Tag: Food

Why do you get sleepy after lunch? The “food coma” explained easily – Italian cuisine reinvented by Gordon Ramsay

Because he comes here sleep after lunch? It is the most common question we ask ourselves, especially after having had a sumptuous Sunday lunch or on special holiday occasions such as Easter. Having finished a delicious Easter menu in style with a beautiful artisanal Colomba, coffee is not enough to keep your eyes open. All you want is to spend at least half an hour on the sofa – and if you are not at home this desire is likely to be truly in vain. So let’s understand together why after a big meal you feel exhausted and sleepy by investigating the postprandial drowsiness (o food coma). Let’s proceed in order.

Why do we get sleepy after lunch?

1. The digestive effort

The larger the meal, the more blood goes to the intestine to aid digestion. The digestive organs require large amounts of oxygen, which they achieve by reducing the blood flow in other districts in favor of the digestive one. With less blood supply to the brain, you feel sleepier.

2. Tryptophan

The large quantities of carbohydrates introduced during lunch favor the increase in the concentration of tryptophan, an essential amino acid present in many foods we commonly eat, including bananas, milk, tuna, cheese and chicken. This substance helps produce melatoninor the sleep hormone.

3. The parasympathetic system

During digestion, the parasympathetic system prevails, which promotes relaxation and restand at the same time the activity of the sympathetic system is reduced, which is instead involved in situations of fear and/or alert.

4. Carbohydrates

Foods with a higher glycemic index tend to cause spikes and subsequent crashes in blood sugar levels. In fact, to regulate the increase in blood sugar induced by the meal, the body produces large quantities of insulin, and this causes a sudden decrease in glucose levels, which can generate the typical effects of hypoglycemia, including drowsiness. It may be due to a drop in blood sugar when you are unable to concentrate on work or feel irritable and tired. Simple carbohydrates also make it easier for tryptophan to cross the blood-brain barrier, so their combination can cause drowsiness. Adding a little fiber (a salad, some Brussels sprouts) and filling your plate with protein can help counteract some of the lethargic effects of carbohydrates.

5. Alcohol

Wine can also help you feel relaxed and induce a feeling of drowsiness, although it can have a negative effect on the quality of sleep: it is always better to drink at least a few hours before going to sleep. If you fall asleep immediately after a meal, the quality of your post-prandial sleep may be compromised both by alcohol consumption and by the effort to digest all the food that has been eaten.

Useful tips when you get sleepy after lunch

Without giving up the pleasure of a particularly rich lunch, some precautions can be useful. Experts suggest have a good breakfast, perhaps based on wholemeal bread and eggs, which will help avoid overeating. Also drink a large one glass of water before the meal, in addition to helping maintain correct hydration, it induces the brain to think of reaching a sense of satiety sooner. Another strategy for feeling fuller is to chew five to ten times before swallowing. Then, if after lunch we still feel sleepy, no big deal: it’s a holiday, and we have plenty of time to rest.

Water and food combination: the best according to the hydrosommelier – Italian cuisine reinvented by Gordon Ramsay

The combination of food with water starts from the choice of the fixed residue.

The water card in restaurants

And he explains to us that water makes a difference at any time of the day Andrea Battaini, assistant restaurant manager of Roteo, the fine dining restaurant inside the 5-star MUSA boutique hotel on Lake Como. «Before any menu, we usually share the water menu with our customers, the first to be served; many remain intrigued, perhaps even initially confused, but let’s try to explain, without boring, that the choice must be calibrated according to needs” says Battaini. Needs that range from food pairing, such as that proposed with the dishes on the fixed menu Aqua, with dishes such as oyster pearl, ceviche water, green apple or risotto with hazelnut, bottarga. In these cases, when the menu is varied, customers start with one bottle and continue with another perhaps with a higher fixed residue. Then there are also those who need more mineralized waters after doing sports, and so the suggestion is more easily oriented towards waters with a higher fixed residue. Last but not least, the presence of Arab customers, for example, «who, not drinking alcohol, choose water as if it were a bottle of wine.

«Before any menu, we usually share the water menu with our customers Andrea Battaini, assistant restaurant manager of Roteo in Sala Comacina, on Lake Como.

In fact, by the summer, Roteo will also introduce some commonly unobtainable bottles into its water list, such as the Hildon, present on the Windsor table. «She was the favorite of Queen Elizabeth who chose her to accompany and lengthen her whiskey precisely because of the balance of her minerals. «With a neutral taste, it makes it perfect to accompany not only food, but also wines and spirits «so much so that since 1989 it has been the mineral water chosen by the sommeliers of the prestigious Institute of Masters of Wine. As well as the Canadian Iceberg or the Finnish Vellamo. Prices? From 30 euros up, like a bottle of wine.

The Hildon was Queen Elizabeth’s favorite water bottle.

