Dipping into healthy food

In Inside Time’s monthly recipe column, a prison nutritionist provides ideas for creating your own tasty and wholesome dishes

The untimely death of writer and broadcaster Dr Michael Mosley in June saddened many individuals who had taken his lifestyle advice to heart. In his book and BBC podcasts ‘Just One Thing’, his friendly inclusive style of encouraging evidence-based health behaviour change made that change seem attainable to everyone. Whether it was taking a few minutes to calm your anxiety through breathing, or taking up gardening for mental health, by doing ‘Just One Thing’ Mosley professed that you could make a single small positive change to your lifestyle, then build on that with further small changes.

Although some of his earlier TV programmes around weight loss remain controversial, Mosley’s later philosophy of stepwise small lifestyle changes to promote physical and mental health very much resonates with the Food Matters approach within prisons, particularly around food. In prison it’s difficult to feel that you have any control over what you eat, but by taking on small changes that are possible, you can start helping your own health.

One of Mosley’s suggested small changes is cooking from scratch, since home prepared food tends to be lower in salt, fat and refined carbs, and higher in fruit and vegetables compared to highly processed foods. In the prison environment this advice translates to preparing meals yourself if possible, or choosing meals from the menu that are cooked from scratch over, for example, processed burgers. If your menu doesn’t tell you what’s cooked from scratch by the kitchen, your first ‘Just One Thing’ could be to put in a request that they start. Preparing food yourself from basic canteen ingredients, including fruit and vegetables, can be possible, even if you don’t have cooking facilities.  

Follow the ‘Just One Thing’ approach and step-by-step you can take back control.

Guacamole

A simple no-cook guacamole for breakfast or a light lunch. If your local canteen list doesn’t stock the ingredients, put in a request.

1 ripe avocado

1 ripe tomato

½ a medium onion

Pinch of chilli flakes

Lemon juice

1. Cut the avocado in half, remove the stone and scoop the flesh into a small bowl. Mash with a fork to a rough paste.

2. Finely chop the onion.

3. Finely chop the tomato and discard excess juice. Add to the bowl with the onion and combine the ingredients.

4. Add lemon juice, a teaspoon at a time, and chilli to taste. 

5. Pile onto wholemeal toast for a healthy breakfast, or for a light lunch, scoop up with Ryvita triangles..

Helen Sandwell is the Inside & Out project lead at Food Matters, which produces the Her Wellbeing and His Wellbeing newsletters.

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