What is a Healthy Conference Meal?

Some of our oldest readers will remember my blog and might have wondered what happened to it, why I stopped writing. Well, after a long of radio silence, I have decided to bring Marcel's blog back!

For this first post I thought I would talk about healthy conference meals. 

What is a healthy conference meal and what do the experts think about healthy eating?

There has never been so much that’s been said and written about health as now, and the congress world does not escape that. 

People of my age - they are now in the minority - remember congresses where we eat as if a wedding was going on. For lunch, three types of meat topped with greasy sauces was quite common then, completed with bottles of wine red and white (and a sleep in the congress chair). In recent years I notice an occurring change, more and more attention is paid to eating and drinking.

But are we talking about healthy eating?

The reason for writing this blog post was Peter Klosse, Lector Gastronomy in Food Service at Hotel Management School Maastricht. Two years ago he started ‘Taste Summit’, a congress about food.

Nowhere in the world was gastronomy a subject on programs of similar schools, but in Maastricht they make it a main dish. His initiative is also a good example of a self-created conference, which has received world attention (1,200 delegates last year).

The main theme of the congress is Processed Food, the main culprit of many diseases in our society. This type of products certainly has no place on the tables of congress venues. Coincidentally, I read in my newspaper today that there is a lot of fake news about nutrition. Doctor Google is not the best adviser, and the internet is the largest hotbed of food and exercise myths.

Now that I've read all that, I have to agree with my personal coach, that retaining or losing weight is not only determined by more exercise (barely 20 percent) but by conscious eating and drinking (80 percent). If my or your belly still becomes rounder, then alcohol could be the devil. We can train and pay as much attention to eating as we want, that will not diminish our belly. But do not forget, training is always good for a healthy body! For myself I will no longer touch processed food. 

Hope congress organisers will follow my example?

Feel free to send me your comments to marcel@meetingmediagroup.com, I'd love to hear from you.

Marcel A.M. Vissers