Food & recipes

What nutritionists really eat

We asked five nutritionists to share their daily food diaries to give you a taster of what they really consume

Looking to improve your diet? Taking advice from a nutritionist is a good way to start – but what exactly do they eat themselves? We’ve asked five different nutritionists from Nutritionist Resource to spill the beans and give you some inspiration for your own meals…

Suné Markowitz-Shulman

As a nutritional therapist, there are no main food groups I don’t eat and as I am pretty healthy and do not have any intolerances, I do not avoid dairy or gluten. However, these foods are limited in my diet and I aim to maintain mostly unprocessed food which is low in sugar. Around 90 percent of my meals are prepared at home from scratch. I generally don’t snack and don’t have a sweet tooth. I do however love going for meals, enjoy coffee and the odd glass of red wine.
I am a firm believer in the fact that the mind and body are connected and one cannot be approached without the other. In my opinion, a balanced approach is key but I know that before this can be reached and maintained a lot of personal understanding and development may have to take place in conjunction with dietary and lifestyle management in order to achieve consistent, lasting results.
A normal day for me would be as follows…
Breakfast: Plain full fat yoghurt with 1 piece fruit, 1 tbsp toasted mixed seeds and nuts, and a black coffee with no sugar.
Lunch: 120g smoked salmon, with 1 slice rye bread, watercress, cherry tomatoes, sliced fennel, spring onions and a lemon and avocado oil dressing, followed by 1 piece fruit and a black coffee.
Dinner: 120g steak with 3 new potatoes, steamed broccoli and green beans with sundried tomato, garlic and olive oil.
For more information about Suné click here.

Kevin Shore

I like a variety of food in my diet and like to spread out eating evenly throughout the day. Hydration is particularly important, especially from the afternoon onwards and a glass of fruit juice also helps – I like to drink one that includes greens with an evening meal, as the vitamin C content of the fruit juice enhances the absorption of iron. On days that I am exercising, I will drink an extra two pints of water in a day and may have a larger snack in the evening after my workout.
Fruit and veg forms a major part of my food intake with an emphasis on having three different portions of fruit in a day and two or three different portions of vegetables to give me a good balance of nutrients, vitamins and minerals.
A general day for me looks like the below…
Breakfast: 3 Weetabix with semi skimmed milk and 2 tbsp of raisins. As a late morning snack I’ll also have a portion of Brazil nuts.
Lunch: Cheese and cucumber sandwich with 4 slices of wholemeal bread and an olive spread, a Twix, a large portion of grapes and half a pint of water. As a late afternoon snack I’ll also have a large banana with half of pint of water.
Dinner: Cottage pie made up with beef, onions, mushrooms and sweetcorn, 5 boiled potatoes, a portion each of carrots and peas and 250ml glass of low sugar, low calorie fruit juice and a pint of water. As an evening snack I’ll also have a low fat yoghurt with a pint of water.
For more information about Kevin click here.

Diana Herve

My diet is based on two mantras: eat yourself to wellness and help yourself to health. My currency is always nutrients – not calories or points. I average two litres of tap water daily, and enjoy a couple of cups of workman’s tea and a good coffee mid-morning.
My shopping trolley is typically about 65 to 70 percent fresh vegetables, including avocados. I really like to shop at Aldi or Lidl as the quality and price is amazing and enables me to buy an incredible variety of produce. The rest of my trolley is made up of a variety of fruits, five percent lean beef mince, chicken breasts or a whole free-range chicken and fresh fish (such as cod, salmon, smoked haddock and tuna steaks) and eggs. I’m a great believer in getting protein from animal and vegetable sources so I always throw in a few tins of chickpeas and other pulses (such as lentils, borlotti, beans etc). As well as through potatoes and sweet potatoes, I like to get my complex carbohydrates from whole grains such as porridge oats, oat cakes, bulgur wheat, quinoa and brown rice. I love plain Greek yoghurt so a few tubs get thrown in too; it is so versatile for breakfasts, desserts and for cooking. Of course, no weekly shop would be complete without olive oil, walnuts, almonds and cashews too.
An example of my daily food intake would be:

Breakfast: 3 tbsp porridge oats with skimmed milk, topped with 1 tbsp sunflower and pumpkin seeds, 3 walnuts, 1 chopped apple, 2 tbsp ground linseed mix and 1 tbsp Greek yoghurt.

Lunch: Basic salad mix with 1 tbsp homemade hummus, 4 walnuts, a little feta cheese crumbled, 2 tbsp cooked quinoa and an olive oil vinaigrette dressing, with a kiwi for a snack.
Dinner: Homemade meatballs in tomato sauce, served on 3 to 4 tbsp pasta, topped with parmesan shavings served with a large green side salad. For dessert I’d have stewed bramley apples with cinnamon and 1 tbsp Greek yoghurt.
For more information about Diana click here.

Andy Fox

What I eat really depends on what I have planned for that specific day. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I am down the gym very early in the morning and also at weekends, so I will make sure I have breakfast on these mornings. On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays I fast in the mornings until around 10am/11am and then have brunch and generally drink lots of water up until breaking the fast.
The example below shows what I would eat on a training day…
Breakfast:
A large glass of water upon waking and plenty during and after training, a smoothie (made of avocado, spinach, berries, yoghurt, coconut water and chopped nuts and seeds) and then poached eggs on homemade toasted bread. In the morning before lunch I would also drink two glasses of water between 10am and 12pm and one expresso.
Lunch:
Salmon with salad (such as rocket, cucumber, tomato, alfalfa sprouts, peppers, red onion, carrot and beetroot) and steamed vegetables (broccoli, green beans and mangetout). In the afternoon I would also drink 2 glasses of water between 1pm and 3pm and a glass of coconut water.
In the afternoon I’d also have a snack of homemade protein bars or fruit with nuts and seeds or oatcakes with cheese and avocado or yoghurt with chopped nuts and seeds.
Dinner:
Basmati brown rice or quinoa with stir-fry vegetables and marinated chicken (in balsamic vinegar, lemon, salt, pepper and soy sauce) and salad. In the evening I would also drink 2 glasses of water and rooibos tea with lemon and honey.
For more information about Andy click here.

Sara Kirkham

As well as eating well, I’m a big believer that adequate hydration is crucial to good health, and critical to mental and physical performance. The human body is approximately 66 percent water weight, and whilst 2 percent dehydration will begin to affect our mental performance, 4 percent dehydration can affect aerobic performance by up to 25 percent.
Although the NHS Eat Well Guide states that we should drink six to eight glasses of fluid daily, a more accurate guideline is based upon an individual’s body weight. The Oxford Handbook of Nutrition and Dietetics recommends that we consume 35ml of fluid per kg body weight, and the American College of Sports Medicine provide guidelines for re-hydration during and after exercise, which increases our overall fluid requirements.
A typical day’s menu for me would be as follows…

Breakfast: Nutri-bullet smoothie, typically cantaloupe melon and spinach. Mid-morning I would also eat a nut bar of some kind and herbal tea, cherry and cinnamon or lemon and ginger.

Lunch: Often a vegetable soup, homemade or organic carton soup as a short cut. In the afternoon I would drink another herbal tea and maybe eat a piece of fruit, typically red grapes, cherries or a pear.

Dinner: Baked sweet potato with tuna and salad/avocado mix (Mixed green leaves, tomatoes and beetroot are used as a side salad and then I mix a tin of tuna with diced peppers, diced cucumber, finely chopped celery and radishes with a ripe avocado – used in replacement of mayonnaise). I would also have another tea in the evening, probably chamomile.
For more information about Sara click here.