing myself to try something that isn’t beige. Texture is a big issue, and so is anything with what I’d call ‘funky vibes’. I’ve dabbled with aubergine – a massive leap for me – but fermented cabbage that smells like it’s been left out in the sun (yes, kimchi, I’m still talking about you)? That’s not making it onto my plate anytime soon.

Then, there’s the cooking. You may have gathered by now that my cooking repertoire isn’t exactly extensive, unless you count heating an oven and tearing open a cardboard box. Swapping pittas and McDonald’s for actual meals means opening up a whole new world of kitchen admin: batch-cooking, meal prep, grocery lists and maybe even chopping vegetables – the horror!

I know I’ll need to grow up a bit and sacrifice some of my beloved lie-ins while accepting that not all meals come in microwavable trays. But if I can prove a smug housemate wrong and stop my toes from going numb in the process, it might just be worth it.

Going cold turkey (no Twizzlers)

Quitting UPFs would only work if I made it as simple as possible for myself. I decided to do all the work at once, then reap my reward throughout the week (and not leave any opening for a moment of weakness). So, I started with some intense prepping: a whole week’s meal plan, complete shopping list and a fridge full of ingredients I couldn’t ignore. If you’re even vaguely considering a similar shift, this would be my number-one tip: plan everything in advance, down to the last pepper. I cooked just two different dinners for the week (I know, but I did say that keeping it simple was key), both in big batches to maximise coverage and minimise effort. Then, I relied on good old Mummy for extra help (I understand others doing this challenge may not have the same luxury).

Dinner 1: a tomato & mascarpone risotto – creamy, comforting, and surprisingly adult
Dinner 2: pasta with my mum’s homemade tomato, courgette and aubergine sauce – not dissimilar to this hidden veg sauce – lovingly defrosted and stirred through by yours truly (does boiling water count as cooking?)
Dinner 3: homemade breaded cutlets with a green salad
Dinner 4: roast chicken with all the trimmings

Can you guess which meals were courtesy of my mother?

I’m still not a morning person, so breakfast was a compromise. For half the week, I grabbed a banana, and the for the other half, I repurposed my usual hummus, pitta and cucumber combo into sort of a light morning snack. Lunches were a mix of reheated leftovers and brave new adventures from the work canteen. Butter chicken was something of a new foray into spice for me.

In terms of challenges, my biggest downfall was, without question, being hungover. I’m in my 20s and I like socialising, but waking up with a sore head and a stomach crying out for greasy comfort food is the ultimate test of willpower – no salad comforts like a double cheeseburger.

But, despite that one wobble, I made it: no smileys, no beige, beige, beige. Just me, my Tupperware and a surprising amount of courgette.

A brand new me

Now that I’m a few weeks out from my great UPF detox, I can recognise that I actually learned something. Yes, a few ultra-processed bits have crept back into my routine (I’m only human), but nowhere near the levels they once were.

The biggest surprise was that I didn’t hate the cooking part. I’d always assumed meal prepping would be a nightmare of Tupperware lids and soggy spinach, but with a proper shopping list and a bit of planning, it wasn’t the faff I’d imagined. Dare I say, it was manageable. I even felt organised.

I haven’t turned into an adventurous eater overnight. I’m still sticking largely to what I know – mainly meals made by my mum – but I have incorporated a much better mix of food groups.

The biggest change is definitely the increase in fruit and veg. Before, they barely featured in my diet unless hidden inside something breaded. Now, I’m consciously trying to add more in. Even just that small shift has made a real difference.

I’ve found I’ve got way more energy throughout the day – the kind that lasts, not the quick burst you get after inhaling three chocolate bars and a pitta. That extra energy has helped me get back into swimming, which I’d fallen out of the habit of doing when I was feeling sluggish and lethargic. Now, after a long day at work, I have enough in the tank to head to the pool, and it’s been a great way to decompress. If you’re curious, check out the benefits of exercise and how it supports mental health.

So, I haven’t sworn off UPFs completely, but I’m eating with more balance. It’s not groundbreaking, but sometimes, the simple changes really do stick.

You’re not sleeping wrong – you’re just overthinking it

2025-06-25T13:46:45.000Z

We’re told sleep is as essential as diet and exercise, and it is. But the way we’ve been told to pursue it – like a perfect performance to be optimised and tracked – might be the very thing stopping us from sleeping well.

Next, discover diet changes which could improve your sleep, how to sleep better, how to get up early in the morning and read our review of the best magnesium supplements for sleep.

Are you really sleeping badly?

Let’s start here: your sleep isn’t broken. It’s human.

Sleep is not a fixed state – it’s a natural, fluctuating rhythm that reflects your life. You’ll sleep differently when you’re stressed, hormonal, recovering from illness or adjusting to shift work or travel. That’s not a problem. But today, many of us are worried about ordinary variations in sleep. When we have a disrupted night, we reach for a gadget, supplement or new routine, all while reinforcing the fear that something’s 'wrong'. In reality, the stress about your sleep might be doing more harm than the disrupted sleep itself.

What is good sleep?

It’s not about getting eight hours or ticking off a rigid bedtime checklist – sleep is working when you’re not thinking about it.

Good sleep means waking up feeling alert most days – not needing a nap at 10am or downing five coffees to get through. It doesn’t mean sleeping perfectly every night, it doesn’t mean never waking up, and it doesn’t mean you can’t function after a bad night.

The real goal? To have a system that's consistent and pressure-free so your body can do its job without you needing to 'try' to sleep.

Why snoozing is setting you back

The most powerful part of your sleep-wake system isn’t what happens at night, it’s what happens in the morning. That’s why pressing snooze or sleeping in at weekends can be such a sleep saboteur. When your wake-up time shifts, your circadian rhythm gets confused. The result? Less sleepiness at bedtime, fragmented sleep at night and a harder time waking up the next day.

Want to feel sleepy at the right time? Wake up at the same time – even after a poor night. Build your sleep drive, don’t baby it.

Sleep myths that need to go

You need eight hours: False – sleep need varies from person to person and from day to day. Some people thrive on six and a half hours, some need nine. What matters is how you feel, not the number on your tracker.
Phones ruin your sleep: True and false – yes, the light and stimulation can delay sleep if used at the wrong time, but banning screens can backfire, too. It's more helpful to create a meaningful wind-down period you enjoy, rather than forcing a no-phone policy you hate.
Blackout blinds are essential: They help, but here’s the twist – morning light is even more important. If you’re struggling with sleep or mood, getting bright light exposure soon after waking – whether natural or artificial – can be a gamechanger.

Do you have insomnia?

You can have poor sleep without having insomnia. So what’s the difference?

Insomnia is a persistent problem falling asleep, staying asleep or waking too early, despite having the chance to sleep. If it’s been going on for more than three months and it’s affecting your life, it may be a learned pattern in the brain. In this case, sleep tips won’t cut it – you need a full reset of your sleep system.

This is where CBT-I (cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia) comes in. It’s evidence-based, widely recommended by sleep experts and the NHS and works by training your body to build sleep pressure, reset your body clock and reduce sleep anxiety.

What to do if you’re struggling

If you’ve been having issues for a few weeks or more, don’t panic but stop trying to 'fix' your sleep by doing more. Often, that’s the trap.

Instead, focus on doing less, but doing it consistently. This includes:

Waking up at the same time every day (yes, weekends too)
Getting light within 30 minutes of waking
Being active during the day, even after a bad night
Letting go of pressure to sleep a certain number of hours
Not preparing for the next day right before bed
Creating wind-down space without the aim of making you sleep – just to lower stimulation
Avoiding lying in bed awake for hours – get up, reset and only return when sleepy

And most of all: don’t judge your day by your night. One rough night doesn’t define your sleep – it’s the consistency of your daytime behaviours that builds good sleep long-term.

So, what is the secret to good sleep?

Perfect sleep doesn’t exist. The pursuit of it – especially through fear, pressure, or rigid rules – often backfires. Instead, think of sleep like appetite: some days you’re hungrier than others, some days you sleep more, some days you don’t. That’s not failure, it’s being human. Don't track every toss and turn or fear every late bedtime. You just need to be consistent enough – and kind enough to yourself – to let your body get back to doing what it already knows how to do.

Now try...

Listen to Stephanie talk about sleep on the Good Food podcast
Best supplements for energy
Energy-boosting breakfast recipes
Health benefits of magnesium
How the food you eat affects your brain
Best sleep trackers

Stephanie Romiszewski is a leading sleep physiologist, director of The Sleepyhead Clinic, and creator of the internationally distributed BBC Maestro course Sleep Better. She has worked with institutions including Harvard Medical School doing studies for NASA, and the NHS. She founded re-sleep.com and sleepyheadclinic.co.uk. Known for her non-scaremongering, practical yet evidence-based approach to sleep, she helps people break free from insomnia without fear or perfectionism.

All health content on goodfood.com is provided for general information only, and should not be treated as a substitute for the medical advice of your own doctor or any other healthcare professional. If you have any concerns about your general health, you should contact your local healthcare provider. See our website terms and conditions for more information.

Why stress makes you hungry

2025-04-07T16:13:35.000Z

We eat sugary foods to celebrate good times, for a quick boost of energy or simply for a treat. But there is a negative emotion that may be driving some of us to consume sugary foods – stress.

Read more about stress, how it affects weight gain and tips for managing anxiety. Next read what is intuitive eating?

High-sugar treats such as chocolate, biscuits and cakes provide a welcome distraction from our cares and worries. However, according to Australian scientists, eating high-calorie comfort food when you’re under duress could be creating changes in your brain that make you eat more – which means an even sweeter sweet tooth than before!

One study found that mice, when stressed, didn’t feel full and continued to eat. “We showed that chronic stress, combined with a high-calorie diet, drives more food intake as well as a preference for sweet foods, thereby promoting weight gain” says Professor Herbert Herzog. This revealed that stress can override a natural brain response that diminishes the pleasure from eating, resulting in the brain being continuously rewarded the more and more we eat. So why is stress, sugar and comfort eating so intertwined? Nutritionist Jenna Hope explains all.

