The Zen Diet Revolution (9 page)

Beans and pulses
– there is a huge range of beans and pulses that you can use to ring the changes in your meals: lentils (orange, brown, green and Puy), pinto beans, chick-peas, butter beans, kidney beans, etc. I know canned produce could verge on ‘processed’, but if you buy the beans canned in water and preferably without added sugar and salt, then they are a really handy standby for quick meals. Remember we aren’t trying to be totally puritan here, just changing the way you eat for the better.

Cereals
– go for porridge oats, sugar-free muesli or lowfat flakes; health-food shops have a huge variety of sugar-free, wheat-free and different types of cereals. Use your imagination and add dried fruit or fresh/frozen berries to your cereal. Put cinnamon in your porridge, yogurt on your muesli – all great additions to your Zen Diet.

Flours
– making your own bread or pastry is pretty simple, and if you are the one adding the ingredients, you can make sure it is as wholesome and nutritious as possible. There are also some great wheat-free flours available if you are on a gluten-free or wheat-free diet, and leading supermarkets supply some amazing bread mixes that are so much better than the ready-made stuff as a lot of the ‘nasties’ have been left out. You can even make some really good cakes/biscuits with wholesome ingredients (see, I am not totally anti-cake and biscuit!), and there are some recipes in the back of the book that are great for treats.

Condiments
– flavours are paramount in keeping you interested in your food. There are many subtle tastes that we miss when we eat ready meals or highly processed foods as they are often drowned in salt or sugar and we can’t seem to get beyond that to find the taste of the food itself. Discover herbs and spices; if you like a bit of salt, try some of the Himalayan or mineral salts available – you only need a hint to bring out the amazing flavours in meat, fish and vegetables. If you have ever made a curry from scratch, you will know that the process of adding the spices is almost
like alchemy: each one you add builds up a layer of flavour that can only be described as mystical! Try getting a specific spice mix from a specialist (
see
Suppliers) or buy them separately and grind your own blend. I promise you it will beat any jar of curry sauce hands down. Herbs are a delicious way of adding subtle tastes to a dish; not only can you buy them dried, but if you have a garden or even a window box, you can grow your own. Nothing beats snipping off a few sprigs of parsley or basil from your own plants and tossing them straight into a simmering sauce on the stove – the scent is heavenly. The Hobo Packets in our recipe section just beg for a handful of herbs, so get growing! Other great additions to your condiments are soy sauce, olive oil and balsamic or wine vinegars, all of which can be used to create subtle or striking flavours to a variety of dishes.

Sweeteners
– every now and then we want a little bit of sweetness, and so a jar of raw honey or agave syrup is the perfect way to get the taste, but with a bit of goodness added. Honey is an astonishing food and, when eaten in moderation, has an enormity of health benefits as well as tasting delicious. Use it sparingly in recipes that call for sugar or where you want a hint of sweetness, such as in your porridge or to take the tartness from stewed apple. Another excellent sugar alternative is stevia, a by-product of a leaf, which used to be quite hard to buy, but is now available as a calorie-free sweetener that you use as you would sugar – the manufacturers state that a sachet provides the same sweetness as one teaspoon of sugar.

Extras
–
things like sugar-free jam, sugar-free peanut butter, etc., are all fine to have around, but do use them in moderation.

In a Zen Diet fridge, you will expect to find fresh meat, fish, vegetables, salad, olives, organic skimmed milk and small amounts of other dairy such as Parmesan cheese. Fresh fruit juice is fine, but drink it in moderation as it is surprising how many calories you can stack up with a large glass of juice. Fill a 250ml glass with half juice, half water. Plain live yogurt and kefir are brilliant additions to your daily diet.

