Dr Scott Robinson PhD - Elite nutritionist to world champions, PhD Nutrition & Metabolism
London has a way of making the Marathon feel like theatre. For one weekend, the city becomes a stage for endurance in its most visible form - serious runners chasing ambitious times, first-timers hoping simply to reach the finish line, and thousands of others carrying their own reasons with them from start to finish. What the Marathon also does, though, is make a quieter truth easier to see.
Most people are already doing their own version of endurance every day. The parent getting everyone out of the house before nine is doing it. The person moving from meetings to deadlines to a commute while trying to stay switched on by late afternoon is doing it too. The founder, the student, the executive, the athlete, anyone trying to hold together a busy life without becoming entirely powered by caffeine and convenience, all of them are doing it in one form or another.
That is still endurance. It is simply wearing different clothes.
This is why food matters. Not because everyone needs to eat like a professional athlete, but because almost everyone benefits from food that supports the long run of modern life rather than leaving them chasing themselves by the middle of the afternoon.
One of the problems with modern snacking is that it is often reactive. Energy dips, appetite catches up, and people reach for whatever happens to be nearby. Many of those options solve the next ten minutes rather better than they support the next few hours. They are often low in fibre and low in real nutritional substance, which matters when the vast majority of adults in the UK still do not get enough fibre.
This is where teff becomes interesting.
Teff is an ancient grain traditionally used in Ethiopian and Eritrean cooking. It is rich in fibre, contains resistant starch, and brings more nutritional value than the refined snacks that dominate so much of modern life. A grain long associated with sustained energy feels entirely at home in the wider conversation around the Marathon, whether the person in question is running 26.2 miles or simply trying to get through a very full week with good energy and focus intact.
What I like about teff is that it adds something. It broadens the grains people eat, supports gut health, and helps bring more fibre into the diet without making food feel complicated.
Teffies take that grain and make it practical for modern life. Most people simply want something they can reach for that feels enjoyable, useful and more nourishing than the usual options. Teffies make teff easy to bring into the office, onto the school run, between meetings, between training sessions, or into that mid-afternoon moment when energy starts to dip and a more considered snack can make all the difference.
The London Marathon may end at the finish line. The longer run most people are doing tends to start again on Monday morning.