Newlyweds: Establishing healthy eating patterns for two

Hopefully, before you marry, you will have learned certain things about the person you want to spend the rest of your life with.

If you went to restaurants for a romantic meal you should already be aware of whether or not your partner has similar tastes to you, if one of you is vegetarian, if you have any food allergies, what foods you like and hate.

Then having spent many happy hours talking over your meals you should also have learned if one or both of you like cooking meals from the basic ingredients. Having meals at either your own residence or your future partner’s gives an opportunity to test how good a cook each of you is, and from there what meals you can or cannot make in the future.

Then it helps if you discuss the way food will be cooked, and who will do it. Work commitments can make it hard to ensure only one person makes the meal; both of you may have to take turns. This is one of the first decisions you have to make together.

There are men who are brilliant cooks, as are many women. If both of you like cooking then you need to decide who will do the cooking on which days.

But equally important to the meals you both eat is the type of shopping you will do. Will it be organic or not? More pasta or rice meals? Do you buy ready made curry sauces or create your own? Have either of you a good cookbook which you regularly use? Or do you create your own recipes? Do you listen and follow the latest dietary news?

These are all questions that need to be asked and from this a shopping list of ingredients can be drawn up from which either or both of you can find in the supermarket, small specialist shop, market stall, or wherever you like to shop.

If you both need to follow a specific diet for health reasons this has to be accepted by both of you, and possibly adopted by the healthier partner in a loving supportive way.

Food will always have some form of compromise, but it should never be a battleground between. Work it out in the early days and your marriage will flourish as will your own health.