“Design” menus

Eating healthy, as it is, has become a problem in urban life. If you are working, the issue becomes even more serious. One broods over where to eat every lunch time. It is really difficult to find a place close to your office and suitable for your purse. In the traffic of Istanbul you get home at 20:00 earliest if you are lucky, and if you do not have a mother cooking for you, you are all alone with an empty fridge. And the weight you put on eating pizza and hamburger in the evenings tops it all… If you want to put a stop to this flow but do not have the time to eat healthy, I would like to share with you a wonderful service that will come to the rescue. Now, some professional feeding brands prepare menus, each better than the other, according to your needs and taste, cook them for you, and deliver them to your address every morning at the time you want. All you have to do is eat it with pleasure. Thus you eat healthy, lose excess weight if you have any, and detox. It is great, isn’t it? Let us take a look at the details of this practical and extremely useful practice for human kind which each brand carries out with different methods. 

Personal food at Reafinera
The only thing Rafinera does is to form a personal eating plan. As a brand focusing only on this, it is a step ahead of its equivalents; they provide a service with more choices and they really take this work seriously. First of all you fill up a very detailed form to reveal your eating habits. Your information is put on paper in detail from your height, weight, age, what you eat in the morning to the amount of water you drink, how much sugar you use in your tea, what you are allergic to and what you say you would never eat. You are wrong if you think this is where it ends; let us say you wanted to lose weight, first you take the required tests, then the requirements of your body are determined under the guidance of a dietician, and your menu is prepared by Rafinera’s professional cooks under the light of the analyses and personal assessment of dietician Havvanur Yoldaş.   The kitchen team is led by Holistic Heath Counsellor İdil Şanal. They prepare and cook 5 fresh meals for you everyday and then punctually bring them to your door at the same time everyday. The packages consist of 3 main meals and 2 snacks. Nonetheless, sometimes the number of meals could even go up to 9 in case it is necessary. There are categories titled De-light for those who want to lose weight, Fit & Well for eating healthy food, Detox for purification, Vegetarian to eat vegetarian food, ‘Mom to be’ for healthy food before and after giving birth, and Personal Chef for those requiring different food due to medical reasons. You choose one of these categories according to your needs, but of course not everybody who chooses the same category gets the same menu.  Just as a tailor makes a dress according to your body measurements, you receive menus that will help you eat exactly the way you want.  About the prices… Personal packages start at 39 TL.  However, when firms buy packages through corporate membership there are discounts up to 40%. 

Rafinera trial package
I tried a one-day package for you from Rafinera. I asked for my package to be delivered to my work.  At 8:30 my package had already been delivered and was at my desk… After filling out the detailed form I had stated that I wanted to eat healthy food. A personal menu from the Fit & Well package was delivered. For breakfast there was Asian style eggs and whole-wheat bread.  I preferred to heat up my breakfast that had come in green leaves. It tasted rather good. There was yoghurt with honey and apples in the first snack.  My meal which resembled a light desert by the cinnamon sprinkled on it was good for digestion because of the pectin it included in addition to many vitamins. For lunch I had mushroom sauté with black wild rice, salad and potato cake. It was rather light and delicious. The lunch I usually eat always causes swelling and I get sleepy in the afternoon. Nevertheless, after this meal I was full but I was also as light as a bird. In the second snack I ate in the afternoon, there was grilled pepper and spicy tortilla chips with walnut dip. The crispy chips are a much healthier version of the salt and oil loaded chips… And the sauce tasted wonderful.  For dinner I had turkey with orange, polenta with caramelized onions, and broiled spinach beet. The meal I had upon heating in the microwave oven for 4-5 minutes was rather light and tasty.  I must confess that I had not expected this. I felt full all day long without eating all the unhealthy junk food I used to rush at towards the evening when I started to be famished. What is more, by taking in a balanced diet of food rich in proteins, vitamins and fiber I ate healthily, and my body received the food it needed without having to bear any burden and suffer even if it was for one day.  I advise everyone to try it. 

