1. EATING PLAN
Work out what kind of eating plan/diet will suit your personality. I have tried every diet in the universe and settled on my own eating plan: 5:1:1. On five days I eat healthily, carbs before lunch and no sweets. I have breakfast, a main meal and a light meal. Then there is a BLOW OUT/INDULGENCE DAY when I eat whatever I like, followed by a DETOX/FASTING DAY when I restrict myself to porridge then juices, smoothies or vegetable soup. On the detox day I take it easy.
Note: obviously the blogger's eating plan is not suitable for students, kids or families; some thought will be required to work out what is best for your situation.
Note: whatever your eating programme, your health will not improve without regular exercise. (Exercise Matters)
2. Eat LESS
- Have breakfast, one main meal and one light meal
- Stop eating before you feel full
- Reduced calorie intake has been shown to increase longevity in experiments
- THIS GUIDANCE DOES NOT APPLY to children, students taking exams or invalids.
- One portion is only a couple of tablespoons
- Where possible wash/scrub; don't peel -- the highest mineral content is just under the skin - unless you're dealing with waxed fruit. (Spray the skins of potatoes or sweet potato with olive oil and season with pepper and a little salt before baking.)
- Have at least one raw vegetable or fruit a day
- A healthy week's eating would be two meals of oily fish, one of poultry and maybe one of red meat, along with lots of vegetables, raw and cooked. The rest should be vegetarian. (Students should have protein daily)
- Combine grains and pulses to get the same amino acids as meat. Good combinations are: wholemeal bread and peanut butter (even better with banana); rice and any beans; rice and any pulses; pasta and milk or cheesy sauces. Sesame, sunflower and pumpkin seeds together are considered to have the same protein value as steak.
- Spray oils, don't pour. (Inexpensive plastic spray bottles can be found at high street chemists.)
- Go for meats with a high-protein low-fat ratio, eg turkey.
- Experiment with fish: coley is easy on the wallet but has good texture and flavour.
- If you use a fatty meat, make it in a casserole a day ahead and refrigerate overnight. The fat will float to the surface, harden and lift or scrape off easily.
- Mix mayonnaise with strained low fat yoghurt in a 1-4 ratio to make wonderful tangy dressings for salads and sandwiches.
Too much salt can lead to high blood pressure. Gradually reduce salt levels and use herbs (fresh or dried), spices and chillis instead.
Chinese cooking becomes less healthy if too much soy sauce is used. Reduced salt soy sauces are now available but be careful - some low-salt brands are pretty horrible. The Blog recommends Amoy and Pearl River Bridge brands, available in most Chinatowns. In general, around 30% salt-reduced seems to be the level to aim for.
7. REDUCE SUGAR
- Try to use unrefined sugar. The darker the unrefined sugar the more the food value.
- Remember: white carbs turn to sugars then fat almost immediately.
- For baking, consider fruit spreads as a sugar substitute.
- Sugar and butter are an unhealthy combination; look for cakes and cookies using vegetable oil instead of butter.
- Make your own breakfast cereal (Ultra Granola) to reduce sugar, cut preservatives and save money.
- Satisfy sugar cravings with fruit or nuts.
- Include more non-white foods. Sweet potatoes have more food value than potatoes; wholemeal flours, rice and pasta have a lovely nutty texture and are great for digestion.
- Try spelt flours for baking; buckwheat and chick pea flours for pancakes and roll-ups/wraps
Cheese is the downfall of many trying to diet and/or stay healthy. Small amounts of cheese are great occasionally and won't harm you. Luckily lovely fingers of different types of cheese are available at one of our favourite food floors at about 50p per stick. They fill the gap when you are craving something creamy and salty and only cheese will do. But one stick is 200 (!) calories. Generally, try not to have blocks of cheese in the fridge. It has a siren quality; it is too easy to slice off a chunk on the way to the kettle or to 'treat' yourself to a fried cheese sandwich because 'the cheese needs to be used up!!'
For cooking or for cheese boards, some 30% reduced fat cheeses -- cheddar (Davidstow), brie (M&S) and cream cheeses -- can be surprisingly good. 67goingon50 tried many reduced-fat cheddars and stopped at Davidstow; no doubt cheese producers are trying to solve the problem of reduced fat cheese which tastes like chalk!
10. MAKE MEAT GO FURTHER
Meat is expensive but nothing beats its taste and texture, Serving meat in a stew or casserole with plenty of root vegetables and pulses saves money and lowers cholesterol levels. Mince can be mixed with pulses for lower-calorie, lower-cholesterol burgers but you'll need to spice judiciously to keep people happy.
11. DISCIPLINE NOT DEPRIVATION
Giving up entire categories of food can be a mistake for many people. Usually, "All things in moderation" is more effective than crash dieting.
12. THE POLITICS OF FOOD (opt)
When I was in charge of the Lunch Club, I insisted on a short period of silence before the meal started to reflect on the people whose hard work brought the meal to the table: farmers, pickers, packers, drivers, supermarket workers. 67goingon50 would like the UK to be self-supporting in food production and while cheaper food prices are fine, farmers need to be paid a decent rate for their food.
Sunday evenings are an opportunity for families to acknowledge people around the world who go to bed hungry. Provide a light vegetarian meal: soup, bread/crackers, vegetarian spreads and fruit. No dessert. Monday breakfast could be more substantial than usual to compensate.
B Lee/Bright Sun Enterprises accept no liability for the consequences of any actions taken on the basis of the information provided.
No comments:
Post a Comment