Personal leadership · Every phase
Eating and drinking
You know what the guidelines actually say, where it goes wrong on a working day, and what you'll eat or drink differently tomorrow.
Worth reading first: Where do you start with working healthily?
Does this sound familiar?
- On a busy day I skip lunch, and at three o'clock I'm eating biscuits.
- I eat vegetables with dinner, and that's it.
- A glass of wine every evening is good for your heart, isn't it?
- Fresh juice counts as fruit too.
- I work out, so I need protein shakes.
Who it's for, and when
For anyone who skips lunch on busy days, heads for the biscuit tin in the afternoon, or sees Friday drinks as a given. It plays a part in every phase, but a day full of meetings makes it hardest: you eat whatever's lying around.
Self-test
Four questions about an ordinary week. Pick the answer that fits best. The result tells you whether eating and drinking is the thing to work on, and what your first step is.
On how many days a week do you eat vegetables with two meals, plus one or two pieces of fruit?
Apart from coffee and tea, what do you drink on a working day?
How many alcoholic drinks do you have in a normal week, after-work drinks and the weekend included?
What do your lunch and your afternoon look like?
The model
Eating well is simpler than the hype would have you believe. The Dutch guidelines come down to this: plenty of vegetables, fruit, wholegrains and pulses, a handful of nuts, less meat and as little processed meat as you can, and water, tea or coffee to drink. That's based on large studies over decades, and it's all in the Schijf van Vijf (the 'Wheel of Five', the Dutch food guide).
Most people don't eat enough vegetables and fruit. The advice is at least 250 grams of vegetables and two pieces of fruit a day. Fresh juice doesn't count as fruit: the fibre's gone, and you drink the sugar of several pieces in one go. Fizzy drinks and energy drinks are the biggest source of sugar you don't notice.
On alcohol, the advice is: better not, and in any case no more than one glass a day. For cancer there's no safe limit; the risk starts with the first glass. The idea that a glass is good for your heart comes mostly from studies that compared drinkers with a group of 'non-drinkers' that also included ex-drinkers in poor health.
Ultra-processed food (biscuits, crisps, fizzy drinks, ready meals) makes you eat more without noticing. In a controlled study, people ate about 500 kilocalories a day more of it, while they were free to eat as much as they liked on both diets. Not everything from a packet is bad: wholemeal bread, yoghurt and beans from a jar fit into the Schijf van Vijf just fine. At work it usually goes wrong at the moment you're hungry and there's nothing else around.
Health Council of the Netherlands (Gezondheidsraad), Dutch dietary guidelines (2015). Netherlands Nutrition Centre (Voedingscentrum), the Schijf van Vijf (updated on 9 April 2026). WHO Europe on alcohol (2023). Hall et al. on ultra-processed food (Cell Metabolism, 2019). Reynolds et al. on fibre (The Lancet, 2019). Morton et al. on protein and resistance training (British Journal of Sports Medicine, 2018).
Vegetables and fruit
At least 250 grams of vegetables and two pieces of fruit a day. Vegetables at lunch too, not only in the evening.
Wholegrains, pulses and nuts
Wholegrain instead of white. Pulses every week, at least 250 grams. A handful of unsalted nuts a day, 30 grams at most.
Less meat
Less meat, especially less red meat, and as little processed meat as you can: cold cuts, sausages, burgers.
Water, and preferably no alcohol
Water, tea and coffee as the default. Fizzy drinks and juice not every day. Alcohol preferably not, and no more than one glass a day.
Pitfalls
A diet instead of a habit
With the same number of calories, intermittent fasting does no better than simply eating less. A diet you drop after three weeks gets you nowhere; an ordinary lunch you eat every day does.
Protein shakes because you work out
If you do strength training, you benefit from up to about 1.6 grams of protein per kilo of body weight a day; more adds little. With dairy, pulses, fish, eggs and nuts you'll usually get there without a shake.
Watch and read
How the Schijf van Vijf works, in three minutes and in Dutch. The amounts are from before the 2026 update; watch it for the idea, not the numbers.
Watch on YouTubeKevin Hall, who led the study on ultra-processed food, explains what he found and what it doesn't mean.
Watch on YouTubeTo go further
Chris van Tulleken, a doctor, on ultra-processed food. An hour long. An argument with a clear point of view, for anyone who wants more.
Watch on YouTubeRead
Voedingsmythes. Over valse hoop en nodeloze vrees
Martijn B. Katan · 2016 · ISBN 9789035141117
The emeritus professor of nutrition at VU Amsterdam goes through the familiar claims about food, level-headed and with the sources. In Dutch, 320 pages.
View the bookApply it
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1. Sort out your lunch in advance
On a busy day you eat whatever's around. Put lunch in your calendar, or get it ready: wholemeal bread, some vegetables, a piece of fruit. Then it doesn't have to be a decision.
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2. Keep the good stuff within reach
Fruit on your desk, a bottle of water next to your laptop, unsalted nuts in the drawer. What you can see is what you eat.
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3. Pick one swap
Not everything at once. Take the answer from the self-test that scored lowest, and swap one thing: fizzy drinks for sparkling water, white bread for wholemeal, two evenings without alcohol.
Examples
A working day, written out
Breakfast: wholemeal bread or porridge with yoghurt. Lunch: wholemeal bread, with cherry tomatoes or cucumber, and a piece of fruit. Afternoon: an apple and a handful of nuts instead of biscuits. Evening: half your plate vegetables. To drink: water, tea, and coffee until lunch.
A team that replaced the biscuit tin
An agency of twenty people had a tin of biscuits out every afternoon. The office manager put a fruit bowl next to it, and after a month the biscuits were left untouched. Nobody had to give anything up; the fruit was simply there first.
Do this in your own business
Everything up to here is free. What you fill in for your own business, you keep in Boldcaster.
- You assign the lesson to your team and see who has done it.
- The quiz counts towards your progress, and you see which lesson comes next.
Four weeks free. You'll land straight in this lesson.
Quiz
6 situations. You need 5 of 6 right. You can try again at any time.
1.Someone drinks a glass of red wine every evening, 'because it's good for your heart'. What do the guidelines say?
2.You drink a big glass of freshly squeezed orange juice every morning. Does that count as your fruit?
3.A colleague wants to eat more healthily, so they're cutting out everything from a packet or tin, including beans and wholemeal bread. What's right?
4.On a busy day you skip lunch to save time. What usually happens?
5.You've started strength training. How much protein do you need?
6.You only eat vegetables with dinner, a generous spoonful. Does that meet the advice?
Nothing is saved here. In the app, the quiz counts towards your progress.
Read next
- Moving through the day · You know how much movement is enough, why sitting still for long stretches matters, and how to move more without having to find extra time for it.
Not sure where to start? Take the growth scan