Why do we crave sugar when we’re stressed?

“When we eat high-fat and high-sugar foods, such as chocolate, it provides what’s known as a ‘hedonic’ effect,” she says. “This means that we feel good on these foods and rewarded by them, as a result while we’re eating these foods we’re not secreting as much of the stress hormone cortisol, so we feel calmer and the reward pathways in our brain are simulated making us feel good.”

Why do we tend to overeat when we’re comfort eating?

“When we’re stress-eating it’s harder to control the amount of food that we’re consuming. In a stressed state you’re likely to eat more and faster, and you’ll find yourself eating a biscuit, and then another one, and so on,” she explains. “The brain is saying ‘that feels good, I didn’t feel stressed while eating that’. The chances are that once you’ve stopped eating, you’ll feel stressed again and crave more sugar and more fat. The brain is telling you that is what made me feel calm before, let’s try that again."

In this way highly palatable foods are stimulating the reward pathways in the brain, making us want to eat more and promoting the compulsive behaviour involved in emotional over-eating.

Are there other ways that stress can make us hungry?

“Stress can have a negative impact on sleep, which, in turn, boosts appetite even more,” says Jenna. “If someone is going through a period of chronic stress, that impacts their sleep, the hunger hormone ghrelin increases, and they’ll feel hungrier. At the same time, leptin, the hormone that tells you when you’re full, decreases, so you need more food to get to the same level of fullness that you’d feel after a normal night’s sleep.”

How do you break the cycle of comfort eating?

“You can’t just tell yourself not to comfort eat. You need to first remind yourself of the physical signs of real, as opposed to emotional hunger – physical hunger comes on gradually, it usually starts with signs, like a rumbling tummy and a sense of emptiness. Next identify and log your eating triggers. A food diary or nutrition app can be helpful here – record the time of day, how you were feeling, what else was happening at the time and what you chose to eat and how much. Once you’ve created a picture of your comfort-eating triggers, look into activities that may help to distract and even relax you, this may serve to lower levels of the stress hormone, cortisol.

Behaviour modification that relieves stress which may be as simple as sitting with a cup of tea, going for a walk or doing five to 10 minutes of meditation, may help alleviate stress-eating. But it is worth saying that what works for you is likely to be highly personal.” she says.

Tips to manage stress eating

Check in with yourself – before responding to your ‘hunger’ cue check is it real, physical hunger or emotional hunger due to stress?
Identify the high-risk point in your day – studies suggest that for many of us this is the afternoon and evening. If this sounds familiar plan ahead and have healthier, prepared snacks to hand.
Find healthier options – if you crave sweet foods, slice up a sweet tasting apple (sweet varieties include Pink Lady or Jazz), and enjoy with nut butter or cottage cheese. If savoury is your thing, top oatcakes with hummus, marmite or cream cheese.
Portion up – instead of having access to a whole pack, portion snacks up in Tupperware boxes to help manage your intake.

Find more helpful tips to manage stress eating

Enjoyed this? Now read...

What is stress and how to reduce it
Stress relief: How diet and lifestyle can help
10 ways to reduce your portion size that won’t leave you hungry
10 ways to manage your appetite
What is burnout?

This page was reviewed on 26^th March 2025 by Kerry Torrens.

What’s the best time of day to eat?

2025-05-13T15:35:17.000Z

The old adage to breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dine like a pauper, may now be scientifically backed, but for most Brits dinnertime remains the biggest meal of the day. So how does eating your largest meal at night, and particularly when it’s close to bedtime, affect you? Read on to learn more.

Next, discover all you need to know about diets, including whether a low-fat diet is healthy, what makes the Mediterranean diet so good for you and a deep-dive into the keto diet. Plus, see our healthy recipes for weight loss.

How can the time I eat affect my weight?

According to recent research, eating the majority of our daily calories earlier in the day is better for us – preventing weight gain, stabilising blood sugar and reducing the time that blood sugar is above normal levels. Why should this be the case? Well, studies suggest that calories consumed at different points in the day may have different effects on our energy use and our circadian rhythm.

One of the reasons is that, as the day draws to a close, the body begins to release the sleep hormone, melatonin, which results in less insulin and affects our ability to digest sugars, like glucose.

Insulin has a circadian rhythm – levels are naturally higher in the morning and afternoon. This means that, for the majority of us, our bodies are better equipped to manage the glucose from digestion earlier in the day. What’s more, eating a large meal too close to when your body is shutting down to rest, may be a risk factor for chronic disease, including diabetes.

Consequently, skipping breakfast and eating a greater proportion of your calories later in the day is likely to encourage the body to store more fat, while snacking after dinner, has been seen to result in fat gain.

To put this to the test, researchers put 10 people with prediabetes and obesity into two groups, one restricting their calories to the first eight hours of the day, creating a fasting window out of the remaining 16 hours; the other eating 50 per cent of their daily calories after 4pm for seven days. They concluded that eating earlier has a range of benefits, including improving metabolic health and potentially preventing diabetes.

Consequently, consuming the majority of your calories at breakfast and lunch may make it easier to control your weight, avoid fat gain and lower your risk of diabetes, especially at mid-life. So, if you follow a fasting routine, how can you apply this knowledge?

What is fasting?

When we refer to ‘fasting’ we’re talking about the abstinence from all or some food and drink for a given period of time.

You may also see it referred to as ‘intermittent fasting’ or ‘time restricted eating’; both these terms suggest eating patterns that expand the amount of time your body is in a fasted state.

This state is achieved by reducing your ‘eating window,’ or the time during which you eat.

What are the health benefits of fasting?

Fasting appears to have several benefits including helping your body use stored body fat more easily; increasing the diversity and number of beneficial bacteria in the gut; and reducing some of the risk factors for heart disease such as high blood pressure and cholesterol.

Animal studies have shown that fasting may delay ageing and promote levels of human growth hormone, which plays an important role in the body’s repair mechanisms; and improve brain function, particularly in people with Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.

Learn the top 10 health benefits of fasting

Listen to the BBC Good Food podcast, fasting for weight loss; read more on healthy ways to lose belly fat and the dangers of abdominal fat

Is fasting safe for everyone?

Fasting should be avoided if you’re underweight, if you have or are recovering from an eating disorder, are pregnant or breastfeeding.

Before starting a new diet, speak to your GP, particularly if you’re under 18, elderly, have a pre-existing medical condition (including diabetes, high blood pressure, kidney stones, acid reflux) or are on medication.

For women of reproductive age, the timing of a fast may be best performed during the follicular (early) stage of the menstrual cycle.

Fasting diets compared

There are different ways to incorporate fasting into your daily or weekly plan.

The 5:2 diet

The 5:2 diet was created by the late doctor Michael Mosley in 2013.

The rules are simple: dieters eat ‘normally’ for most of the week but on two non-consecutive days they eat just 25 per cent of their usual calorie intake (500 calories for women and 600 for men). Women are expected to lose about 1lb a week, although men may lose more.

On ‘fasting’ days, people are advised to choose nutrient-dense foods such as lean protein including poultry and vegetables rather than calorie-counted ready meals, which aren’t as satisfying.

Some people report feeling tired, experiencing poor concentration, headaches and dizziness on fasting days so staying hydrated with water and herbal tea is important.

Learn about how to go on an anti-inflammatory diet

The 16:8 diet

Similar to the pattern of eating analysed by the researchers from NYU’s medical school in its study (see above), this is where the day’s eating is concentrated into an eight-hour window.

The Fast 800 diet

Another diet, originally created by Dr Michael Mosley, this regime is aimed at rapid weight loss and is not recommended for people who are underweight or have an eating disorder, are type 1 diabetics, have had a heart condition or are recovering from surgery or doing any endurance exercise.

In stage one, lasting between two and 12 weeks, participants eat 800 calories a day of lean protein and vegetables to prompt the body into ketosis, which burns fat.

In stage two, participants eat 800 calories for two days a week, following a low-carb Mediterranean diet for the remaining five days.

Stage three is the maintenance phase when participants continue with a low-sugar, Mediterranean-style of eating.

Side effects may include hunger pains, headaches and constipation and up to three litres of water is recommended a day to overcome tiredness.

Read more about what you can eat on the 800 fast diet.

So, when is the healthiest time to eat?

Starting your day by eating breakfast within two hours of waking and setting a curfew for nighttime meals and snacks may reduce hunger and help control your overall calorie intake. If you’re not hungry at breakfast, it may be that eating late in the evening is affecting your appetite – making changes may improve appetite first thing and bring numerous other health benefits, too.

Seven gadgets that can help you to reduce food waste

2025-06-02T12:34:04.000Z

As food lovers, we struggle to see ingredients and leftovers going to waste, so we're always looking for easy solutions that help us cut back on how much we throw away.

According to climate action charity WRAP, which is behind Food Waste Action Week, a staggering 10.7 million tonnes of food waste is generated in the UK every year, and while a chunk of that is produced by farms, manufacturers, restaurants and supermarkets, around 60 per cent of food waste comes from our own homes.

But as we hard as we try to keep track of use-by dates, repurpose leftovers and remember those items hidden at the back of the fridge, we could all do with a helping hand – and that's where the products listed below come in. These tools have been designed with reducing food waste in mind, to help you throw away less, save money on your grocery bills, and lower your carbon footprint in the process.

We've included some items that you'll be familiar with but perhaps haven't considered buying before, plus other unique gadgets that make it easier to store and repurpose your food more efficiently.

For further tips and to find out how the Good Food team uses up leftovers and spare ingredients from the Test Kitchen, read our guide on how to reduce food waste.

