The Telegraph’s Amelia Tate wanted to know: what would her food intake have to look like to hit the UK’s official recommended daily nutritional targets, every single day for a week? So she asked an expert to draw up a menu plan.
There is no recommended daily amount of white chocolate. I wish there was, because I’d be the poster girl for hitting it. Last year, for example, I regularly covered my morning porridge in white chocolate buttons, before following it with a white chocolate matcha once I left the house. Lunch would end with a white chocolate cookie, and after dinner I’d nod to the notion of health by studiously cutting up some green apple… before pouring melted white chocolate on top.
In possibly related news, in November 2024 I was diagnosed with “very high” cholesterol at the age of 32. Thanks to my family’s abundant history of heart attacks and strokes, I quickly realised I’d have to change my habits and downloaded an app to monitor my saturated fat intake.
But of course, the app didn’t only monitor that. With handy charts, it warned me if I’d only reached 21% of my daily recommended vitamin A target, and told me whether I was getting the right amounts of protein and fat. Almost immediately, my inner student started wondering: would it be possible to score 100% in everything?
Scientists will probably never agree on what exactly constitutes the “perfect” diet – and, of course, different bodies have different needs. Still, in the name of “protecting and improving the nation’s health”, Public Health England does publish dietary recommendations for the general population, advising on intakes of energy, macronutrients, salt and fibre.
A woman between the ages of 19 and 64 – that’s me – should aim for 2000 calories, 45g of protein, less than 78g of fat, at least 267g of carbohydrates and 30g of fibre a day. We also need 600 micrograms of vitamin A, 200 micrograms of folate and 40 milligrams of vitamin C, among numerous other vitamins.
As for minerals, it’s good to get 700mg of calcium but just 7mg of zinc, plus 2.4g of sodium – not to mention all the rest. Some of the numbers are more familiar than others: no more than 27g of free sugars a day for women, and less than 6g of salt.
Most of these recommendations weren’t designed to be tick-boxes for the public – merely yardsticks by which to judge dietary surveys of the population and aid food labelling. “Food and nutrient-based dietary recommendations are a policy tool,” says Bridget Benelam, a communications manager at the British Nutrition Foundation.
“They can be used to help ensure foods provided support good health – for example, in school or hospital food.” The Government and charities like the BNF translate the numbers into accessible dietary guidance such as the Eatwell Guide, which uses handy, brightly coloured imagery.
And yet, I want to know: what would my food intake have to look like to hit every single one of these recommended daily targets, every single day for a week? And besides, what happens to a body in white chocolate withdrawal?
Registered nutritionist Kathryn Styles has over 20 years’ experience and has offered nutritional support to UK schools, care homes and manufacturers. In late May, she created a seven-day menu for me that met all of the Government’s dietary recommendations, maximising my vitamin and mineral intake with plenty of fruit, vegetables, nuts, legumes and seeds – but also the occasional scone (topped with crème fraîche), portion of chips or slices of white bread “to add bulk”, says Styles.
White bread and white rice increased my daily carbohydrate content without pushing up my fibre intake, which was already going to be nice and high.
This was perhaps the first eye-opener of the experiment: after all, haven’t romcoms and magazines spent decades telling me that carbohydrates are inherently bad?
“There are no bad foods – it’s all about the balance,” says Styles. Accordingly, she created a varied plan for me: one day out of the seven, for example, I hit my targets with ready meals, another featured steak and another was suitable for a vegan.
I made numerous other surprising discoveries in the week I followed Styles’ plan – not that my hair, teeth, nails or eyeballs became stronger and shinier; it takes longer than seven days to see those kinds of benefits. Nor did I lose body fat or gain muscle. This experiment was about testing how feasible it is to reach Government targets – and how hitting them made me feel day to day.
For starters, my weekly food bill shot up by 50% – and it would’ve been even higher if I hadn’t already had expensive accoutrements like flax and chia seeds in the cupboard.