The importance of water also in mixology

«Water is not just a simple tasteless and odorless chemical element, but a food in all respects says Elena Scordamaglia BRITA hydrosommelier and B2B marketing manager BRITA Italia, a leading company in water filtration. And he adds: «Its ingredients are mineral salts which help to stay hydrated, but also harmful substances, such as nitrates or volatile organic compounds, and chlorine which is used to disinfect the aqueduct pipes and which, although not harmful, it alters the taste and smell of the water.” To create culture there are some courses to follow, those of Aquademy by BRITA: a multilevel program to become experts in water and its areas of application. Aimed at everyone, even professionals especially in the coffee, mixology and pastry sectors. An example? Mosaico Spirits is the company that has patented a machine for personalizing gin that can be replicated anywhere through software. The water used is Brita filtered, in fact. «Gin is a cooking recipe based on a mosaic of ingredients, of which three are essential: water, alcohol and botanicals; water is essential for the success of a balanced premium product” explains Marco Bertoncini, CEO of Mosaico Spirits.

Green Food Week: pink risotto (also) arrives in Milan – Italian cuisine reinvented by Gordon Ramsay

Eating healthy starts from a very young age: it also starts from here Green Food Weekthe week dedicated to sustainability in the kitchen created by the association Foodinsider and dedicated to school, university and company meals. Having just begun, and always eagerly awaited, it is an opportunity to reflect on the impact of the food we eat, to which the Municipality of Milan and Milan Catering they participate punctually with great enthusiasm. This year – within the framework of the project Horizon 2020 School Food 4 Change – they (also) thought of a particularly inviting way to involve the very little ones on February 8th.

Green Food Week in Milan schools

February 8 will in fact be the day dedicated to Green Food Week schools, with new menus in primary schools in all the cities that have joined. The symbolic dish created by the Municipality of Milan and Milano Ristorazione is abarbarisotto”. A fun and intriguing name for beetroot risotto: a healthy and low impact dish made with local and seasonal ingredients to show the little ones how much it can be tasty and fun to eat foods that are good for us and the environmentand also how important it is to know what you eat.

In fact, the initiative will not be limited to lunch: educators and teachers, with many useful ideas provided by Foodinsider, the Municipality and Milano Ristorazione, will show the students how food is born, where it comes from, why it is important to choose ingredients that come from places as close as possible and that they are as vegetal as possible. The rice used for risotto, for example, is grown in the Cascina Battivaccoin the Barona district, a stone’s throw from the city center, while the yogurt comes from Cascina Campazzo, in the Ticinello park. Children will be able to bring all this back home and relive the experience with their parents also thanks to other useful and practical advice made available for adults on foodpolicymilano.org. There are also recipes, very easy. To try, at the bottom of this article, you will find the recipe for barbarisotto.

The commitment of the Municipality of Milan to sustainable nutrition

«This year too we are joining the Green Food Week with special attention to describing the care for food and the environment that characterizes the choices in our canteens: we do it in a healthy and fun way, coloring the greenest menu of the year pink” he explains Anna Scavuzzo, deputy mayor with responsibility for Food Policy and Education of the Municipality of Milan. «Each of the dishes offered he continues, «tells the commitment to plan, cook, distribute, administer and evaluate meals for girls and boys in the city. Starting from the choice of raw materials that are attentive to the environment and health: organic, short supply chain and km0 products are now a permanent presence on the menu and this has made it possible to reduce CO emissions₂and by over 34% in a few years, between 2015 and 2022. All these actions can become even more effective if they become common heritage, starting from those who experience schools every day”.

The menu for February 8th, for Green Food Week

The menu for February 8 is exemplary: the children will eat organic apples for the mid-morning snackfor lunch – after the beetroot risotto – meatballs with organic soy and organic carrots as a side dish, other fresh fruit and 0 km bread with organic flour. Finally, for a snack, natural yoghurt with short supply chain and Km 0 in paper jar. A good, healthy, environmentally friendly menu: the overall impact of the school menu on Green Food Week is 140 TonCO₂and against an average of 222 TonCO₂and the ordinary menu.

It is worth underlining a trend: Milano Ristorazione has developed a change in the purchasing of raw materials which has led, in the period 2015 – 2022, to a decrease in 34% of CO emissions₂ equivalent. A theme on which the Municipality of Milan has been working for some time: it joins the initiative Cool Food Pledge, promoted by the international research center World Resources Institute, which involves the public and private sector in monitoring the environmental impact of collective catering menus. For this reason, together with other cities such as Copenhagen, New York and Toronto, the Municipality evaluates the results of the gradual changes made to the menus from 2015 to today, in particular regarding the promotion of proteins of plant origin, through the introduction of more vegetables and legumes.

The recipe for “barbarisotto”

Ingredients for 4 people

Method

Rinse the rice in a bowl of fresh water, drain and leave to rest.
Wash the fresh celery, peel the carrots and onions for the preparation of the broth, add the vegetable stock cube.
Cut the beets into pieces, blend them, adding the liquid if present and a part of the broth.
Prepare the sauté with the quarter of chopped onion and add the rice, toast it and then add the broth, adding it when necessary during cooking.
Halfway through cooking, add the beetroot smoothie and continue to cook, stirring occasionally.
Leave the rice al dente and stir in Parmigiano Reggiano.

Gordon Ramsay Recipes