People begin to meal prep for many reasons. For some, weekly meal prep is a matter of convenience, and for others, it is about maintaining a strict diet.
In either case, a study from the University of Georgia has shown how meal prepping can help people stick to healthier options even when day-to-day stresses and problems get in the way of our eating habits.
The study was intended to look into the effects of stress on family meal decisions, with children three times more likely to pick up an unhealthy snack if their parents are stressed.
However, one interesting result was found, which is that children were more likely to eat healthier if meals were prepared the night before regardless of stress reported, highlighting that in times of stress, planning ahead can reduce the impulse to snack unhealthily.
Whilst the researchers involved noted that more research needs to be undertaken about how people respond to stress immediately after, they did find that most people responded to stress by fixing themselves an easy-to-make or quick-to-make meal.
Surprisingly, skipping meals or relying on fast food were not found to be very common choices, although there was a connection between stress, drinking sugary drinks and eating unhealthy snacks.
This is, in no small part, why meal prepping appeared to reduce the effects stress can have on your diet. After all, if a delicious, nutritious meal is already available to you, there is no need to resort to snacking or quickly cooking a meal.