Chef Eunice Power on how to live the good life

Can the right food really help reduce stress in our lives? Chef Eunice Power thinks so. She tells  Ailin Quinlan what we should we eating.

As a businesswoman and mum of three teenagers, Eunice Power knows all about the challenges for mothers who work outside the home - and the stress that ‘doing it all’ can entail.

Good food alone won’t eliminate stress, she says, but it will help you navigate a busy lifestyle, and contribute to effective stress management.

Eunice will be among a host of female experts offering lifestyle tips at a special Empowering Women event in Limerick next weekend, which covers topics from nutrition and fitness to parenting, bereavement, mental health, overcoming adversity, and learning how to thrive.

The owner of Eunice Power Cooking for You Ltd in Dungarvan, Co Waterford, Eunice caters for a dizzying variety of functions, works with Failte Ireland and Tourism Ireland, teaches at the Tannery Cooking School in Dungarvan and regularly contributes to the RTE One Today Show - so she knows all about juggling the demands of home and professional life and the importance your diet can make.

Eunice advocates the inclusion of lots of leafy green and colourful vegetables in the diet - cabbage, spinach and chard, tomatoes, peppers, carrots - and the consumption of lots of fish and poultry. Try to cut back on your intake of red meat, she suggests.

Comforting carbs, sugary foods and lashings of coffee and wine may seem attractive when we’re in a stressful situation, but they don’t help - poor nutrition, she points out, manifests physically in gastric problems, problem skin and inadequate sleep.

Stress, for example, can present as headaches which can be exacerbated by dehydration, while an acidic stomach won’t help stress-related tummy pains. And avoid alcohol as a way of dealing with stress she advises - a fuzzy head and sick stomach next morning are not the answer. Being mindful of the foods we consume, and making the necessary preparations to eat healthily is a good step in managing stress, she believes: “I always have a little bit of stress in my life, but I consider it ‘good’ stress,” she explains.

However, on occasion she “can feel overwhelmed”:

“In those situations I can be guilty of neglecting myself and my nutrition which essentially accelerates my feeling of stress. My life is very busy. I’m pretty organised and to be fair I’m very good in a crisis, but funnily enough, something simple or a series of ‘little things’ going wrong can tip me over the edge.

When I don’t look after my health and nutrition for a couple of weeks I have less energy, my patience wears thin, I feel lethargic and my sleep pattern is out of sync.

"I’ve learned over the years to recognise these warning signs and realise that my system needs a ‘re-boot!’ After a few days looking after myself and my nutrition properly, I begin to see a difference. Good nutrition not only nourishes the body but also the soul. Women tend to put everything else before themselves - mothers especially. But eating well is an important part of self-care.” First, though you need a plan: Always eat breakfast, advises Eunice.

A healthy breakfast is good for stress because it contributes to your general sense of well-being,” she says.

Make it more interesting by changing it around: Enjoy a bowl of yoghurt, granola and berries one morning.

The following day grab a couple of boiled eggs, or spread some tomato and avocado on toast. Try porridge with mixed seeds such as sunflower, pumpkin seeds, sesame and goji berries and a little honey - it’s a slow release carbohydrate so you stay full for longer, she explains.

Every morning fill a bottle of water to keep you hydrated during the day. Try it with a capful of aloe vera juice, she suggests. For the mid-morning snack, Eunice recommends an apple or pear and a couple of nuts.

I avoid coffee because caffeine can accelerate my system - it can contribute to a feeling of stress.

At lunchtime, Eunice often opens a lunchbox packed with leftovers from the previous night’s dinner: “This could be roast chicken in a salad,” she says, adding that making a tasty frittata (a simple whisk of eggs and dairy poured over sautéed veggies and/or meat) with leftovers from dinner - spinach, carrots, potatoes or bacon, for example - can make a great lunch. In the afternoon another apple and some more nuts make for a healthy snack - Eunice says she generally tries to avoid bread, “as I don’t think it agrees with me.”

She keeps some fruit and one or two squares of dark chocolate to help with the 4pm slump: “Most supermarkets now have little packets of nuts which are very handy to keep in your desk drawer at work or the glove compartment of the car,” she adds, The evening meal should ideally be early rather than late, and incorporate green veggies: “Every night we’d have a leafy green vegetable such as kale, cabbage, chard or spinach,” she says, adding that broccoli also goes down well with her family. “I try to incorporate them into the dinner - it can be very simple such as bacon and cabbage and potatoes,” she says.

I try to have dinner around 6.10pm each evening. I don’t like eating too late at night because I find it makes it hard to sleep.

She makes a determined effort to have fish for dinner twice a week and often serves a chicken tray-bake assembled the night before and featuring vegetables such as red peppers, red onions, quartered sweet potatoes.

“Even preparing a healthy family meal can help to counteract stress, she believes, because it takes you away from the phone and the laptop. It also means you’re sitting down having dinner with the family whether it’s a lively conversation or just teenage grunts! At least you’re there!”

Last but not least, she tries to make a rule of not eating before bed. “We all kind of know the answers,” she admits: “The challenge is to apply them to our everyday lives!”