Seven gadgets that can help you to reduce food waste

Joseph Joseph FridgeStore™ clear rotating organiser

Available from Joseph Joseph (£20), Fenwick (£20)

If your fridge-freezer and cupboards are packed to the rafters with jars and bottles you don't use regularly, this clever multi-tiered turntable from Joseph Joseph will help you keep track what you have in stock. We've all made the mistake of buying a surplus of ingredients we didn't know we already had, but with this organiser, you'll have a better visibility of smaller items that are at risk of getting lost, like spices, pastes and condiments.

Available from:

Lakeland Fresh Stretch silicone onion pod

Available from Lakeland (£3.99)

For those dishes that require just half an onion, this pod from Lakeland will stop you reaching for the cling film and keep the other half fresh for your next recipe. The stretchy silicone top hugs around the onion half easily and releases when you twist the two parts of the pod in opposite directions. The pod is also freezer-safe, and once you've emptied it, you can pop it in the dishwasher. For other produce, Lakeland also sells a lemon pod, avocado pod and cheese pod.

Available from:

Lakeland (£3.99)

Zwilling Fresh and Save vacuum food storage

Available from Zwilling (£89.95)

Regular storage containers do a pretty good job of preserving food, but this clever vacuum-sealing set from German cookware Zwilling goes the extra mile. Using an automatic vacuum pump and specially designed containers, it's able to extract the air from each box and bag in seconds, so the contents stay fresher for even longer.

Available in small and medium sizes, the seven-piece set includes the vacuum pump, plus two borosilicate glass containers and two reusable BPA-free bags that are microwave and freezer-safe. If you pair it with the Zwilling Culinary World app (via the QR code on the lids), you can also track how long your food has been stored for, receive reminders and discover new recipes.

Available from:

Zwilling (£89.95)

Judge spaghetti measure

Available from Harts of Stur (£1.96), Judge (£4), Amazon (£4.99)

Pre-portioning your ingredients with a set of kitchen scales is perhaps one of the most obvious tips for reducing food waste, but for an even speedier hack when cooking spaghetti, there's this budget handheld tool from Judge, which allows you to measure out one to four portions so you serve consistent amounts every time. It's dishwasher-safe and easy to store too.

Available from:

OXO Good Grips herb keeper

Available from Amazon (£38.30)

Not all of us have the space to grow our own fresh herbs, so if you rely on packets or small pots from the supermarket, you'll know the struggle of scrambling to use them up before they start to wilt. This nifty storage container, which is part of the OXO Good Grips range, is ideal for keeping herbs like coriander, dill, chives, thyme and rosemary ultra-fresh, as well as tall vegetables like celery sticks, spring onions and asparagus.

On the front of the container, there's a fill line to indicate how much water you need and a ventilated basket that allows air to circulate, plus a hinged lid so you can access the contents easily. The dishwasher-safe basket also has a hook on the back, so you can hang it on the inside of your fridge door.

Available from:

Amazon (£38.30)

Ninja Blast portable blender

Available from Very (£39), Amazon (£39), Ninja (£39.99), Currys (£39.99)

A blender is a great way to use up fruit and veg that's a little past its best, as you can blitz ingredients into smoothies, sauces and pesto. This portable model from Ninja is ideal for small kitchens without much storage space, and in test produced smooth, consistent results in just 30 seconds.

It comes with a 530ml blending cup, a sip lid with a handle, cup cover, blade cover, and USB-C rechargeable motor base and charging cord. The lid is designed to be leak-proof, too, so you can pop it in your bag and take it on the go.

Available from:

Lomi kitchen composter

Available from Lakeland (£399.99)

Making compost from food waste that would have otherwise gone to landfill is relatively straightforward, but often takes time and can get a bit smelly. This gadget, which is good-looking enough to sit on the countertop, speeds up the process significantly without using up lots of energy, while reducing nasty food odours in the process.

In our experience it has some trouble breaking down seeds, but otherwise does solid job handling most types of household food waste (leftovers, fruit skins and so on), garden waste, scraps of paper and more – producing what it calls 'Lomi Earth', which is a bit like fertiliser, in as little as four hours.

Available from:

Lakeland (£399.99)

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More on reducing food waste

Good Food podcast: Max La Manna on tackling food waste
How to reduce food waste
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Zero-waste recipes for every day
The Good Food sustainability glossary
How to waste fewer potatoes
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These are the safer alternatives to mouth taping, according to experts

2025-03-13T12:34:20.000Z

Mouth taping is the latest health hack on every wellness influencer’s lips. The idea is as simple as it is strange: you tape your mouth shut overnight so that you’ll be forced to breathe through your nose while you sleep. Advocates of mouth taping say this can reduce apnoea and snoring, increase oxygen intake and stave off bad breath – but these claims are dubious.

The mouth taping trend has been spurred on by a slew of celebrity endorsements. Erling Haaland, the Manchester City and Norway footballer, recommended the practice during a podcast interview. Ever the trendsetter Gwyneth Paltrow wrote that mouth taping is “probably the single best wellness tool I have found recently” in an Instagram post from 2022.

Look up ‘mouth taping’ on TikTok or Instagram and you’ll find thousands of people with their mouths taped shut, ready for a night of nasal breathing. Google search interest in ‘mouth taping’ doubled in just a month at the start of the year, and the practice has been covered by dozens of major UK publications since then.

Ultimately, none of this hype around mouth taping can tell us anything reliable about its health effects. We spoke to Dr Annabel Nickol, a consultant in respiratory medicine who leads the Sleep and Ventilation service at Oxford University Hospitals, and Professor Vik Veer, head of sleep surgery at the Royal National ENT Hospital, to get their expert takes.

Does mouth taping work?

You can find endless anecdotal accounts of mouth taping’s health benefits on social media. However, its effectiveness is not well supported by scientific evidence.

“Mouth taping is an interesting idea but we don’t have science and data to say it works,” says Annabel.

“There are publications about mouth-taping that are interesting but which have been based on small sample sizes of people and would be considered low-quality because the participants are not randomised.

“Even in these cases, the impact of the intervention is small,” she adds.

Annabel points to a preliminary study into the impact of mouth-taping in mouth-breathers with mild obstructive sleep apnoea as typical of the existing research into mouth taping.

“The subjects were studied with mouths taped or not taped,” she says.

“The incidence of apnoea or snoring events was low before taping – about 8.3 per hour – and that went down to 4.7 per hour when mouth tape was used. However, that might just have been because the subjects had their mouths taped, so they didn’t sleep well. I’m not rubbishing the study but there were factors that could’ve confounded the findings.”

Not only are the health outcomes of mouth taping shakily established, some online sources misrepresent its basic function.

“You might have seen posts on social media claiming that mouth taping increases the amount of oxygen in your system but it doesn’t really do that,” says Vik.

“Above all, what it does is make you breathe through your nose during sleep.

“Breathing through your nose slowly increases the carbon dioxide in your system, which makes the body slightly more acidic. This causes the nose and lungs to open up, shrinking some of the nasal passages (called turbinates) that can swell up due to allergies or illnesses like the common cold.”

Is mouth taping dangerous?

Based on our interviews with medical professionals we would not encourage anyone to take up mouth taping. The practice is potentially unsafe and there are better-established, trusted treatments that can deliver the intended benefits of mouth taping.

“Mouth taping is not necessarily safe,” advises Annabel.

“Covering the airway could be dangerous if for some reason you can’t breathe through your nose during sleep. If you vomited that would be really dangerous.”

According to Vik the risks could be greater for people who have certain common nasal conditions.

“Mouth taping is potentially unsafe because difficulty breathing through the nose can stem from factors such as a deviated septum – where bones and cartilage are twisted – or nasal polyps,” he says.

“If one of these issues is present you’ll really struggle to breathe nasally with your mouth taped.”

Here’s what you should be doing instead of mouth taping

One of the most commonly promoted benefits of mouth taping is a reduction in snoring and sleep apnoea. It’s important to understand what causes these conditions and which established treatments are available.

“When we go to sleep our muscles relax, including the airway,” Annabel explains.

“The airway muscles narrow and vibrate, and when the airway closes this pauses breathing. Sleep lightens, we make a big effort to breathe and this can wake us up.

“We are all on a spectrum of airway obstruction, from snoring a little to sleep apnoea. People with significant sleep apnoea are massively impacted, with daytime sleepiness, grumpiness and impaired cognition. It can impact their work, wellbeing and relationships.”

For Annabel the solution to sleep apnoea doesn’t start on TikTok but with assessment by a medical professional.

“If you have symptoms of obstructive sleep apnoea you would need to go to a sleep specialist with a referral from your GP and use measures that are proven to work,” she says.

“One thing to think about if you have obstructive sleep apnoea or snoring is weight loss.”

Being overweight or obese can worsen snoring or sleep apnoea due to the build-up of body fat in the neck, which can naturally constrict the airway. Following a weight-loss diet or doing more exercise could prove a far better solution than mouth taping, providing wide-ranging health benefits.

In some cases, sleep apnoea does require medical intervention.

“The best remedy is a CPAP (continuous positive air pressure) machine which gently puffs air up the nose and keeps the airway open,” says Annabel.

“Another option is mandibular advancement, which is done with a device that goes into the mouth, pulls the lower jaw forward relative to the upper jaw and opens the airway. This is proven to work in high-quality trials with randomised participants.”

Vik generally does not recommend mouth taping but he believes it might be useful as a short-term measure for patients who have recently had a procedure such as correction of a deviated septum.

“Mouth taping could potentially help people in this situation readapt to breathing through their nose during sleep,” he says.

“Generally, it’s very hard to get back into the habit of doing this if you’ve been breathing through your mouth previously.

“It often takes about six weeks of mouth taping (or using a chin strap or cervical collar which is slightly safer) to rehabituate to breathing through your nose again during sleep. After this 'training' period you can ditch the tape and sleep without all these aids.”

Another purported benefit of mouth taping is reducing the problem of bad breath. Some simpler solutions to this complaint include staying hydrated and keeping on top of your oral hygiene.

