How to Eat Healthy in London — Top 4 Tips
- Aug 12, 2021
- 5 min read
Updated: Sep 28, 2022
London. The home of full-English breakfasts, hearty Sunday roasts, greasy pub-meals, Indian curries, Kebab stores and of course, the 50% discount scheme on fast-food. If you’ve ever traveled to or relocated here, you’ll know just how tough it can be to keep your diet in check. This sprawling metropolis, with its on-the-go, sleep-when-you’re-dead lifestyle, never ceases to flash in your face its £2 whopper meal deals, candy-filled corner-stores and sea of grocery store ready-meals. With temptation at every street corner, it was certainly a challenge to motivate myself to eat healthy. But after a year of living in London, I learned to have more self-control, shop better and make healthier (and more environmentally friendly) food choices. Here’s my top 4 tips on how you can do it too!
#1: Shop for local produce and at fresh-food markets
Shopping at fresh food markets is my #1 tip for eating healthy in London, and that’s because of all the benefits it reaps — better for you, and better for the planet. A quick google search will tell you that around 1 third of all fruit and veg in UK grocery stores are imported. We all know that imported fruit and veg — A; can often taste bitter and flavourless, and B; loses much of its nutritional value by the time it is harvested, imported and sitting in your fridge (up to 30% in just 3 days!) I remember countless times biting into an apple from the grocery store and thinking — wow, if this isn’t the worst apple I’ve ever tasted! Looking carefully at labels and searching for in-season, locally grown produce at supermarkets is the way to go for better nutrition, but it’s not always so easy to find.
That’s when I discovered popular fresh produce markets like Borough Market, Broadway Market and Marylebone Farmers’ Market in central London, and I never turned back. Here you can find a wide range of fresh, local produce, packed with nutrition and flavour — from fruit and veg staples, to dairy, bread, meat and even fresh, home-baked goods! And the best thing is, you know you’re supporting local UK growers.
Another great benefit is that you support the environment by reducing plastic waste, especially as 2.2 million tonnes of plastic is used for food packaging across the UK every year. Typically at fresh-food markets, you are expected to bring your own reusable bag and purchase loose fruit, veg and often wax-paper wrapped produce. Now, of course, you won’t find everything you need at a fresh food-market (condiments and house-hold supplies, for example), but a decent amount of your weekly food shopping can be done here. So what are you waiting for? Shop better and create a healthier you and healthier planet by making the switch today!
#2 Commit to cooking at home
Now that you’ve purchased your fresh, locally-grown produce, you’ll need to commit to actually using it. It’s hard, I know, especially when you’ve had a busy day, you really don’t feel like cooking, and man, that huge selection of plastic-wrapped ready-meals is suddenly calling your name.
My suggestion? Dedicate a few hours once a week to pre-cooking your meals, so that when your tired legs get off that cramped tube ride after a full day, you know dinner is already cooked. My fiance and I used to do this together on a Sunday afternoon before the working week began, and it saved us a great deal of time, energy and temptation during the week. If you make enough for 2 nights per meal, you’ll find you’ll only need to cook 2 or 3 meals for the week, and it’s really not so much.
Of course, there’s nothing wrong with a ready-meal every now and again, but resorting to this every day or few days isn’t going to help you eat healthy, even if it’s a salad. Don’t forget that ready-meals will never be as fresh and nutritious as locally sourced raw produce, and often comes with added sugar, salt and a whole bunch of preservatives. And of course, treating yourself to a cheap and convenient KFC meal-deal every once in a while is not going to hurt you, but frequently getting sucked in to the UK government’s 50% discount scheme on fast-food will certainly not set you on the path to healthy eating habits. So ignore the temptations and commit to cooking that nutritious, local produce you bought!
#3 Pack your own lunches and snacks
Besides cooking your own meals at home, you can also stay healthy by packing your own nutritious lunches and snacks, either for work or for your action packed, London sight-seeing tour. That doesn’t mean it has to be the same old boring sandwich and apple over and over again. Make a Pinterest board and get creative with fresh salads, easy quiches, wraps or left-over dinner instead of resorting to that £3 sandwich, crisp and soft-drink meal-deal at the grocery store. Again — nothing wrong with the cheap meal deal once in a while, but it certainly won’t serve your health (or pocket) if it’s bought daily, as many Brits do!
I also know how hard it is to resist that sea of supermarket aisles filled to the brim with every on-the-go snack imaginable. Where Australian supermarkets had maybe 1 aisle dedicated to convenient-yet-unhealthy lunch-box snacks, London supermarkets seemed to dedicate half the store to them, and I was overwhelmed. Rows and rows of candies, crisps, pastries and highly processed snack bars and biscuits were constantly being shoved in my face and seemed like my only snack option. That’s when I learned to make my own, healthy snacks at home, such as home-made dips to accompany crackers and veggie sticks, or home-baked, sugar free biscuits and bars. Making your own lunches and snacks will not only save you a tonne of money, but your body will also thank you later!
#4 Choose healthier street food options (yes, they do exist!)
Eating out in London without cheating your diet doesn’t seem easy, especially when all you see is greasy fish & chip stores, fast-food restaurants, burger-carts and about a hundred Kebab places on every street. But what you probably don’t know is that there’s a wide range of healthier street food options hiding at fresh produce markets like Netil Market, Borough Market and Broadway Market that you can try! Made with their local, fresh produce, you can find take-away salad bowls, paellas, vegan burgers, nutritious burritos — and about any other cuisine you can think of!
You’ll also be supporting local growers and farmers by purchasing their products, and they typically also tend to give you a big serving, which can last you until the next day! These were honestly some of the best meals I ate in London, and can be a great alternative when eating out. So now that you’ve got a few great ideas about how to eat healthy in London, it’s time to give it a go and kick start your healthy eating habits today! What will you try first? Will you grab your reusable bag and head down to the farmer’s market this week, perhaps? Will you commit time to cooking at home, or discover new recipes to help you pack a healthy and wholesome lunch? Let me know in the comments what you’ve discovered works for you, and share your favourite packed lunch and snack recipes (along with my own) below!
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