The KarmaKarma idea originated during one of my many trips to the Netherlands where I had to attend a monthly meeting. It was a long trip of at least 160 km, one way. At 8 am I usually stopped at the same gas station just over the Dutch border to grab a coffee and eat a sandwich. The meetings lasted till noon and then I ate again in one of those places next to the highway. For my job I had to travel twice a week for 12 years, so I often ate in roadside restaurants, company canteens, train station or even on a plane.

When my career started, I used to enjoy eating sandwiches, croissants and basically any yummie snack I came across. The last few years I changed my eating habits as a routine check-up at work showed I had high blood pressure while I was only 36 and had a normal bodyweight. That was the wake-up call that all those unhealthy foods started wearing down my health.

I read many books on the influence of nutrition on your health. There are a lot of books like the DASH-diet, the books of Kris Verbrug but also the Flemish books of Pascale Naessens and Julie Van de Kerckhove, our flemisch Vegan Chef, inspired me to eat differently. It is scientifically proven that fast sugars (like those in white bread) lead to higher blood pressure. If you want to improve your blood pressure, you must eat at lot fresh vegetables, fruits and whole grain fibers.

Oats are excellent to replace bread, because they consist of 100% whole grain fibers and kill hunger for hours. Therefore, I occasionally brought a Tupperware with cooked oats to work. Pretty tasty, but quite annoying to carry a Tupperware box around. One time I was looking for something healthy to eat, but I couldn’t find anything and then all of a sudden I had a very clear idea: an individual portion of oats that I could easily prepare with hot water. It satiates hunger, it’s healthy and guiltfree.