Healthy life packages from Göktürk Flavius
Göktürk Flavious, serving people who work long hours, do not have time to spare for themselves, are concerned for their health, want to eat a balanced and sufficient diet or under diet treatment for any kind of health problem, works with Restaurant 7.  You are taken under medical consultation before your diet plan is produced.  Once your physical and personal needs are determined your package is prepared and served at your address everyday.  They are especially careful about the ingredients being fresh, daily and organic as much as possible.  Packages contain 3 main courses and 3 or 4 snacks.  You are in safe hands here because dietician Nüket Aksakal Bağışgil, one of Göktürk Flavius’s partners, personally manages diet consultancy; therefore, she prepares people’s diet charts and follows it up herself.  If you have your own dietician or if you are being kept track of by a doctor your treatment is not interfered with; and if you have a diet chart your packages are prepared according to that chart. With Göktürk Flavius, packages vary; there are packages such as healthy and balanced diet pack, diet food pack, vegetarian diet pack, detox pack, pregnancy diet pack, and sportsperson diet pack.  I tried the diet food pack for you. In the morning there is 1 slice of whole-wheat bread with fatless cream cheese on it, with slices of orange and cucumber. For lunch there was salad made of black cumin, curd cheese, carrots, tomatoes and lettuce and boiled potatoes with coriander. I had light yoghurt and a slice of whole-wheat bread with it.

For dinner I had stuffed vine leaves with olive oil, light yoghurt, 1 slice of whole-wheat bread, and salad made of lettuce and radish. The first of the snacks included hazelnuts, apricots and dried grapes, the second included brown bagel, cherry tomatoes and feta cheese, and the third had kiwi and pineapple.  They were all so delicious and light. The menus cost between 50-75 TL. 

Dose diet system from Ota
Ota Beauty Centre provides personal menus in as system they call dose diet. They are extremely professional.  First of all you go to Ota for a preliminary interview. You give information on your life style, your target weight and your daily life. Then your body analysis is made. The point here is to find out the rate of fat, muscle and water in your body, your present weight, your ideal weight, the distribution of your weight and the basal metabolism rate. According to the results, the group you are in according to the standards of World Health Organization is determined. With people who are overweight or too thin a Check-up consisting of other measurement information is carried out. The results are assessed by doctors. Then your menu chart is formed. The daily dose values you should be taking are calculated by the Dose Diet System developed by doctors and dieticians. Once you start the programme, a regular weight check is carried out and you go through another body analysis at the end of the month. There are meat group, fish, chicken, vegetables and legumes in the menus. Diet members can buy Dose menus when they come in for their weekly meetings with their dieticians, there is free delivery within Beşiktaş and around; however, delivery to other districts is through couriers and involves fee because Dose Menus can only be kept out of the fridge for one hour. Menus are sold as a pack with salad, rice, main course; their doses (calories) are all adjusted. A pack is only 7 TL…


Body Watchers from MOMS’ Restaurant
Moms’ Restaurant practices the world famous and patented diet program Body Watchers in Turkey. Your menu is prepared according to the special body point program.  Bodypoint is actually like the calorie calculations. The values of food are taken as basis and all food are given points. You fill out the information in your personal profile and specialists assess them and determine a body point specific to you. Then your personal menu is prepared in the MFB kitchen and is delivered to your house or work daily and fresh. At the end of the first week your measurements are taken at the office in Ortaköy and your program is reassessed. There is low hypoglycemic index menu, vegetarian menu, menu for pregnant women, menu for those who wish to lose weight without any health problems, and detox menu. There is also business lunch pack. It includes only lunch and tea time and is delivered to you everyday before twelve o’clock noon. Delivery is carried out by their service vehicles; therefore, food that should be kept cold is carried more carefully. There is free delivery on the European side but there is a certain amount of fee for the Anatolian side. The weekly cost of packs is between 250-290 TL, and the business lunch pack is 159 TL. 

Nü light menu from Nü Medical Day Spa
Nü light menu is prepared especially for those who wish to eat healthy or lose weight.  First you need to visit Nü Medical Day Spa and fill out the consultation form, your computerized fat measurement is carried out and your target weight is determined.

Your menus prepared according to your calorie needs consisting of 3 main courses and 3 snacks are delivered to you between 6:30-9:30 in the morning. Delivery to Kemerburgaz and Göktürk is free of charge but there is cargo fee for other areas. Your weight and fat measurements are taken every week and the calorie amount for the next week is adjusted. You are required to fill out the weekly assessment form they send you on the variety of food and portions, and they consider your feedback seriously and revise your menu accordingly. They have five kinds of menus all together. Nü Light Menu, detox menu, vegetarian menu, family menu, and special menu… The cost of a monthly menu is 1200 TL, the price for a two person family menu, on the other hand, is 2200 TL.  If you would like to buy the weekly trial pack, it is 350 TL.

Written by: Derya Atakan
In Istanbul
www.istanbul.com/inistanbul