Concerned about sleep apnoea? Find comprehensive information via the Sleep Apnoea Trust.

All health content on bbcgoodfood.com is provided for general information only, and should not be treated as a substitute for the medical advice of your own doctor or any other health care professional. If you have any concerns about your general health, you should contact your local health care provider. See our website terms and conditions for more information.

How to sleep better

2025-06-25T13:47:23.000Z

Did you sleep well last night? If not, then the chances are you're feeling lethargic and low in mood, both of which can affect your productivity and your overall health.

Next, read how to get up early in the morning, find out the importance of a morning routine and why you're always tired.

Why do we need sleep?

Sleep is essential for both our physical and mental well-being. Not only does adequate sleep improve our focus and concentration, it also promotes healing and reduces our risk of a number of health conditions. For example, studies have found a relationship between the quantity and quality of our sleep with health problems, such as type II diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease and depression. What's more, a lack of sleep is believed to suppress the immune system, leaving us vulnerable to infections and may increase appetite, potentially contributing to weight gain.

New research suggests that problems with sleep may impact the way we process memories. The 2024 study found that poor sleep affected the brain’s ability to ‘file away’ intrusive memories, this persistent ability to access these unsettling memories is thought to contribute to anxiety and may lead to post-traumatic stress disorder.

How many hours of sleep do you need?

Although seven hours is usually cited as the ideal, there is no magic number. We tend to need slightly less sleep as we age, but it varies by individual. You may function best on seven hours a night, while someone else may need nine or as few as four to lead a happy, productive life.

12 ways to improve your sleep

A disrupted night’s sleep can be caused by a number of factors, including heightened stress, poor diet and irregular sleeping habits. Below, you'll find practical steps to help improve your sleep routine, promote a more restful night and get you feeling better.

1. Drink a glass of warm milk before bed

It's not just an old wives' tale, dairy contains proteins whey and casein which rich in the amino acid tryptophan. This plays a key role in the production of sleep-inducing brain chemicals, serotonin and melatonin.

2. Top up your tryptophan

Other foods that contain useful amounts of tryptophan are oats, bananas, chicken, turkey, eggs, peanuts and tuna, so try to include these in your meals when you can.

3. Mighty minerals

Magnesium and calcium work together to help calm the body and relax muscles. A lack of these minerals may cause you to wake up during the night, and make returning to sleep difficult. Interestingly, insomnia is one of the main symptoms of magnesium deficiency. If you're struggling to sleep, try eating more magnesium-rich foods, such as spinach, nuts, seeds, fish and wholegrains.

Restless leg syndrome refers to the constant urge to move your legs accompanied by a tingling sensation that can disrupt sleep. It's often experienced at night and may indicate that you're low on iron. If this sounds familiar, speak to your GP – it is important to check your iron levels before taking supplements.

4. Choose a wholegrain, carb-rich snack before bed

Snacking on a few oatcakes or a bowl of low-sugar cereal an hour before bed stimulates the release of insulin. This helps to clear any amino acids that compete with tryptophan, and allows more tryptophan to enter the brain where it helps to produce sleep-inducing hormones.

5. Sip on herbal tea

A warm, soothing cup of camomile, passion flower or valerian tea may have a sedative effect, encourage feelings of relaxation and rest, and improve sleep quality.

6. Implement a relaxing bedtime routine

To help your body and mind switch off, have a warm bath, do some gentle yoga or read a book rather than watch TV. Try to go to bed around the same time every night and get up at the same hour in the morning as this will help set your body clock.

7. Find time for exercise – just not before bed

Getting outside, especially first thing in the morning and for enough time during the day, may help you sleep more soundly. This is because exercise produces endorphins which lift our mood and increases metabolism. Exposing yourself to bright light first thing helps to set your circadian clock, enhances alertness during the day and promotes sleep at night. However, you should avoid exercise last thing though as it produces stimulants that stop the brain from relaxing.

8. Make sure your bedroom is neither too hot or too cold

Our body temperature has its own day to night rhythm. At night, it usually cools down to signal that it's time for sleep. If you're too hot or too cold, your body may struggle to relax and your sleep will likely be disrupted.

9. Stop late-night scrolling

When it’s dark, your brain secretes melatonin, helping you to fall asleep. However, the blue light from your phone may restrict the amount of melatonin produced, and the action of scrolling is thought to be stimulatory and likely to keep you awake. Put your phone away at least 30 minutes before you retire to bed to help your body switch off naturally.

10. Keep an eye on your sugar intake

Eating too much sugar can cause your energy levels to spike and crash throughout the day, and make it difficult to sleep at night. This is because your body uses magnesium – a vital sleep-inducing mineral – to process sugar. What's more, if you're feeling low in energy after a bad night's sleep, you may reach for sugary foods to give yourself a boost and that is only likely to make the problem worse. Try to choose a healthy low-sugar, high-fibre cereal for breakfast instead of one that's full of the sweet stuff.

11. Eat your evening meal earlier

The act of eating pushes up the body’s core temperature, and this can disrupt sleep. So, try to eat your evening meal at least three to four hours before going to bed.

12. Gradually reduce caffeine

Have your last caffeinated drink no later than midday – this is because the time taken for the body to eliminate caffeine is roughly five to six hours. Instead sip on decaf coffee or caffeine-free tea, such as rooibos. And don’t forget other drinks like energy drinks and even cold remedies may contain caffeine.

What to avoid for a better night's sleep

Eating high amounts of starchy or fatty foods, or very refined, sugary foods places a higher demands on your digestive system which means you're likely to feel sluggish and lethargic.
Avoid pork, chocolate, aubergines, tomatoes, potatoes and wine near bedtime as these foods are rich in an amino acid called tyramine, which the body converts to noradrenaline, a brain stimulant.
Although a couple of drinks may help you to drift off to sleep, too much alcohol decreases the REM sleep we all need and disrupts the body’s natural rhythms. Alcohol also causes blood sugar levels to drop, so you may wake in the middle of the night. Alcohol is also dehydrating so you are likely to wake feeling thirsty.
Say no to an after-dinner espresso or late-night cuppa. The stimulant effect of caffeine reaches its peak one to four hours after it's consumed, but some people may feel its effects up to 12 hours later. Some over-the-counter cold and headache remedies are also high in caffeine.
Nicotine acts as a stimulant, this means those who smoke or vape are likely to take longer to fall asleep and are more likely to suffer with sleep problems.

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This page was reviewed on 10th February 2025 by Kerry Torrens.

Kerry Torrens BSc. (Hons) PgCert MBANT is a Registered Nutritionist with a post graduate diploma in Personalised Nutrition & Nutritional Therapy. She is a member of the British Association for Nutrition and Lifestyle Medicine (BANT) and a member of the Guild of Food Writers. Over the last 15 years she has been a contributing author to a number of nutritional and cookery publications including Good Food. Find her on Instagram at @kerry_torrens_nutrition_

All health content on goodfood.com is provided for general information only, and should not be treated as a substitute for the medical advice of your own doctor or any other healthcare professional. If you have any concerns about your general health, you should contact your local healthcare provider. See our website terms and conditions for more information.

10 ways to be the healthiest version of yourself

2025-04-07T14:39:21.000Z

When we're feeling good in ourselves we sleep well, find it easy to stay focused, we make healthier food choices and get ourselves moving. When we're not, we feel out of balance, stressed and anxious, often reaching for foods which are more about the sugary energy hit than nutrition. Unfortunately, this cycle can be hard to break – leaving us feeling stuck in an unhealthy rut.

Below, we've outlined 10 key ways to improve your health and wellbeing, to help you mentally and physically thrive. We've covered sleep, supplements, essential nutrients and exercise. You'll notice there is no mention of weight, and that's because there is so much more to feeling good than how much we weigh, yet this has become the benchmark to measure how healthy we are. Leave that in the past and start nourishing your body from the inside out – you'll soon notice the benefits.

Next, read how to get more active, how to eat to feel more energetic and be inspired to get cooking with our most popular healthy recipes.

1. Feed your brain

The brain is the most complex part of the human body, it's a key player in learning and memory, emotion, touch and movement. A well nourished brain supports good cognitive function and memory, reduces brain fog and positively impacts our mental health and emotional wellbeing. It also reduces the risk of conditions such as dementia and Alzheimer's.

Eating a wide variety of fruit and vegetables provides vitamins, minerals and antioxidants that help to nourish the brain and protect it from damage known as oxidative stress.

There are certain foods which enhance brain function. Oily fish provide essential omega-3 fatty acids which are vital for brain development and function. Wholegrains offer a steady supply of glucose for sustained energy, while blueberries contain powerful antioxidants that may improve memory and reduce stress. Nuts and seeds, rich in vitamin E and zinc, help protect brain cells, and leafy greens like broccoli provide vitamin K, which supports cognitive function. Staying hydrated and consuming a variety of these nutrient-dense foods can help keep the brain sharp and resilient.

Research calls out the Mediterranean diet for its benefits to brain health. This involves eating a diet rich in fruit, vegetables, wholegrains, nuts, seeds and healthy oils and fats. This diet is believed to help slow the rate of cognitive decline, lower the risk of cognitive impairment and potentially reduce the risk of dementia.

So, next time you're thinking about what to eat, consider if your meal feeds your brain. Get started with our nutritious Mediterranean diet recipes.

Discover our best brain-boosting recipes and read up on the best foods for enhancing memory.

2. Nourish your gut

Your gut is home to trillions of bacteria, and everything we eat and drink influences this delicate ecosystem. As well as how we manage stress, how much we exercise, and even our genetics.

A healthy gut supports everything from our immunity, metabolism and digestion, to the way we absorb nutrients and our overall mood. If your gut is out of balance, you're likely to experience symptoms including bloating, constipation and diarrhoea, unintentional weight changes and skin conditions, such as eczema. In serious cases, symptoms may indicate irritable bowl disease (IBS).

