800 and under but still tasty
IF your New Year’s resolutions to lose weight are starting to waiver, the latest cookbook based on Dr Michael Mosely’s Fast 800 diet might help inspire you.
The Fast 800 Easy is written by his wife Dr Clare Bailey, a general practitioner, and cookery writer Justine Pattison, and follows on from their first book based on the Fast 800 diet.
Mosely’s book, The Fast 800, has been the bestselling diet book in New Zealand since its publication in 2019.
It advocates keeping your calories under 800 a day by eating a low carbohydrate, Mediterraneanstyle diet for two to 12 weeks, then moving to an intermittent fasting phase, the 5:2, before moving on to a maintenance phase.
Bailey’s latest book was developed during the early months of the Covid19 pandemic. Aware that everyone was stuck at home with their boxsets and snacks, she set out to create a ‘‘supersimple’’ cookbook to make it as easy as possible for people to eat healthily and lose weight.
‘‘I threw myself into working out what moderately lowcalorie, lowcarb Mediterraneanstyle meals I could produce for our household of five from our existing stores.’’
She posted the recipes on Instagram and ended up being followed by thousands of people who wanted to lose their lockdown weight gains.
While there are occasions when there is no substitute to cooking with fresh ingredients, particularly when they are in season, she believes people get too hung up on using ‘‘fresh’’.
‘‘Tinned, bottled and frozen foods are often not only cheaper but also just as tasty and, contrary to popular misconceptions, highly nutritious.’’
Many of the principal ingredients of a Mediterranean diet — oily fish, nuts, olive oil, beans, lentils and wholegrains — can be freezer or storecupboard staples.
Her recipes are designed to be added to or bolstered with more carbohydrates for family members not trying to lose weight.
‘‘That way you can sit down and eat together, and avoid cooking lots of different meals.’’
THE BOOK
The Fast 800 Easy, by Dr Clare Bailey and Justine Pattison, Published by Simon & Schuster Australia, RRP $35