Flexi-eating

Flexi-eating has been announced as the future for food consumption. An eating style that will not stop until it completely squeezes out the traditional eating pattern. Whether or not this will really happen, we dare not confirm nor reject, but we will take a closer look at this trend that has silently crawled into the working habits of Europe and the world.

What is flexi-eating?

Mealtimes are beginning to be treated as flexible periods of time that can be made to fit around other commitments.

The simplest definition would be; an eating style that results from a persistent lack of time, quick and stressful lifestyle, weight consciousness or skipping meals and replacing them with snacks, the smaller in-between meals.

So things would not look so gloomy,  flexi-eating has also its positive features which are a growing number of delicious and healthy snacks and adjusting flexi-eating to your individual lifestyle, which does not require time, effort, knowledge of food, cooking techniques, or organisational skills to prepare a meal at a fixed time.

Quick and functional eating

Modern lifestyle threatens to completely suppress the traditional food pattern: breakfast - lunch - dinner. Due to too much of a burden, lack of time and constant rush, Europe especially, is slowly beginning to adopt new food habits, both in favour of and to the disadvantage of its consumers. Mealtimes are beginning to be treated as flexible periods of time that can be made to fit around other commitments.

This new, informal way of eating has dared to strike on the traditional family gatherings around main meals, and eating on the road and on-the-go, stopped being just a result of rushing and has become an eating attitude where rushing and skipping meals is acceptable.

As a backlash against increasingly individual lifestyles, more and more people are reaching out for socialising in special occasions of leisure and free time. Family and friends gather for special occasions, dinners at restaurants or theme parties supplemented with food.

From the social viewpoint, we are subjected to snacking and eating on-the-go primarily because of instant rewards. It has become almost unimaginable to wait, plan a meal, go to the market for ingredients, find, choose, store, prepare and finally thermally treat them when we can get the same thing in a restaurant in just 10 minutes. And all of this without dirty dishes and excessive waste of energy.

The second possible reason for snacking is socialising. As it is the case with going out for a coffee, the snack is also making its way to the list of most popular informal motives for a meeting.

What about traditional meals

In the battle with new consumer habits, traditional meals have lost their value and quantity. The main daily meals have become variable, and from the concept of 3 main meals only one has survived.

Flexi-eaters first attacked breakfast, as morning is the time we rather devote to precious sleeping, preparing for new work challenges and struggling through traffic to reach work.

Research shows that a high 18% of Europeans skip their first and most important daily meal.

Further analysis shows that 21% of men have eliminated breakfast from their daily routine.

So after a hard day at work, dinner has become the main meal of the day and an opportunity for socialising for many, especially the French and Italians, while the Dutch and British prefer somewhat healthier version - to fit one main meal into a lunch break.

Healthy alternatives for skipping meals

Are there healthy alternatives to on-the-go snacks, placing main meals into restaurants and skipping meals?

Unfortunately, there is no healthy alternative when skipping breakfast. Breakfast brings into our body a high 30% of essential and protective nutrients. Therefore, either sitting or standing, bring breakfast into your body before you attack it with coffee and your daily routine. The formula for a healthy breakfast is; A glass of fruit juice and a wholegrain meal.

Lack of time cannot justify depriving your body of breakfast.

Put some effort into organising the main daily meal where you would eat all the ingredients necessary for a proper body function. Dinner should in no way be the time for replacing the skipped meals, and this should be kept in mind at all times. A couple of healthy and nutritious snacks during the day will reduce the need for an evening, excessive meal.

Flexi - eating or ...

As snacking or nibbling is an important source of consuming food, instead of fighting this ritual, we should concentrate more on how to enrich it. Although today consumers eat quickly, quality and health are high on the list of priorities. For snacking, food should be nutritious and tasty, which gives manufacturers a difficult task. Consumers, among others, decide on snacking because they are hungry and feel a lack of nutrients in their body. Therefore, a good choice would be healthy snack, like wholegrain cereal (bread, crackers and energy bars with low share of fat and plenty of fibre), fresh or dried fruit and vegetables, dairy products with low fat, smaller portions of nuts, lean meat and fish.

If we do not have the time for one meal, a few smaller healthy snacks can replace the body's need for nutrients.

A healthy choice on the menu is grilled fish with lemon, grilled vegetables, boiled vegetables, pasta with light sauces, fresh salads, fruit for dessert and the unavoidable water.

Flexi-eating is a choice of the moment, the result of a stressful lifestyle and hunger. However, no eating trend should be convicted in advance. You should take the best from each one of them, not be a slave to them. If we do not have time for one meal, a few smaller healthy snacks can replace the body's need for nutrients, and let functionality not aesthetics lead you in your selection.