Day One
Breakfast on day one was two boiled eggs on two slices of white toast, spread thinly with Marmite. Though some might decry the fortified yeast spread as an “ultra-processed food”, Marmite contains minerals such as magnesium and potassium and is a source of B vitamins. I finished it off with an orange, which I found more satisfying than simply drinking a cup of juice.
By the time I reached my mid-morning blueberry snack, I was desperate for chocolate. Styles told me I had to eat 80g of any given fruit or veg to count it as a portion, and I quickly learnt that not all grams are equal. Eighty grams of strawberries is a sorry five berries – not enough – but 80g of salad makes me feel like a hungover stegosaurus. Because I don’t really like blueberries, 80g felt punishingly mushy.
Cooking a whole lentil chilli bake from scratch at lunchtime was definitely stressful in between all my recommended daily emailing, but it ended up delicious – and very filling – especially after I polished it off with a scone, a couple of strawberries and some crème fraîche. I was surprised, then, to be ragingly hungry by dinnertime; my body clearly missed its bountiful routine of afternoon snacks. Instead, I was permitted an entire carrot, sans any dip. While it sounds like something that breaks the European Convention on Human Rights, I was amazed to discover I genuinely enjoyed that carrot.
I felt optimistic as I made my way through a tasty stir-fried pork dinner, but my mood soon came crashing down. Pudding was 125g of low-fat yogurt, which, of course, legally can’t actually be called pudding at all.
While I wasn’t a changed woman, things inside my body were changing. Styles had warned me one thing would be affected fairly quickly: my bowels. Although we’re supposed to get 30g of fibre a day, 96% of us don’t, with adults in the UK averaging around 16.4g. This is troubling because fibre is a literal life-saver, proven to help lower blood pressure and cholesterol and reduce the risk of heart disease, strokes, diabetes and bowel cancer.
While I’d already increased my fibre intake after my high cholesterol diagnosis last year, Styles’ diet was extremely fibrous, averaging 39g a day. In short, my digestion was affected. To retain, if not my dignity, at least a degree of mystery, I will simply say: the winds of change blew, like, a lot.
Day Two
Pancakes for breakfast were an auspicious start to day two, even if I had to make them with oats and could only have them with fruit and yogurt. Three dried apricots made for a delicious but heartbreaking snack, and it felt dry and punishing to get through 30g of unsalted pistachios. Styles had warned me that condiments would increase the salt, sugar and fat in my diet, so I had my chicken and avocado wrap at lunchtime without sriracha but with a packet of crisps. I saved the apple I was supposed to have next for after my black bean burger dinner, because otherwise I would’ve been left entirely pudding-less, an unthinkable prospect.
At the end of day two, although I was technically eating more food than ever before, I was hungrier. This wasn’t real hunger, however, but a howling dissatisfaction. My brain simply doesn’t believe my belly is full unless it’s had a little chocolate treat.
And chocolate wasn’t the only thing missing from day two. Despite Styles’ admirable efforts, I came in just under my recommended daily amount of selenium – the mineral that helps immune systems thrive. I started to wonder where the government’s recommendations even came from.
“A hundred years ago, vitamins were essentially unknown. The first paper that even mentioned vitamins was published in 1912,” says Dariush Mozaffarian, a cardiologist and director of the Food is Medicine Institute at Tufts University in Massachusetts. That paper was authored by Polish biochemist Casimir Funk, who isolated the “vital amine” in brown rice that seemed to prevent thiamine deficiency. Thanks to his work, 13 more vitamins were discovered over the following 35 years.
To figure out how much of any given vitamin or nutrient people needed to ward off diseases caused by deficiencies (such as scurvy and rickets), scientists conducted animal experiments, tested human blood and undertook observational studies of people’s diets. Mozaffarian explains that, to prepare for the Second World War, the British Medical Association and US government separately asked scientists to establish minimum requirements.
Research continued over the following decades, and in 1991, after four years of consideration initiated under Margaret Thatcher, the Department of Health issued recommendations that are still used today. These are designed to protect most people from the risk of diet-related diseases, though a guide accompanying the 1991 recommendations noted: “People differ from each other in the amounts of energy and nutrients they need.”
