You really are what you eat

Who do the Hollywood greats turn to when they want to get in shape? Who helps members of the Royal Family and world leaders to boost their energy levels, and inspires amazing performances from world-class athletes?

The answer is Dr Gillian McKeith, one of the world's most highly acclaimed clinical nutritionists. Clients may have to wait for months for an appointment at her exclusive clinic in North London, but you can benefit from her sought-after regime for super health straight away in our exclusive series starting today.

Here, she explains how to start the plan that will allow you to eat more and lose weight - plus, we provide a cut-out-and-keep guide to the first three days' eating and exercise tips, and you can read a first-hand account from someone who has reaped the benefits of Dr McKeith's wisdom.

Currently presenting the popular You Are What You Eat series for Channel 4, and the author of a book of the same title, Dr McKeith guarantees that if you do what she suggests, you will be slimmer, fitter, more energetic, sexier, happier and improve your health for life.

Challenge yourself and open your mind to the new possibilities. You have no idea how well you can really feel, how much energy you can attain, how sharp-minded you could really be, how much happiness you can exude - until you try my programme.

We really are what we eat. If you eat lifeless, overprocessed food, your body will feel lifeless. If you eat vital, vibrant foods with lots of fruit and veggies, you will be full of lifeforce and vitality, too. It's that simple.

When clients come to me for a dietary makeover, they always ask: 'Will I be hungry?' And my answer is always no.

On my Diet Of Abundance, which I will begin to outline today, you will end up eating more food and a much wider variety than you do now. Any cravings will be banished for good because, finally, you will be feeding your body properly. (Note: all ingredients are available in health food stores and larger supermarkets).

The following tips will help you to get started:

Write down everything that you eat for the next few days and I'm sure you'll discover that you consume the same things over and over again. From now on, go for variety in your diet to deliver more nutrients;

The nasties challenge

How many of the following do you consume on average in a week? Be completely honest.

Cups of coffee, cups of regular tea, fried food, ready meals, fats, packet foods, chocolate, sweets, pasta, baked goods, sugar in tea or coffee, tinned food with added salt, red meat, non-organic poultry, glasses of cow's milk, slices of white bread, units of alcohol (1 unit = 1 small glass of wine or half a pint of lager).

Foods to avoid

To boost your health and the way you feel and look, there are certain foods you need to delete completely from your diet or at least cut back on significantly. The following can be downright harmful to your health and well-being.

Processed foods:

Processing of any kind changes the original food and the proportion of nutrients within it.

Many pre-packaged, plasticwrapped, microwaveable, fast and boil-in-the-bag-type foods have gone through a multitude of processes before they end up in the supermarket.

These foods have little nutritional value. What's more, many of the 3,000 food additives approved for use in the processing of food can cause allergic reactions, stress on the liver and may lead to some cancers.

Coffee: Coffee contains caffeine, a stimulant drug also present in tea and cola drinks. Too much caffeine raises blood pressure and leaves you feeling anxious and restless.

The paradox is that although coffee is a stimulant, it over-taxes the adrenal glands, tiring out both them and you. All coffee, even decaffeinated varieties, can stimulate skin-ageing. It also reduces the absorption of iron and zinc by up to 50 per cent, which can compromise your immune system.

Wean yourself off coffee slowly. In its place, start drinking a rotation of herbal teas, such as peppermint, camomile, dandelion and nettle.

Fatty foods: Too many fatty foods, including red meat, dairy products, fried and 'junk' foods, can clog arteries, deplete calcium levels and compromise the function of the heart and other vital organs.

Not only do too many fatty foods make you overweight, they also lead to high blood pressure, food allergies, heart disease, diabetes, eating disorders, liver and kidney problems, osteoporosis, arthritis, colon, breast and uterine cancers.

Simple carbs: Too many sweet foods and refined 'white' foods, can cause severe blood-sugar imbalances, mood swings, a lower resistance to infection, hyperactivity and hamper the function of the spleen, liver, pancreas and intestines.

Always choose wholegrain foods and use natural sweeteners, such as honey, sparingly.

Dairy Products: Cow's milk is high in fat and the protein casein, which is hard for humans to digest properly. This is why cow's milk can trigger allergic responses such as asthma, earache, runny nose, catarrh, skin rash, lethargy and irritability.

If you are lactose intolerant (which means you lack the enzyme lactase which breaks down lactose in milk) you may suffer from bloating, flatulence, diarrhoea or constipation.

More easily digestible alternatives are goat's milk, soy, rice, nut, triple grain and oat milks. If you cut out dairy foods from your diet, be sure to keep up your calcium intake by eating tofu, legumes, nuts and seeds, amaranth and leafy greens.