Kefir is a fermented milk drink from the northern Caucasus region of eastern Russia. It is prepared by culturing a mix of yeast and bacteria known as kefir grains in milk, and kefir has been scientifically proven to benefit the gastrointestinal tract and the immune system by penetrating the intestinal lining, thereby improving the ‘housekeeping’ of the gut and helping the body become resistant to pathogens. It contains strains of friendly bacteria, including
Lactobacillus caucasus
,
Acetobacter
species and
Streptococcus
species. Whereas yogurt has friendly transient bacteria that can help keep the gut clean and provides a source of food for the bacteria that live there, kefir’s yeasts
Saccharomyces kefir
and
Torula kefir
can actually colonize and create a system of defence. Making kefir is easy; you can obtain a starter culture from a variety of online
suppliers (
see
Supplier section), and one sachet of starter can be used for up to six batches of kefir. Add the sachet to a litre of room-temperature organic cow’s, sheep’s or goat’s milk and leave for 24 hours to ferment. It makes a curdled, runny yogurt-like drink which you can use on its own or blend into a smoothie (
see
Recipes) or you can add it to muesli or granola for a nutritious breakfast. Once it has fermented, put it in the fridge, it should keep for five to six days; you can then start another batch by using 100ml of the kefir added to your milk using the same process as before.

Have lots of good-quality meat, fish and vegetables, but dump the ice cream and ready meals. If you want a quick meal from frozen, make a double batch of pasta sauce or stew and freeze some for later or bag some wholesome home-made soups that you can easily reheat. Instead of ice cream make your own delicious frozen yogurt – it’s so simple: just fill a freezer-proof tub with plain yogurt, add chopped-up or pureed fruit, stir and place in the freezer – a quick, nutritious snack or after-dinner dessert.

Now you have sorted your kitchen, you need to tackle the art of ‘eating out’ Zen-style!

Studies in the US have shown that using a bigger fork can help reduce your food intake! When using a fork 20 per cent larger than normal, the intake of food overall was less.
¹

When you are trying to lose weight, eating out is a big challenge, mainly because studies have shown that the restaurants offering the most food, and indeed the highest-calorie foods, get the most customers. I myself have found it is very hard to manage the conflict between wanting to get value for money and the urge to lose weight. What we see as value for money is being measured in calorific terms; basically, we feel that the more calories we get, the better deal we have, which is the exact opposite of what we are trying to achieve. The truth of the matter is that, unfortunately, when dining out it’s difficult to make sure you’re eating the right foods. This is because most of the factors are outside your control. You don’t know what kind of oils they’re using to cook food or make the sauces. You don’t know what kind of seasonings are being added or in what quantities, but you can bet there’s a lot of salt!

Because profit drives the recipe, the food is probably not of the highest quality and it may not be fresh. The reality is that we don’t want to purchase extra fat or get heart disease, but something is inbuilt: we feel terrible going to an all-you-can-eat buffet and only having one helping. Likewise we feel it is a terrible thing to buy a salad
for the same price that we could have had a steak and chips. When eating out, we need to be aware that the whole world is set up against us; everything in that environment is arranged to make us eat more and to take in the most calories. It is rare that you will find a chef cutting the cream or fat in anything you eat. Often it is better to order the salad option, than to fight through the calorific nightmare that is the standard restaurant. At some places you can get your whole daily calorific intake in one single meal.

When out on the town, it is also extremely hard to keep down the calories. So, for example, you drink a pint of beer, you may as well be eating a slice or two of bread; the calories are about the same, but the damage to the body is more so. However, most people wouldn’t see four or five pints as overly excessive on a Saturday night or for their birthday, and the same people would think you were slightly mad if you sat there and consumed five to ten slices of bread in one go! The other problem with drinking is that it loosens your discipline and you often find yourself eating something you didn’t plan to.

So what can we eat whilst we are out and how do we avoid getting caught out?

1.   The most powerful tool in your arsenal is the salad bar – if you can go somewhere that offers an unlimited salad bar, where you can have as much as you like, then you can fill up on salad – that way, you won’t be able to eat as much. However, be aware that some restaurant chains’ idea of salads is pasta, potatoes and such like
smothered in mayonnaise and oils. You should avoid this and stick to the main vegetable part of the bar, such as lots of lettuce, tomatoes, beetroot and the other usual salad ingredients. Use only a small amount of dressing and steer clear of the creamy-looking sauces and dressings.