A diet rich in fibre, probiotics, and prebiotics can help support a healthy gut. Fermented foods such as yogurt, kefir, sauerkraut, kimchi, and miso provide beneficial bacteria, while fibre-rich foods like wholegrains, legumes, fruits, and vegetables nourish gut microbes.

To improve your gut health, as well as adding more fermented food to your diet, you could try reducing stress levels, limiting your intake of sugar and alcohol, cutting back on ultra processed foods and exercising more.

Read the top foods for better digestion and see our gut-friendly recipes.

3. Eat carbs but make sure they're wholegrain

Over the years, carbohydrates have developed a bad reputation for being unhealthy – but that is far from the case. They are one of the three essential macronutrients, which means we need them to function, along with protein and fat. Carbs provide the body with glucose, which fuels our muscles and brain. In fact, carbs are the body’s main source of energy. For this reason, it's important that you don't remove them from your diet.

Carbohydrates can be classified into simple and complex varieties. Complex carbohydrates – such as wholegrains, legumes, and fibre-rich vegetables—offer a slower, sustained release of energy. However, refined carbohydrates such as white bread and pastries are not so nutritious. These are rapidly digested and absorbed, causing spikes in blood sugar levels, which can lead to energy spikes and crashes, and eventually leave you craving more carb-heavy foods.

Over time, excessive consumption of refined carbohydrates has been linked to increased risk of type 2 diabetes and other metabolic disorders.

Remember, while low-carb and ketogenic diets are popular for weight loss, these extreme ways of eating are unsustainable, and any weight loss is usually regained once you eat carbs again. So, be sure not to cut out carbs all together, but choose unrefined versions when you can.

See our energy-boosting recipes for breakfast and dinner.

4. Pack in the plants

Eating a diverse range of plant foods can significantly improve your health as they are rich in fibre, vitamins and minerals. This supports good gut health and digestion, boosts the immune system, and reduces the risk of chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes.

Many experts believe you should be aiming for 30 plant foods a day but this can feel overwhelming to some. The key here is diversity – don't just eat the same plants with every meal, you're looking to get as many different nutrients as you can. Also, be sure to eat a colourful rainbow of plants and look out for foods with a deep red, blue or purple colour. This means they are rich in protective antioxidants called anthocyanins, which are known to reduce inflammation.

Some nutritious plant foods to include in your diet are spinach, lentils, chickpeas, walnuts, blueberries, tomatoes, oats, black beans, and flaxseeds. Olive oil, black coffee, red wine, spices, herbs and dark chocolate also provide plenty of health benefits.

Try our healthy, colourful recipes and recipes for a plant-based diet.

5. Prioritise protein

Protein is a macronutrient that plays a crucial role in the body's growth, repair, and maintenance.

Eating enough protein helps you feel full and satisfied after a meal, so you won't find yourself reaching for sugary snacks. Not only is protein key for building muscle after exercise, it helps maintain muscle mass as we age, this is particularly important for women during the menopause.

If you are not consuming enough protein, you may experience brittle hair and nails, frequent infections, muscle weakness and feel constantly tired.

Be sure to include high-quality protein foods in your diet such as lean meats, fish, eggs, dairy products, legumes, nuts, seeds, and plant-based options like tofu and hemp seeds. Combining different protein sources, especially for those on a plant-based diet, can help ensure you hit your required amount.

Check out our high-protein recipes and high-protein vegan meals.

6. Understand the impact of sugar

It's not news that sugar is bad for you. We know consuming too much leads to rapid spikes and crashes in blood sugar levels, which causes energy slumps, irritability, and only leaves us craving more sugar. Sugar also provides ‘empty’ calories, meaning it lacks essential nutrients and may cause weight gain.

The scary truth is that even if you think you're making smart choices when it comes to sugar, this may not be the case. Many of the processed foods we eat have added or hidden sugars under names including corn syrup, date syrup, fructose and sucrose. Make sure you check the labels when buying everything from from soups, cereals and fruit yogurts, to bread and pasta sauce. If your favourite foods do contain added sugars, you don't have to cut them out entirely, simply cut back and be mindful of your intake.

If you suffer from sugar cravings, make sure your meals are rich in protein, fibre, and healthy fats. If you don't, your body will crave more quick-release energy in the form of sugary foods. Additionally, drinking water, getting enough sleep, and managing stress can be useful tools. Replacing sugary snacks with whole foods such as nuts, yoghurt, and fruit can also help break the cycle of sugar dependence. This way you'll still get the beneficial nutrients, vitamins, and minerals.

See our low-sugar recipes and find out if you should swap sugar for honey.

7. Find the workout for you – and stick to it

You might be someone who exercises regularly, with a workout routine that you enjoy, in which case keep going! Exercise is excellent for our mental health and physical health.

However, that's not all of us. Some people struggle to find an exercise they enjoy enough to stick to it long term. Don't be disheartened, there are lots of ways you can incorporate activity into your life. If running isn't for you, try walking part of your commute to work – start slow and build up to 30 minutes or more of brisk walking. If HIIT sessions are too much, try pilates, yoga or swimming for a low impact workout. If you have a bike at home, try cycling laps round your local park to build up leg strength.

Regular activity helps maintain a healthy weight, strengthens muscles and bones, and reduces the risk of heart disease and some cancers. It also improves cardiovascular health and boosts energy levels. Mentally, exercise has been shown to reduce stress, anxiety and symptoms of depression by promoting the release of endorphins, often referred to as "feel-good" hormones. Additionally, it enhances cognitive function, improves sleep, and supports brain health.

Really, any movement is good if you're doing it consistently. By incorporating exercise into your life, you'll notice improvements to your health and happiness.

Read more about how to reach and maintain a healthy weight.

8. Consider a supplement

Supplements give your health a boost by filling any nutritional gaps in your diet, so that your body can function. While a balanced diet should always be the first port of call, certain individuals, such as those with dietary restrictions, like vegans, or with increased nutritional needs, like during pregnancy, may benefit from a supplement.

There are various types of supplements, including vitamins, minerals, pre and probiotics and protein powders, all with their own benefits. Vitamin D, for example, is crucial for bone health and immune function – if you live in the UK you're likely not getting enough. Collagen supplements support skin elasticity, joint health, and muscle repair, making them popular among those looking to maintain youthful skin and joint mobility. Additionally, magnesium plays a key role in muscle function, energy production and sleep.

If you're experiencing signs which suggest a deficiency, such as brain fog, poor immunity or digestive issues, speak to your doctor. They will advise on which supplement you may need. Remember, while supplements can be useful, they should complement a healthy diet rather than replace whole foods.

Read our reviews of the best supplements to buy.

9. Focus on fats

Fat, like carbohydrates and protein, is a macronutrient needed by the body to build cell membranes, make nerve tissue and aids the absorption of fat-soluble nutrients, such as vitamin D.

Although eating too much fat can be unhealthy, there are certain types of fat we should focus on because they’re essential to health. These include mono-unsaturated fats which are found in olive oil, nuts and avocados. As well as omega-3 fatty acids – a type of polyunsaturated fat – which is plentiful in oily fish like salmon and sardines, as well as chia and flaxseeds. They’re considered good for heart health and balancing cholesterol levels. Both play important roles, supporting the heart, brain and our hormonal health.

To up the healthy fats in your diet, you can start by including at least two portions of fish in your meals each week, one of which should be an oily variety.

See our healthy fish recipes.

10. Crack your sleep

Don't let poor sleep get the best of you. It's been linked to increased stress, anxiety, and depression, as well as impaired concentration and decision-making abilities. It also supports immune function, regulates metabolism and maintains hormonal balance.

If you're sleeping badly, it's going to be hard to stick to your other health goals. So, make sleep a priority and crack the code to getting a good night's rest.

Try to establish a consistent bedtime routine, avoid caffeine in the afternoon, and limit screen time before bed, as the blue light emitted by devices can interfere with melatonin production. Additionally, practice relaxation techniques as meditation, deep breathing, or reading a book before bed can help signal to the body that it is time to wind down.

Certain foods, such as those rich in tryptophan – found in dairy, oats and bananas – can aid sleep by promoting the production of serotonin and melatonin.

Sleep supplements may provide additional support. Magnesium, known for its muscle-relaxing properties, can help calm the nervous system and improve sleep quality, while valerian root and passionflower have been traditionally used to promote relaxation and reduce anxiety.

Find out why you're waking up tired with no energy and how to wake up early in the morning.

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All health content on goodfood.com is provided for general information only, and should not be treated as a substitute for the medical advice of your own doctor or any other healthcare professional. If you have any concerns about your general health, you should contact your local healthcare provider. See our website terms and conditions for more information.

5 diet changes to improve your sleep

2025-06-25T13:47:32.000Z

Sleep is essential for our health and wellbeing, yet many people struggle with getting enough quality rest. While factors such as stress and lifestyle play a role, diet can also significantly impact our sleep quality.

Getting a good night’s sleep is important to energise us through the day and helps our brain to function, it also impacts our immune system, metabolism and hormonal balance. Poor sleep can make us more prone to illness, disrupt our blood sugar balance and lead to high blood pressure, make headaches and migraines worse, and even lead to feelings of depression or low mood.

The good news is, there are some foods you can eat which help regulate sleep hormones, promote relaxation, and prevent disruptions during the night. By making a few simple dietary changes, you can enhance your ability to fall asleep and stay asleep.

Read on to find out the diet changes which could improve sleep. Next, read up on how to sleep better, how to get up early in the morning, and how to get to sleep.

1. Eat more magnesium-rich foods

Magnesium is a mineral known for its calming properties, helping to relax muscles and quieten the nervous system, as well as supporting the production of sleep-inducing neurotransmitters. So it's no surprise that a deficiency in magnesium has been linked to insomnia and restless sleep. To boost your intake, incorporate foods such as spinach, nuts, seeds, wholegrains and oily fish into your diet.

Try our tomato & spinach kitchari or curried spinach chickpeas with eggs.