If you must drink cow's milk then boil it first. This breaks down the large indigestible molecules.

Alcohol: It puts a big strain on your digestive system and liver.

The liver converts alcohol into acetaldehyde, a toxic cousin of formaldehyde used in tanning leather and embalming.

Too much alcohol can lead to obesity and its connected problems, blood- sugar imbalances, fatigue, sluggish organs and cell tissue degeneration.

Foods to eat

Don't let anyone tell you there's nothing tasty left to eat these days. I want you to eat more food than you've ever eaten before. But now you're going to eat the right foods that will keep you fit and slender.

Living foods: These are raw foods - i.e. ones that have not been cooked or processed. As a result, they retain their valuable enzymes, important for the digestion process and vital for nourishment, energy and to balance our metabolism.

Eat as much raw fruit and vegetables as possible.

Energy grains: Rich in nutrients, grains are your basic energy food. Almost all wholegrains, like those listed below, are beneficial to health.

But processed grains behave like sugar when eaten, rushing into the bloodstream and causing bloodsugar imbalances, sugar cravings, mood swings and weight gain.

Wholegrains, however, offer a healthier, slower release of energy. Here are some I recommend and why. Cook in water according to their instructions and use as you would rice, pasta or potatoes:

What about wheat? Most of us eat far too much wheat. Although it's a healthy grain, eating too much of it can ultimately exert a negative effect on the blood and organs, leading to food intolerances and allergies. It has, in fact, become highly allergenic due to its excessive use in the West.

Substitute other grains wherever possible, but don't worry about eating wholewheat in moderation.

Good Fats: I generally advocate foods rich in essential fatty acids (EFAs) such as nuts, seeds, fish and avocados.

These oil-rich foods contain healthy fats which are necessary for aiding weight reduction, lowering cholesterol, enhancing immunity and nourishing the reproductive organs, skin, hair and bone tissue - effectively lubricating our bodies.

Your body cannot make EFAs, so you must get them through the foods you eat.
Bountiful beans: Also known as legumes or pulses, beans are basically seeds from the pods of a specific group of plants. Most of them are packed with complete protein and contain almost no fat.

Because of their fibre content and unique nutritional qualities, beans are great for weight loss. They have also been shown to lower cholesterol, prevent heart disease and purge the body of unwanted toxins.

Finally, they are a good source of complex carbohydrates - essential to our biochemistry and physiology.

Despite the fad for low-carb diets, the truth is if we don't eat enough good carbohydrates we feel ill. All my patients who stopped eating carbs became weak, constipated, gaunt, irritable and depressed.

It's fine to cut out the bad, refined carbs such as cakes, biscuits and sweets - but the message here needs to be very clear: complex carbohydrates such as beans are essential for good health.

Protein sources:

Although protein is vital for our health and wellbeing, eating too much isn't good for you as the body cannot store the protein it doesn't immediately need. Instead, the liver converts excess protein into glucose and toxins, increasing your risk of poor health and weight gain.

Meat, fish, poultry, eggs and milk are rich sources of protein, but they aren't the best sources, as the liver finds it hard to digest all that fat as well as the antibiotics and other chemicals used to rear animal produce.

It's far better to get protein from less well-known sources such as grains, nuts, seeds, soybean products such as tofu, green leafy vegetables and sprouted seeds.

If you do wish to eat meat, avoid red meat and go for lean types such as turkey and chicken, which have a lower fat content, and oily fish which is rich in EFAs.

Nuts and seeds: These should be included in your diet regularly. They contain high levels of EFAs and a powerhouse of other nutrients. Sunflower seeds, flax seeds (or linseeds), alfalfa seeds, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, almonds, chestnuts, cashews, pecans, brazil nuts and walnuts are particularly beneficial.

You don't need to eat a lot of them - a teaspoon or two a day or every other day would more than do. Use them in cooking as garnishes, sprinkle on your cereal or eat a handful as a snack.

Soaking raw nuts or seeds in water for several hours or steaming them makes them easier to digest.

Good sweets:

Most of the sweets given to us by Mother Nature are great. Raw fruits are packed with live enzymes and antioxidants to boost immunity. I recommend you eat at least one or two portions of fresh seasonal fruits a day. Sweeteners that are fine to use occasionally as snacks or in cooking are rice syrup, rice and barley malt, honey, molasses, diluted apple or grape juice and pure maple syrup.

Extracted by Mandy Francis from You Are What You Eat by Dr Gillian McKeith (Michael Joseph, £12.99). ° Celador Productions

2004. To order a copy for £10 (plus £1.95 p&p), call 0870 161 0870.