Cook yourself healthy with these delicious recipes. . .

Posted by Sophie Harris in Book Extracts, Book News, Non-Fiction

On 7th June Piatkus publishes The 10 Secrets of 100% Health Cookbook, a groundbreaking new book that combines the secrets of how to become super-healthy with delicious, easy recipes that will help you put those dietary secrets into practice. Written by leading nutrition expert Patrick Holford and nutritionist and cookery consultant Fiona McDonald Joyce, this inspiring book is based on the latest findings on what we really need to eat to be healthy.

This book will make transforming your health easy and truly enjoyable. Each recipe includes an ‘at-glance’ guide to its essential nutrient content and glycemic load (GL), to enable you to create balanced menus – or you can take inspiration from the sample weekly menu plan provided. And to help you understand the theory behind the recipes, the 10 food rules for 100% health are included. With everything from simple breakfasts and delicious soups, scrummy salads and vegetarian meals, to imaginative fish and meat dishes, and even some healthy treats, you’ll find plenty of exciting dishes to choose from.

Extract from the Introduction

In my book The 10 Secrets of 100% Healthy People I examine the evidence to give you the ten golden rules that are consistent with the diet and lifestyle of the most healthy people, those who scored closest to 100 per cent. The purpose of this book is to turn what I outlined about diet in that book – and in 10 Secrets of Healthy Ageing – into delicious and delightful recipes, menus and health habits. A saying often attributed Mark Twain is, ‘Everybody talks about the weather but nobody does anything about it.’ This book is about ‘doing’ what’s necessary to help you keep your diet healthy in a way that is highly enjoyable. It is also about hard-wiring those healthy principles by generating a new set of eating habits, but it’s not some kind of austere discipline, because what will make it succeed for you is how good you will feel afterwards.

To this end I have enrolled Fiona McDonald Joyce, our kitchen wizard, who is a great cook as well as being a nutritional therapist and a mother. Her tasty recipes have tempted many people to eat healthily. Together we have created a simple set of daily targets, recipes and menus to help you to acquire new habits that will increase your health. Each recipe includes a rating on the areas I consider most important when planning my meals!

B – stands for vitamin-rich foods

Ω – is for essential omega fats, from fish, nuts and seeds

ORAC points – are a measure of antioxidant content

GLs – indicate a food’s energy, for better weight control

Here’s one of the delicious recipes for you to try. . .

Olive, Pine Nut and Feta Salad

Strong Mediterranean flavours and vivid colours make this a perfect summer lunch. It is a high scorer in the ORAC stakes too, and although it features cheese, feta is a sheep’s or goat’s milk cheese, making it easier to digest than ordinary cow’s milk cheeses. Serve with a simple green leaf salad or stuff into a wholemeal pitta bread.

Serves 2

50g (2oz) Kalamata olives, halved

25g (1oz) sun-dried tomatoes, chopped

75g (3oz) feta cheese, chopped or crumbled

2 tbsp pine nuts

2 tsp dried oregano

juice of 1/4 lemon

2 small, ripe tomatoes, diced

115g (4oz) mixed leaves, such as rocket, spinach and watercress

freshly ground black pepper

Mix the olives, sun-dried tomatoes, feta, pine nuts, oregano, lemon juice and pepper together in a bowl. Stir in the fresh tomatoes and the leaves. Taste to check the flavour and adjust if necessary.

Cook’s Notes

Allergy suitability: gluten/wheat/yeast free (depending on what the olives are stored in)

Vegetarian; Can be made in advance

B: 3 per serving

ORAC: 4 per serving

GLs: 3 per serving