2. Consume more tryptophan-containing foods

Tryptophan is an essential amino acid that the body converts into serotonin and melatonin, both of which are needed for sleep. Foods rich in tryptophan include yogurt, cheese, oats, eggs, bananas and peanuts. Eating these foods, particularly in combination with carbohydrates, can enhance tryptophan absorption and promote better sleep.

Give it a go with peanut butter & date oat pots or baked banana porridge.

3. Reduce caffeine and sugar intake

Caffeine is a strong stimulant that can interfere with sleep, especially if consumed in the afternoon or evening. If you're struggling with sleep, try to limit coffee, tea and caffeinated soft drinks after midday. Similarly, high sugar consumption can cause blood sugar fluctuations, leading to energy spikes and crashes that may disrupt sleep. Opt for balanced meals with protein, healthy fats and fibre to maintain stable energy levels throughout the day.

Puy lentils with seared salmon is a great balanced meal, while red lentil chilli with guacamole is a good source of fibre and fat.

4. Eat your evening meal earlier

Eating a large meal too close to bedtime can interfere with sleep by increasing body temperature and causing digestive discomfort. Ideally, dinner should be consumed at least three to four hours before bedtime. This allows the body sufficient time to digest food, reducing the likelihood of acid reflux or indigestion disrupting sleep. If you're someone who often craves a late-night snack, be sure to choose healthier options, such as almond butter spread on a slice of wholemeal toast or apple slices.

Check out our light dinner recipes, including teriyaki tofu with rice and broccoli.

5. Sip on herbal teas

Certain herbal teas have natural sedative properties that can promote relaxation and improve sleep. Chamomile, valerian root, and passionflower teas are particularly beneficial due to their calming effects on the nervous system. Drinking a warm cup of herbal tea in the evening can serve as a soothing bedtime ritual to help you unwind and prepare for sleep.

Make your own lemon & ginger tea or fresh mint tea.

So, how can what you eat improve your sleep?

Making small changes to your diet is likely to have a noticeable impact on how you sleep. By increasing your intake of magnesium and tryptophan, reducing caffeine and sugar, eating earlier in the evening, and drinking herbal teas, you should be able to get a good night's rest. Consistency is key—adopting these habits as part of your daily routine will help regulate your sleep patterns and improve overall wellbeing. If sleep issues persist despite dietary adjustments, you might want to consult a healthcare professional for further guidance.

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10 budget 'superfood' swaps

2025-02-21T11:22:57.000Z

View Green Video on the source website

There’s no need to splash the cash to pack goodness into your meals. With the help of our expert nutritionist, we've compiled a list of everyday ingredients that make budget-friendly swaps for trendy but expensive ‘superfoods’. Our choices are generally just as nutritious – if not even better for you – than voguish and pricey powders or berries!

You can’t fail to have noticed the cost of your weekly food shop escalate. So, if your wallet is feeling the pinch, why not take pomegranate seeds and coconut oil off your shopping list and choose our pound-saving alternatives instead?

Discover our top tips for healthy eating on a budget, guide to cheap and healthy cooking, most nutritious cheap foods and top budget dinners.

What is a ‘superfood’?

Most of us consider a ‘superfood’ to be one that’s packed with nutrients and provides plenty of health benefits. Widely used as a marketing tool, the term ‘superfood’ is used to persuade us that certain foods are superior to others. The truth is, no single food will make a diet healthy or counteract the effects of an unhealthy lifestyle. What’s more, many ‘superfoods’ don’t live up to their marketing straplines anyway. Instead, look at the overall balance of your diet and make it as varied and stuffed with nutrients as possible.

Why not start by checking out our thrifty alternatives for some of the pricier but popular ‘superfoods’?

1. Swap wheatgrass for spring greens

What is wheatgrass?

Wheatgrass is a popular health food and typically consumed fresh as a juice or purchased as a powder and added to smoothies, sauces or dressings. The fresh young leaves of the Triticum Aestivum grass, as wheatgrass is officially known, are loaded with chlorophyll, vitamins A, C, E and K, minerals and plant compounds, such as flavonoids. The grass also contains amino acids, the building blocks of protein, which we need for growth and repair.

Swap for: spring greens

This alternative young, leafy green promises not to break the bank yet is similarly rich in chlorophyll, provides minerals like iron as well as vitamins A, C, E and K. Like wheatgrass, spring greens contain beta-carotenes, including lutein and zeaxanthin which are famed for promoting skin and eye health.

An extra bonus is that these young leaves also contain the natural plant compounds sulforaphane and indoles. A growing body of evidence suggests these compounds have a significant anti-cancer action, are anti-inflammatory and may help protect against heart disease and stroke.

Shop smart:

Buy spring greens as a whole head rather than the pricier, ready prepared version. Add them to a smoothie or try them in our spring greens with lemon dressing and our Indian spiced greens.

2. Swap maca root for broccoli

What is maca root?

Maca is a cruciferous vegetable and native to the Andean region of Peru; in its whole form it looks a little like a pale-coloured radish. Used as a supplement, maca root is typically available in powder, liquid or capsule form. It is rich in fibre, contributes a wide range of amino acids, plus vitamin C and the minerals copper, iron and calcium. Although evidence is scant, maca is often taken for its perceived improvements to reproductive health and its energising properties.

Swap for: broccoli

Broccoli comes from the same cruciferous family of vegetables as maca (as do cauliflower and cabbage). As well as vitamin C, calcium, iron and copper, broccoli is also a useful source of folate. Like many of its cruciferous relatives, it is rich in anti-cancer compounds and when included regularly in the diet may help balance hormones, most notably oestrogen. Like maca, broccoli may support your energy levels through its action on the beneficial bacteria that reside in the gut.

Shop smart:

Broccoli bought loose tends to be cheaper than the cellophane-wrapped alternative. For a slightly pricier alternative – but still much cheaper than maca – choose purple sprouting broccoli. Studies suggest it contains higher levels of anti-cancer compounds, protective flavonoids and vitamin C.

Try our herby broccoli or make it one of the hero ingredients of a main meal with our barley & broccoli risotto with lemon and basil.

3. Swap pomegranate for beetroot

What is pomegranate?

A round fruit with a hard, shiny red skin, hidden inside is a mass of jewel-like seeds, known as arils. These seeds are either eaten raw or juiced – as a juice it provides better antioxidant protection than either red wine or green tea.

These health accolades are down to powerful plant compounds which include anthocyanins; it’s these that are responsible for pomegranate’s protective and anti-inflammatory properties including its heart-friendly effects on blood pressure and cholesterol levels.

Swap for: beetroot

This familiar root vegetable is also rich in plant compounds including a family of pigments called betalains, as well as nitrates. It’s these that make beetroot so helpful, protecting us from the damaging effects of day-to-day stressors and helping to regulate blood pressure and circulation. Like pomegranate, beetroot is a source of fibre and vitamin C but it provides more heart-friendly potassium and folate. The leaves can be added to a salad and make a useful contribution of vitamin K.

Shop smart:

Buy loose, with the leaves intact if possible. Try our recipe for these bright pink beetroot falafels and fill up on heart-friendly folate and nitrates.

4. Swap goji berries for dried cranberries

What are goji berries?

Also known as wolfberries, these tiny red berries are native to Asia and have an unusual sweet-sour taste and chewy texture. They are most often purchased in dried or powdered form and are famed for their protective properties, which are said to slow the signs of ageing, support eye health and strengthen immunity.

Providing a useful source of fibre, goji berries contribute iron, potassium as well as vitamins A and C. Unusually for a berry, they are a complete source of protein which means they supply all nine of the essential amino acids we need for growth and repair.

Swap for: dried cranberries

Like their superfood alternative, these bright red berries are rich in protective antioxidants, including anthocyanins, which are good for the heart and have anti-ageing properties. Cranberries contain carotenoids, including beta-carotene, which the body converts to vitamin A for healthy skin, eyes and a strong immune system. They also provide lycopene, which may help protect the skin from UV damage and are a useful source of iron, potassium and vitamin C.

Shop smart:

Look for unsweetened, dried cranberries to snack on, or try our Persian-inspired cranberry, sprout & pecan pilaf.

5. Swap coconut oil for butter or ghee

What is coconut oil?

Although coconut oil is popular as a ‘health’ food, some of the claims associated with it are controversial. Extracted from the kernel of mature coconuts, there are two main types of coconut oil – refined and virgin coconut oil. Both have similar fatty acid profiles, however the virgin oil contains higher amounts of nutrients such as vitamin E as well as plant compounds, including polyphenols.

Much of the publicity around coconut oil centres on its fat composition and, in particular, the primary fatty acid found in this oil: lauric acid. Lauric acid is classed as a medium-chain fatty acid (MCT), a type that is easily converted to energy, making it less likely to be stored in the body as fat. That said, more recent studies suggest lauric acid behaves as both a medium- and long-chain fatty acid, meaning the evidence relating to the benefits of MCTs in their pure form may not be as applicable to coconut oil as we once thought.

Swap for: butter or ghee

Although butter has long been considered an unhealthy option because of its saturated fat content, more recent evidence suggests dairy foods may not be as harmful as we have been led to believe.

In fact, with 63% saturated fat compared to coconut oil’s 92%, butter contributes less saturates. It also supplies some of the useful MCT fats that coconut oil is famed for, although at lower levels. It has another distinct advantage: butter contains butyrate, a short-chain fatty acid that may have the power to improve gut health, prevent disease and regulate the immune system. Butter also provides a wider range of vitamins: as well as vitamin E it is a good source of vitamins A and D.

Having had the milk solids removed, ghee is a more concentrated fat source than butter. Its low level of moisture combined with the higher saturated fat content (approximately 66%) gives ghee its high smoke point and long shelf life. Like coconut oil, ghee is free of lactose and the milk protein casein, making it a suitable option for those with lactose intolerance or a milk allergy.

Don’t forget that, like all fats, these should still be consumed in moderation.

