The main objectives of ‘Be part of it’ are to engage with people, to raise awareness of crucial health and wellness messages, encourage balanced diets, and promote the use of fresh ingredients as much as possible.
All recipes promote and use ingredients based on Healthwise principles that aim to reduce the levels of fat, salt and sugar. Some examples of this includes using herbs and spices instead of salt to infuse food with flavour, replacing butter and vegetable oil with olive or rapeseed oil as a healthier alternative, and adding more fresh fruit to desserts to help achieve the government’s recommended ‘5 a day’.
During the launch, Matt provided a helping hand to the Sodexo team to serve lunch to staff on site and also gave away signed rugby balls and recipe cards. Talking about the importance of eating a balanced diet, Matt said: “Cooking and eating the right foods at the right times can have amazing effects on both your mental and physical wellbeing. For instance, we all know eating breakfast sets us up for the day and gives us the fuel to make the rest of the day more productive. It also means we are less hungry during the morning and so are not tempted to eat high sugar, high fat snacks.”
Alan Sallis, head chef, said: “We were delighted to have Matt join us. He is very passionate about the importance of adopting a healthy diet and active lifestyle, and I was particularly impressed with his performance during what was an incredibly busy lunch time!"