2.   Drinks – water of any variety, diet cola or lime and soda. Many of us have used fruit juices as an alternative to alcoholic drinks only to realize that they often contain the same, if not more, calories due to the high level of fruit sugar as opposed to the sugar contained in wine or beer. Drinks are often the easiest way to put on fat as they are easy to consume and cause your blood sugar to spike quickly.

3.   One other important point to remember is to request exactly what you want – it may cause some discomfort, but if you want to lose weight or eat healthily, then you need to avoid food that has been anywhere near a deep-fat fryer, such as chips or fried rice. If the dish you want comes with chips or anything else fried, request plain boiled rice or new potatoes – if they can’t do that, then ask for some of the available vegetables to be added instead. Always remember that you are paying for the meal YOU want. I have not had a problem so far getting an alternative to go with my steak, but I have seen a heated argument between a bodybuilder and a waiter when the former asked for an egg-white omelette! There are limits to what most restaurants will do.

4.   Ask about condiments – your best-laid plans can be destroyed by the sauce. Remember you are living in a fat-fuel obsessed world where every restaurant or fast-food joint is catering for people with an urge for fat, and when you order your steak and salad, it often comes drenched in a creamy sauce, which has more calories than the whole thing put together. So, if in doubt, leave it out. It’s not worth that one moment of ill discipline and indulgence; indeed, these exceptions that we make for ourselves are a means by which our habits are broken – the exceptions will become the rule, so focus on permanently making good food choices. When eating out, more than any other time, addict’s logic comes into play. There’s a reason why in this circumstance you should change all the rules you are applying to yourself – it’s somebody’s birthday or some other special event, or you deserve it or you don’t eat out that much – whatever the environment is you need to reward yourself or celebrate by doing what’s good and healthy for you for your long-term health and happiness. Also, be aware the cheaper the meal, as a general rule, the higher the calories! Be prepared to spend a little more to get less fat!

5.   Don’t start with a starter – period – unless you are having the starter as your main, which is a great idea to keep down your calories. However, most starters are loaded with fat – usually deep-fried and not particularly nutritious. They call them ‘appetizers’, but you don’t need
it; have a nice main meal and savour every mouthful instead of devouring courses for the sake of it.

6.   Ditch the dessert – after a big main meal, do you really need a dessert? Ok, maybe
need
is the wrong word as no one needs dessert. You may want one, but chances are you are about to load another 300–500 calories on top of your meal. If you really want dessert, then you may need to cut a deal with yourself – you’ll have salad and chicken breast at a reasonable 350 calories and then a simple dessert of, say, fruit and ice cream or sorbet.

You will have already gathered that one of the big problems with eating out is you don’t know where or what. You don’t know where the food is sourced, whether it came out of a packet, or indeed what’s in it. Even if you do ask, it may be that because it is reheated or cooked by someone else, the person doesn’t give you the correct information. This is one of the few times that standardization is good. We tend to think of fast-food places as being a negative influence on our dietary aims, but, in the case of some leading fast-food chains, this is not so. Because they clearly display the calories in every one of the meals, you can control your calories and have a meal without fear of eating too much. For example, if you have a burger, a garden salad and a diet cola, that’s around 500 calories which isn’t too bad for a meal, especially for a healthy adult male who weighs over 100 pounds; but likewise you can have a fish burger and a diet cola and know exactly what you are getting.

It is interesting to see that other fast-food chains are moving in this direction, and once you know the calorific values of the various meals on offer, you can start to make an educated choice which allows you to keep things under your control. In this sense, going to a non-standardized restaurant is more risky. I recently went to a wonderful Italian place in Covent Garden for breakfast and asked for scrambled eggs on toast. The meal that appeared was spectacular: it included scrambled eggs on toast, bubble and squeak, sausages, bacon and baked beans! Once it had appeared, it was far too wonderful to resist. Sometimes, going somewhere where things are less passionately produced can be more in line with our goals, even if it does not have the personal touch that other restaurants can offer.