Shop smart:

Be sure to buy ghee made from butter not vegetable oils, the latter may be considerably cheaper but won’t offer you the same benefits. Try our buttered sweetcorn & squash recipe for a delicious side.

6. Swap chia for flaxseeds

What are chia seeds?

These are the edible seeds of a flowering plant and a member of the mint family. Despite their tiny size, they are loaded with fibre, protein and are a useful plant source of omega-3 fatty acids. In fact, the fibre content of chia outweighs many other healthy foods including beans, figs and plums. Chia seeds also contain a range of minerals including zinc, iron and calcium, vitamins including the B group and they offer protective, anti-inflammatory and potentially anti-cancer properties.

Swap for: flaxseeds

Also known as linseeds, these are the golden seeds of the flax plant. Although they don’t quite match the fibre contribution of chia seeds, they are still an excellent source compared to many other foods. Like chia they are a valuable plant source of omega-3 fatty acids as well as minerals including zinc, iron and calcium. They are a richer source of folate and potassium and contribute slightly more protein than chia seeds.

Another bonus is that flaxseeds are one of the richest sources of phyto-oestrogens in the form of lignans; these compounds have been studied for their cancer protective properties as well as their value for women transitioning through menopause.

Shop smart:

Buy whole flaxseeds because they will store for longer. Start the day well with our apple & linseed porridge.

7. Swap quinoa for millet

What is quinoa?

Although actually the seeds of the amaranth plant, quinoa is typically used as a grain. It is gluten free and a useful source of fibre, B vitamins and minerals including the bone-strengthening ones like phosphorus, calcium and magnesium. It is also a complete plant source of protein, meaning it supplies all nine essential amino acids.

Swap for: millet

These are the seeds of a cereal grass. Like quinoa, millet is gluten free and a good source of the B group of vitamins. It is especially rich in vitamin B3, which is important for energy production and blood sugar control. These little seeds provide more fibre and are a richer source of phosphorus than quinoa. However, they are not a complete source of protein so combine with lentils or beans to compensate for this.

Shop smart:

Make your millet last longer by storing in an airtight container, in a cool, dark store cupboard or pantry. And enjoy our delicious millet porridge every morning.

8. Swap açaí for blackberries

What are açaí berries?

These small dark-coloured berries grow in the Amazon rain forests. They are rich in protective plant compounds including resveratrol and anthocyanins, both of which are anti-inflammatory and may protect against age-related conditions like heart disease and diabetes.

Loaded with fibre, vitamin A and manganese, açaí berries are also a useful source of iron and calcium. The ripe berries are typically pulped and freeze dried and available as either a purée or powder.

Swap for: blackberries

Like açaí, they are a rich source of protective plant compounds including anthocyanins (which are responsible for their deep purple colour as well as many of their health benefits). Packed with vitamins A, C and K, as well as manganese – a mineral that we need for strong bones and a healthy immune system – blackberries are also a valuable source of fibre, like açaí.

Shop smart:

In season blackberries can be foraged for free from the hedgerows; buy frozen at other times of year. Whether it’s your first meal of the day or the last, we’ve got you covered – check out our pear, nut & blackberry bircher and our pan-fried venison & blackberry sauce.

9. Swap baobab for dried mango

What is baobab?

Known as the ‘tree of life’ in its native Africa, baobab fruit are found inside hard pods that hang upside-down from the tree. The pulp of the fruit is especially rich in vitamins, including vitamins C and the B group, as well as the minerals iron, zinc, potassium and calcium.

Baobab has a sour taste so tends to be blended with other ingredients to create a tangy flavour. It is typically available to buy as a supplementary powder and is often added to yogurt, breakfast cereals, juices, smoothies and herbal tea. The powder may also be added to baked goods.

Swap for: dried mango

Mango is a useful source of protective antioxidants including plant compounds called polyphenols, as well as carotenoids. Dried mango is a source of vitamin C and folate and makes a valuable contribution to your fibre intake. Mango is also available as a ground powder called amchur or amchoor, a popular addition to Indian cooking. An added bonus to using the dried mango powder is that, when eaten with grains, it appears to increase our uptake of minerals, including iron and zinc.

Shop smart:

Look for unsweetened, dried mango. ‘Chunks’ of dried mango are often cheaper than the larger slices or strips. Or you can try dried mango powder (amchoor) in our tasty curry.

10. Swap spirulina for spinach

What is spirulina?

An algae grown naturally in mineral-rich waters, spirulina is purchased as a dark-green, supplementary powder. It is said to be nature’s richest and most complete source of nutrition, making it hard to substitute. Nutritionally, it’s rich in minerals, most notably potassium, which helps promote heart health and fluid balance. It also provides vitamins including the B group, vitamins C and E and many as-yet-unexplored plant compounds.

Swap for: spinach

Available in its fresh, frozen or dried form, this green leaf is from the same family as quinoa. Rich in chlorophyll, leafy greens like spinach are recognised as having substantial health-promoting properties. It has a diverse nutritional profile which includes vitamins like A, C, E and K, and minerals including potassium and calcium. Beyond its basic nutrition, spinach is rich in plant compounds that promote energy production and heart health.

Shop smart:

Frozen, chopped spinach is usually the cheapest way to buy these greens. When buying fresh, look for bright greens leaves with no yellow or wilting leaves. Give them a go in our delicious soup or smoothie.

Enjoyed this? Now read…

What is the cheapest healthy diet?
Is organic food healthier?
Top tips for healthy eating on a budget
Top 10 healthy budget dinners

Kerry Torrens is a qualified Nutritionist (MBANT) with a post-graduate diploma in personalised nutrition & nutritional therapy. She is a member of the British Association for Nutrition and Lifestyle Medicine (BANT) and a member of the Guild of Food Writers. Over the last 15 years she has been a contributing author to a number of nutritional and cookery publications including Good Food.

What is water-based cooking – and why it's better for you

2025-02-13T13:06:55.000Z

Water-based cooking sounds like a complicated technique involving sous vide machines and water baths. But the great news is that many of us are already doing plenty of it: steaming, boiling and poaching are all some of the classic ways you can cook with water.

These tried and tested methods have been around for centuries across lots of cultures, so why is water-based cooking (WBC) now having a moment in the health spotlight? And is it worth increasing your repertoire to focus more on these techniques?

Why is everyone talking about water-based cooking?

The number of people searching for WBC or methods for cooking with water has slowly increased over the past year, but the trend really took off at the end of 2024. Some of this was thanks to food influencers on Instagram making recipes like puris – which are normally deep fried in hot oil – in boiling water.

And some of it was down to the ‘air fryer effect’; as calorie-conscious cooks started to learn more about how to make their favourite fried foods without using so much oil, they started searching for other ways to create these dishes.

But WBC has more benefits for your wellbeing than simply reducing the amount of oil you use.

The health benefits of water-based cooking

Steaming, boiling, braising or poaching your food all have their own benefits.

Steaming your vegetables helps preserve vital vitamins and minerals. If you're poaching your veggies in a broth (for instance if making a ramen) then you're also making sure you're not losing any nutrients. Delicate proteins (especially fish) work particularly well poached, and this method can also help them absorb subtle flavours if they're poached in a sauce.

Braising is a technique that involves flash frying meat in a bit of oil, to lock in the flavour, then simmered for some time in a sealed pot in stock, wine or another liquid. Think of a classic lamb tagine or a beef casserole. It is ideal for tougher (and often cheaper) cuts of meat because they're cooked for longer than frying or roasting. And adding vegetables means you also increase the nutritional value of the dish. Again, cooking the vegetables in the body of the stew means the majority of the nutrients will stay in the dish rather than being discarded after boiling.

Boiling vegetables isn’t usually recommended by nutritionists as this can leach out water-soluble vitamins like vitamin C into the cooking water. However, boiling – like these other water-based methods – does avoid using much fat, so food cooked in this way contains far fewer calories than if you pan-fried it.

All these WBC methods have one other major health benefit in common too; they significantly reduce – or even eliminate – the production of advanced glycation end-products. Read more about these somewhat controversial compounds below…

What are advanced glycation end-products?

Advanced glycation end-products (AGEs) are produced when you fry, air-fry, roast, grill or barbecue your food, and have been linked to a number of harmful conditions.

They are created when fats or proteins interact with sugars and are usually formed when food is cooked at high temperatures, particularly dry heat, during something called the Maillard or browning reaction. Processed foods, high in fat and sugar, are a major source of AGEs.

We do produce AGEs naturally, and our bodies can normally clear them away, but when they start to build up – largely thanks to consuming too many in our diet – they may become a problem.

Research now shows AGEs may be behind a number of health issues including diabetes, heart disease, cancer, kidney disease, obesity, dementia and conditions affecting fertility, like polycystic ovary syndrome.

So, how can we reduce the number of AGEs in our diet? Cutting down the amount of ultra-processed foods we eat is one of the best solutions. But changing the way we cook our food can also help.

Scientists have discovered that ‘moist’ WBC methods can all significantly cut the production of AGEs in our meals. This is because they stop the Maillard reaction from happening that, in turn, reduces the number of AGEs we consume.

Should you switch to water-based cooking?

If you are concerned about the formation of AGEs in your food, switching to WBC methods like steaming or poaching can allay some of those fears. But you don’t have to give up grilling or barbecuing altogether.

One study found marinating meat in acid, such as lemon juice or vinegar, can significantly reduce the amount of AGEs produced. The beef in this study was marinated for an hour, but there’s some evidence that marinating meat for as little as 10 minutes can still reduce the number of AGEs created during ‘dry’ heat methods.

WBC techniques do have a number of health benefits including the reduction of AGEs, preserving nutrients and using less fat. But they’re also historic cooking methods used to produce delicious and satisfying dishes, all around the world. Fragrant curries, hearty stews, poached fruit puddings and South-East Asian soups are all made with WBC.