For his part, Donald Acheson – the government’s chief medical officer under Margaret Thatcher and then John Major – declared that if the recommendations were widely followed in Britain, “Constipation would disappear, coronary heart disease would be very much reduced, and the relationship between badly balanced diets and certain types of cancer would become clearer.”
Still, reactions to the government guidance varied: some within the sugar industry accused the Press Association of “grossly inaccurate” reporting for suggesting sugar consumption should be halved, while the National Dairy Council happily emphasised the calcium requirements.
Day Three
On day three, I’m a vegan, and because I’ve gone two whole days without any chocolate, I take the dark chocolate that Styles recommended I have after dinner (it contains iron, which can be lacking in vegan diets) and put it in my breakfast. I feel transcendent as I sprinkle it atop Weetabix, blueberries, walnuts, banana and soy milk, and I love eating the mushroom and chickpea stroganoff recipe Styles recommended for lunch (despite the fact the blogger behind it designed it “for babies and toddlers”).
Still, I’m disappointed that my new regime hasn’t left me bursting with energy – I still need my daily afternoon naps. The tins in my recycling bin are quickly building up thanks to my new beans, lentils and chickpea habit, but at least they’re enjoyable – I can’t say the same for the nuts. Thirty grams of dry nuts as a snack feels like an overdose without the addition of sugar or salt.
Day Four
This, I think, is why day four was so very welcome: my ready-meal day. I started with a tasty Leon porridge and later snacked on a brand of maple syrup-covered (yay!) nuts. My Waitrose prawn and lemongrass salad was delicious, although I was horrified that the (small) fruit salad that came with it cost £4.09 (NZ$9.22). Extra snacks of popcorn and flapjack felt like a treat.
“I was keen to showcase how requirements could be met from a range of different dietary patterns and combinations of food so that it wasn’t just the same thing every day,” Styles says. “It may not be lifelong that you’d be able to follow something similar – I just wanted to show that it could be achieved in many different ways.”
I really enjoyed my ready-meal curry for tea, but then another helping of plain, unsweetened yogurt tipped me over the edge. I can fully understand how, if you gave my caveman ancestors berries and yogurt for pudding, they’d flip out and praise the heavens. But we’ve invented literally hundreds of E numbers since then, and E numbers are delicious. To my shame, I popped a couple of “crazy sour” Skittles into my mouth while watching telly, followed by a handful more. It would be a lie to say I felt any regret or remorse.
Day Five
Breaking the Skittles dam set me up for failure on day five, “steak day”. My fruity, peanut-porridge was tasty but sadly chocolate-less, and making a cooked lunch every day was wearing on me. A mid-morning snack of brie, French bread and grapes felt like lunch in itself, so I skipped cooking the “halloumi with chickpea salsa and couscous” recipe that Styles advised. This meant that by 4pm I was ravenous – and when I passed a woman eating out of a McDonald’s bag, I wanted to pounce on it like a lion. I settled instead for three prunes and more cumbersome cashews.
At dinnertime, I tried to make up for my shortcomings by shoving some halloumi on my steak but – delicious as it was – my heart panged when Uber Eats sent me a push notification declaring it was “National Fish and Chip Day”. Even though Styles had generously allowed me to go over my fat and saturated fat content on day five (and, she notes, there is no upper limit recommendation on protein, so I had plenty that day), I started to wonder: can a woman really live on nutrients and vitamins alone? Before I could stop myself, I sprinkled perhaps the least nutrient-dense food known to man on my yogurt: raspberry sherbet.
Vibrating from my sugar high, I wanted someone to tell me there’s actually no point eating healthily. While no self-respecting nutritionist would say this, I did discover that some scientists are against “nutritionism”, that is, valuing a food only for its nutritional content rather than the context of how it is created and consumed.
Professor Mozaffarian says it is “reductionist” to assume we can address all chronic diseases with recommended daily intakes, and that while dietary targets were historically great at eliminating diseases caused by single nutrient deficiencies, cardiovascular disease, obesity, diabetes and cancers are far more complex.
