Princess Diana was surprisingly ahead of her time with breakfast she ate every day
Rachael Davis
Featured Image Credit: Tim Graham/Contributor/Getty Images
Princess Diana may have passed away 28 years ago, but that doesn’t seem to have diminished her star power.
The people’s princess’s enduring legacy might have something to do with how there’s something stubbornly modern about her image despite the near-three decades since her death.
And it turns out that she was ahead of her time where food was concerned, with Diana having preferred a breakfast option that’s become wildly popular in recent years.
Her former head chef, Darren McGrady, began working for her in the early 90s and was integral to her desire for a healthy and sustainable lifestyle.
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Speaking in a new video, McGrady shared that her go-to breakfast was seemingly plucked from a couple of decades into the future.
"When I became Princess Diana's private chef, she got her life back on track," he recalled in the YouTube video.
"She was patron of 119 different charities, she was working out at the gym three days a week, and just looking the best she ever did."
It turns out that the Princess of Wales had a particular penchant for overnight oats, which has become an exceedingly popular breakfast option through the 2010s and the first half of the 2020s.
Their popularity stems from their simplicity and nutritional content. All you have to do is leave your oats soaking in milk or water in the fridge overnight, softening them up without the need to cook them.
The result is a creamy texture, and they’re endlessly customisable with various fruits, nuts and berries, drizzled honey, and anything else you fancy.
McGrady said Diana would eat overnight oats on most mornings after first encountering the idea at a Swiss health clinic.
"Her go-to breakfast was something called overnight oats," he said.
"Now, today, overnight oats are really popular, everybody's eating them. They date back to 2012 - that's when you couldn't go on social media without seeing a recipe for overnight oats. But Princess Diana was eating them almost 20 years earlier in 1993."
McGrady continued: "She actually went to a Swiss health clinic, and there she had these overnight oats, and they were actually called bircher muesli and they were invented by a Swiss nutritionist.
"She thought they were really good and all the ingredients were super healthy.
"She stole the recipe, came back and said, 'Darren, I want these for breakfast every day.'”
Speaking to Hello!, nutritionist Charlotte Faure Green explained that oats are rich in a soluble fibre called beta-glucan, as well as various antioxidants, magnesium, iron, manganese, zinc, and a litany of B vitamins.
"While they give gut-friendly fullness and nutrient density in one hit, everyone is different,” Green explained. “Some might not thrive on a sweet or carb-heavy breakfast. Some people find it guarantees sweet cravings later in the day or even makes them feel sluggish."
Touching on overnight oats’ reputation as a ‘dessert for breakfast’, she continued: "They sell the ultimate lifestyle – that you can indulge without restriction, all whilst hitting your macros. It's pure influencer gold."
For the best health benefits, Green recommended rolled oats over the quick-cook stuff. "They will keep some chew and provide slower digesting carbs, helping to avoid big blood sugar spikes," she said.