Eating well enough, without food taking over your life

To stay on the straight and narrow, I try to eat in a way that feels natural. But I don’t leave everything to chance. Over time, it’s easy for certain nutrients to be missed — especially when life is busy and eating is mostly “good enough”.

When that happens, people often notice things like: feeling more tired than they expect getting run-down more easily, low-level brain fog, skin or mood feeling “off”, or a sense that their body just isn’t quite supported.

What surprised me is that I’d been running low on some of these for years — without realising.

Not because I was restricting. Not because I didn’t care. But because busy, familiar eating can quietly miss things over time.

The quiet gap people don’t talk about

When food feels hard, we often assume the issue is too much control.

And for many people, it is. But there’s another, quieter thing that can sit alongside recovery — or alongside generally settled eating — that doesn’t get talked about much.

Nutrient shortfalls are surprisingly common, even in people who eat regularly, eat a reasonable variety, and aren’t dieting.

A deficiency is something diagnosed by symptoms and/or blood tests.

A shortfall is quieter. It means you’re often getting less than ideal over time, even if nothing is technically “wrong” yet.

I’m not talking about severe deficiencies or medical emergencies. I’m talking about small gaps that build up slowly, and make the body work harder than it needs to. When that happens, it’s very easy to assume something is wrong with you. Often, it’s just a body trying to do a lot with slightly less than it needs.

A gentler way to sense what might be missing

This isn’t a checklist. And it’s not something to fix all at once.

It’s just context — because some nutrients are genuinely harder to get enough of in UK life.

One helpful way to sense potential gaps — without tracking or analysing —is to look at food families and colours over time.

Not in a single day, but across your usual weeks.

Colour matters more than people realise

Different colours tend to carry different roles in the body.

If some colours rarely show up in your meals, it can hint at why certain nutrients might quietly run low.

• Deep greens(leafy greens, broccoli, herbs)

  Often linked to folate, vitamin K, magnesium→ easy to miss when veg feels effortful

• Bright reds, oranges, yellows(carrots, peppers, squash, berries)

  Often linked to antioxidants, vitamin A, vitamin C→ common to drop when meals are repetitive

• Purples and blues(berries, red cabbage, aubergine)

  Often linked to antioxidant support→ often missing unless eaten intentionally

  
  

If your meals are mostly beige or brown, that doesn’t mean you’re “eating badly” —it just means some micronutrients may not be showing up much.

Food families give clues too

Another gentle lens is which food groups show up most days — and which don’t.

Again, this is about patterns, not rules.

• Animal foods (meat, fish, eggs, dairy)

  Often linked to B12, iodine, iron→ gaps can appear with low intake or absorption issues

• Legumes (beans, lentils, chickpeas)

  Often linked to folate, magnesium, potassium→ easy to miss if meals rely on convenience foods

• Fats (nuts, seeds, oils, oily fish)

  Often linked to vitamin E, omega-3s→ fat-soluble vitamins need these to absorb properly

• Fruit and vegetables (variety over time)

  Often linked to potassium, vitamin C, antioxidants→ low variety can quietly affect energy and resilience

A few nutrients are hard no matter what

Some nutrients are difficult to cover even with a varied diet — especially in the UK.

• Vitamin D

  Very difficult to meet from food alone. Most adults need a supplement, especially outside summer.(Best taken with food that contains fat.)

• Iodine

  Not routinely fortified in the UK. Intake has fallen with lower dairy and seafood consumption.

  
  

These are about environment and food systems — not personal failure.

This is personal, not prescriptive

My shortfalls might look completely different to yours. They’ll depend on your body, your stress levels, your digestion, your cycle, and your life.

That’s why copying someone else’s food list rarely helps — and why curiosity is more useful than rules.

So, if you’ve ever thought, “I eat fine… so why do I still feel like this?” — that question is worth listening to.

A gentle safety note

Some nutrients — especially iron, iodine, and B12 — shouldn’t be supplemented without guidance. Blood tests, symptoms, and medical context matter.

This post is for education and reflection, not diagnosis or medical advice. If you’re concerned, a healthcare professional can help.

If you’d like support looking at your own nutrition — gently, without dieting or control — I offer nutrition reviews that look at patterns, possible shortfalls, and what might help you specifically.

Lizzie