He also notes that people can become obsessive and misguided in their focus on certain nutrients. “I think the biggest one that I see is protein. If you aren’t strength training to build muscle, what do you think happens if you eat excess protein? It gets turned into fat.” Ultimately, he argues, “You can’t construct a healthy diet based on a nutrient cocktail.”
Day Six
And on the sixth day, there was fish. I had told Styles that I wasn’t a fan of oily fish like mackerel, which is of course a powerfully nutritious food, rich in B vitamins, iron, magnesium and our old friend selenium. Instead, she recommended a delicious tuna poke bowl for lunch and a creamy salmon pasta for dinner, both of which went down well. I saved the 150ml of allotted fruit juice from breakfast for my evening in the pub and – unable to bring myself to order yet more water at the bar – I caved and ordered an espresso martini. The barman made it too bitter, which was exactly what I deserved.
I started to wonder if there was anyone else out there following this kind of diet, and found an online post by Sean Hickey, a 49-year-old web developer from Pennsylvania. For about six years, Hickey has been hitting 100% of his recommended daily targets on most days, also inspired by an app.
“It was a little startling to see the wide gaps in my nutrition,” he says of first downloading the Cronometer app. “I was not someone who ate a lot of vegetables, beans, leafy greens, grains, etc.” Thanks to his obsession with data, creating a diet that hit 100% of the targets became a “game” for Hickey. Eventually, he decided to follow a largely plant-based diet, which means lots of salad, tofu and nuts, as well as the occasional vegan nugget.
Today, Hickey says achieving 100% across the board has “become a natural part of my life” – it only takes him five minutes each morning to plan and log his meals. And yet he can’t say he feels much better, stronger or healthier for it: “The only noticeable difference is that one time I went three years without getting sick,” he says. Still, Hickey hopes he’ll see the benefits long term. “Keeping Type 2 diabetes at bay and having a strong immune system will lead to a more enjoyable old age.”
Day Seven
Rather kindly, my week ended with a roast dinner, ice cream and chocolate, but when midnight hit and a new week began, I still scoffed a cupcake. Overall, I hit my targets, though some days were slightly short on certain things – only 72% of my recommended calcium on my fish day, for example – and I undoubtedly went over my recommended sugar intake with my illicit Skittles and sherbet. Styles also notes that my vitamin D intake was only around 55% of daily requirements on average – this is because our primary source is sunlight (hence the need for supplements in winter months).
In the UK, fewer than 0.1% of people adhere to all of the Eatwell guidance, and I can’t promise I’ll keep being one of them. While my week was nowhere near as boring and tasteless as I expected, things were expensive and time-consuming. The most deprived families in the country would need to spend 70% of their disposable income to meet dietary recommendations – for many, it simply isn’t realistic.
Still, there are a few things I’ll definitely stick with: more bananas, salmon and nuts (even if I do go for the kind covered in sugar or chocolate). Snacking on a carrot while cooking dinner can keep me away from crisps. And I can feel Styles’s wisdom about fibre sticking with me. “I always say we need to make fibre more sexy,” she says. “It’s the one big key nutrient that we should all be eating more of.”
While I didn’t experience any headaches from my white chocolate withdrawal – Styles theorises that the high-fibre diet helped stabilise my blood sugar – I did miss the sheer joy and satisfaction that it normally brings to my days. “Just be varied in what you eat, make it colourful and have a balance,” Styles says.
She stresses that we all need to focus on “adding more, rather than taking away, otherwise you’re just missing out on key nutrients”. A spoon of chia seeds here, a handful of walnuts there can be a great place to start.
When I resumed my normal diet – with a KFC salad box, a Tango Ice Blast and a pick ‘n’ mix on day one – I was greeted with two days of headaches. On the third day, the Government released the results of its National Diet and Nutrition Survey spanning 2019 to 2023, revealing that, on average, adult Brits have 3.3 to 3.7 portions of fruit and veg per day and, in fact, only 17% of us get our five-a-day. It seems all the hyper-specific dietary advice we see in headlines, apps and Instagram videos is distracting us from some very fundamental truths.
I’m off for a carrot – I’ll try not to dip it in any sherbet.