Sometimes you just need to treat yourself but you don’t always need to feel bad about it. Nutritionists recommend the smartest ways to indulge (including a healthy kebab!)
W
e all know we should be snacking on blueberries and eating more leafy greens. But what should you do when you’re stuck at a motorway service station with a choice between crisps and more crisps? If you can’t resist a glass (or two) of wine, what’s the healthiest option? And is it possible to hit the kebab shop at 1am without being struck down by the spectre of Gwyneth Paltrow?
Not all junk food is created equal. Top nutritionists suggest the treats, booze and ultra-processed foods that pose the smallest risk to our health – and the ones even they eat from time to time.
Although nobody would count crisps as one of their five a day (a shame, because they are made from potatoes), if you swerve the flavoured options, some packets aren’t too bad as far as snacks go. “Look for an ingredients list that contains just potatoes and ideally extra-virgin olive oil and maybe sea salt,” says Dr Federica Amati, the author of Everybody Should Know This and the head nutritionist at the health science company Zoe. “You want them to be lightly salted, not very salted.”