If you do want to try more WBC, do it for the recipes and not just the health benefits. Following a balanced diet, which includes a mixture of different foods and cooking techniques, will be a lot easier to stick to and much more exciting to eat.

All health content on goodfood.com is provided for general information only, and should not be treated as a substitute for the medical advice of your own doctor or any other healthcare professional. If you have any concerns about your general health, you should contact your local healthcare provider. See our website terms and conditions for more information.

Why your ‘mouth microbiome’ is the new ‘gut health’

2025-02-13T13:11:12.000Z

By far the leading health and wellbeing trend of 2024 was gut health. Last year, our gut microbiome truly took the spotlight as more of us looked to better our bodies through our gut. In fact, the global digestive health product market was estimated to be worth around US$51.46bn in 2024, and predicted to grow exponentially within the next decade – surpassing the $100bn mark.

And while there are plenty of great reasons to focus on good gut bacteria, there’s another key microbiome in your body that’s being overshadowed – but could be just as important – your oral microbiome. More and more interest is shifting towards the microbiome of our mouth, the second most diverse microbial community in the body.

“The oral microbiome is a crucial element of our overall health. With over 700 species of bacteria in the mouth, maintaining a balanced microbiome is essential, not just for fresh breath and healthy gums, but for our overall wellbeing starting from the inside,” explains Dan Clarke, Nutritional Development Lead at Holland & Barrett, which featured the oral microbiome in its 2025 Wellness Trends report.

“Research continues to highlight the links between oral health and key areas like gut health, brain function, metabolic health, and immunity. Just as we’ve embraced the importance of our gut microbiome, consumers are now recognising the need to care for their mouths in the same way.”

But what actually is your oral microbiome, and how important is it to your overall health? We unpack one of 2025’s biggest health trends.

What is the oral microbiome?

The oral microbiome is the name given to the diverse community of microorganisms that live in your mouth – around 700 different varieties – comprising of bacteria, fungi, viruses and protozoa. But before you start making a panic appointment with your dentist, it’s completely normal to have all of this going on in your mouth and is in fact considered essential for maintaining good oral health.

“The bacteria in the mouth are one of the first points of immune defence that we have,” says registered nutritionist Michaella Mazzoni. “It also helps to support your teeth from decay, cavities and disease. Interestingly, gum health is linked to heart health, so taking care of your oral microbiome eventually leads to supporting your heart health, too!”

Our mouth has a whole host of varied surfaces and environments where microbes thrive, like our teeth where plaque forms, the textured surface of our tongue, our gums, our cheeks and even our saliva. And a healthy oral microbiome is key to all of this, so when it becomes imbalanced it can cause a whole host of issues.

An easy way to figure out if your oral microbiome is out of kilter is to look at whether you’re a person that suffers with things like chronic bad breath, frequent tooth cavities, sore gums, dry mouth and increased sensitive teeth.

How important is a healthy mouth for your overall health?

Like our gut, the oral microbiome is closely linked to various bodily systems, so when bacteria in our mouth are out of balance, it can rear its ugly head in other ways across the body.

Starting with the obvious, a healthy oral microbiome can help prevent oral diseases like gingivitis, periodontitis and cavities, Mazzoni tells us. “An imbalanced oral microbiome can lead to inflammation, an overgrowth of pathogenetic bacteria and increased acid which can contribute to tooth decay,” she says.

A healthy oral microbiome can also impact how your body processes food, after all digestion begins in your mouth. Poor oral health can reduce enzyme production, which are important in your saliva to help break down food. Plus, if your teeth aren’t healthy, chewing becomes less effective, which makes digestion harder for the stomach and intestines.

“Properly chewing your food stimulates digestion before your food even reaches your stomach. If you aren’t chewing your food properly, it is harder to digest them which can lead to nutrient deficiencies and bloating,” adds Mazzoni.

The connection between your gut health and your oral microbiome shouldn’t be overlooked either. Studies have explored the intricate relationship between the oral and gut microbiomes and have found that they are directly connected and can influence one another. One way this happens is when unhealthy bacteria from the mouth enters the gut when mixed with saliva and swallowed. When your immune system detects harmful bacteria from the mouth in your gut, it can cause inflammation. This long-term inflammation can be linked to heart disease, diabetes and digestive problems.

How to improve the health of your oral microbiome

Thankfully, we all have control over the health of our oral microbiome, and if it’s out of balance, there are things you can do to counteract that.

“In order to maintain healthy teeth and gums, it’s vital to brush your teeth twice a day with a fluoride toothpaste. Your toothbrush should clean one tooth at a time, but this can vary depending on the size of your teeth or toothbrush,” advises Dr Sam Jethwa, President at The British Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry. “Focus on one tooth for around three to five seconds. Once you have brushed the outside surface of the tooth, repeat from the inside of the mouth. So many people do not realise how important it is to brush their teeth from the inside of the mouth, not just the outside. Gently direct your brush along the gum line, tongue and roof of the mouth, too. You should brush your teeth for around two minutes.”

Your diet is important here, too. Fibre-rich foods and probiotics like yoghurt, kimchi and kefir all feed good bacteria. “Foods rich in fibre also help to stimulate saliva production which helps break down carbohydrates,” adds Mazzoni. This is important as many bacteria feed on carbs, especially simple sugars, and when bacteria break down these sugars, they produce acid which lowers the pH levels of your mouth and weakens enamel. This also means that limiting the amount of sugar, processed foods and alcohol you consume can also help.

Studies have also shown that saliva neutralises acids and washes away bacteria, so staying hydrated is key to good saliva production, while chewing sugar-free gum can also be a boost.

Finally, let’s not forget our good old friend cortisol. Stress raises our cortisol levels, which weakens our immune function and allows bad bacteria to thrive, while studies have found that poor sleep weakens our oral immunity, leaving us more prone to infections. So, you can add good oral microbiome to the list of what good sleep and lack of stress can do.

In short, six things to help with your oral microbiome:

Brush and floss daily
Eat fibre and probiotic-rich foods
Avoid excess sugar, processed foods and alcohol
Stay hydrated
Reduce stress and sleep better
Ensure regular visits to your dentist

Is your mouth the key to future good health?

While we all understand the importance of good oral hygiene, it’s not just about aesthetics and bad breath. There’s a reason why at your dentist appointment, they’re looking for signs of gum disease, mouth cancer and other indicators of poor health. Our mouths are the entry point between the outside to our insides, so issues with our oral health can have severe impacts on our overall health. And more studies are looking into this very subject.

Plenty of research has already found links between poor oral health and the microbiome in our mouths to cardiovascular disease, and more emerging research has found links to other areas of poor health too. A 2025 study suggests that the composition of our oral microbiome may influence cognitive health in older adults, indicating a potential connection between our oral health and neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s.

Another new study published in the International Journal of Oral Science found that disruptions to the oral microbiome (specifically the presence of a common bacteria found in the mouth), was found to be associated with the development of mouth cancer.

So, what does this mean for future developments in oral health? Personalised medicine is one area changing oral health. Some dental companies are already offering oral microbiome analysis to detect early disease risks but expect more research going into looking at custom dental treatments, microbiome testing and bacterial profiling.

In the meantime, expect to see changes in oral care products. “As this awareness grows, so does the innovation in oral care, with tailored products such as toothpastes, mouthwash and chewing gum,” says Dan Clarke from Holland & Barrett. “Brands are responding to demand for products that are multi-tasking and support long-term health, rather than just surface-level hygiene.”

Further reading

What your tongue says about your health
What foods are actually good for our gut?
Foods that can help whiten your teeth
Top 12 healthiest fermented foods
What causes bad breath and how can it be prevented?

Good Food

8 ways poor sleep wrecks your healthy eating intentions

1. Tired brains crave high-calorie foods

2. Your hunger hormones go haywire

3. Sleep debt messes with your metabolism

4. Cortisol levels spike – and brings belly fat with them

5. You’re too knackered to exercise

6. Healthy cooking becomes a chore

7. Comfort food becomes really comforting

8. Poor sleep habits can become self-fulfilling

Further reading

What is intuitive eating?

History of intuitive eating

What is intuitive eating?

How to practise intuitive eating?

1. Reject diet mentality

2. Honour your hunger

3. Avoid categorising food

4. Challenge negative thoughts

5. Make the most of mealtimes

6. Stop when you're full

7. Manage emotional eating

8. Show yourself some respect

9. Move more

10. Balance nutrition with enjoyment

Are intuitive and mindful eating the same?

Can you lose weight by eating intuitively?

Is intuitive eating healthy? Our nutritionist's view

Who shouldn’t follow intuitive eating?

Read more…

What has working from home done to our diets?

Office lunches: the bad old days?

The shift to home cooking

Snack attacks

Are we healthier now?

Final thoughts

Further reading

How a sleep clinic helped me overcome my tracker obsession and solved my nighttime worries

Asking the sleep experts

Is your sleep tracker picking up anything serious?

Less stressful ways for better sleep

Making the changes

More wellbeing guides...

What is burnout?

What is burnout?

What are the signs of burnout?

Am I close to burnout?

Can diet help burnout?

Eat a balanced diet

Stay hydrated

Limit or avoid alcohol

Include more foods rich in omega-3 fats

Boost your B vitamins

High five!

Mighty magnesium

What other coping strategies are there for burnout?

Don’t forget

Further reading:

What to eat before an exam

How to optimise your exam performance

In the lead up to the exam and on the day

The night before the exam

Best foods to eat before an exam

Best energy-boosting breakfasts for exam day

1. Poached eggs with smashed avocado & tomatoes

2. Banana oat pancakes

3. Cinnamon porridge with baked bananas

4. Cottage cheese pancakes

5. Superfood scrambled eggs

Is it good to have caffeine before exams?

Swerve the sugar

Stay calm

Keep active

Support your immunity

Enjoyed this? Now read…

How much sleep do I need?

What is sleep?

Why is sleep important?

How much sleep do I need?

Is quality sleep more important than quantity?