What Giada De Laurentiis Eats in a Day to Stay Healthy in Her 50s
When people think of tasty meals, Giada De Laurentiis likely comes to mind. Over the years, the celeb chef has shared many of her favorite healthy recipes and released cookbooks so fans can recreate her beloved dishes at home.
In a recent interview with AARP, Giada discussed her eating habits in this stage of her life. "I am in my mid-50s now, and I have had to change a lot of the way I eat," she said.
Extensive traveling made the chef, entrepreneur, writer, and television personality turn to packaged foods and sugary treats. She's slowly been course-correcting. Here's what Giada De Laurentiis eats in a day to stay healthy in her 50s.
Giada De Laurentiis Eats Four Small Meals a Day
Instead of eating three meals a day, Giada opts for four small meals. The one thing each meal has in common? Protein.
"All contain protein. I have to be consistent about how much protein I get a day. I have to get between 80 and 100 grams for my own body weight," she shared during her AARP interview.
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She Swears by Oatmeal With Olive Oil for Breakfast
While many celebs opt for fruit smoothies and egg dishes to kick off their mornings, Giada's go-to breakfast might surprise you.
"I start my day with a cup of chicken broth with a scoop of collagen. I know that sounds strange, but it really works for me. I used to start my day with a double espresso and I realized in my 50s that my stomach wasn't loving that habit after all these years," the celeb chef told Taste of Home. "After that, I will have either buckwheat cereal or oatmeal, and both of them would be savory with olive oil."
She Fasts For 12 Hours
While Giada doesn't intermittent fast, she does do a form of fasting that involves her eating breakfast 12 hours after eating dinner.
"I start every single day with a cup of bone broth with collagen powder before I have anything else, and I try to fast for 12 hours between dinner and breakfast," she told AARP. "I know it's a lot, but somehow it becomes second nature after a while."
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She Eats Fresh Food
The kitchen icon cooks a lot of her own meals, and she makes sure everything she uses is fresh.
"My cooking still stays true to my Italian roots, with lots of delicious, fresh ingredients," she told TODAY. "Eating well is not about eliminating foods—it's about noting how they affect you and eating less of those that challenge your health. It's about finding the right balance for you."
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She Meal Preps
Meal prepping is another step Giada takes to help her eat better.
"I would meal prep at the beginning of the week and batch cook things like quinoa, brown rice, roasted sweet potatoes or cauliflower, and chicken broth. This made it easy to throw lunches together," she shared with TODAY. "Once you have everything prepped, it's super-simple to make delicious, nutrient-dense meals in a matter of minutes."
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She Loves Fregola
While most people think that pasta isn't super healthy, Giada told EatingWell that there are certain types to look for.
"Fregola is something I grew up on," she said. "It's a Sardinian pasta really, and it's kind of like orzo. It's a dried semolina that they put through a fine mesh that has little tiny squares, and they dry it in the sun. It's really, really fabulous. It's almost like the old world of making pasta in the days of my grandfather's time. In the early 1900s, when they would dry the pasta strands on the roof of the houses in the sun, it's the same idea that they do in Sardinia. It makes for great salads. It has a nice bite to it, so it's not like eating oatmeal or something that's gummy. So I love to load it up with greens and beans and all the things that add protein. It's also high in protein as far as pasta goes, and getting protein in every single meal is really important to me these days."
