CHEF ALESSANDRO MONTEDORO
Montedoro is the executive chef at Ritz-Carlton Abu Dhabi and author of Curative Cuisine, a cookbook that also provides information about the healing properties of various foods. Montedoro says he’s stopped taking any medication for some years now: “I solve all my problems by eating.” Here are the Italian chef’s top swaps.
Halve the sugar in your coffee
The caffeine kick will be more effective without the sugar and, in the long run, you’ll appreciate the flavour of the coffee even better. Take a first sip without any sugar, and then add half your normal dose.
The bitterness of the coffee that you’ve just tasted will help you feel the sugar more and, voila – half the calories gone. You save 25 calories for every spoon of sugar you avoid.
Switch to non-stick pans
Although olive oil is crammed full of vitamins and antioxidants, it contains more calories than butter: 100 millilitres contain 900 calories. Non-stick pans are the solution. Only a few drops of oil are enough to cook anything you want and you can cut back on up to 100 calories per meal.
Add water to oil for salad dressings
Instead of liberally pouring olive oil over your healthy greens, shake up 20 per cent olive oil, one spoon of mustard, 40 per cent lemon juice or balsamic vinegar and 40 per cent water using a squeeze bottle. You can add more protein to your salad because you just dropped nearly half of your dressing’s calories.
Go Greek
Many people trying to lose weight turn to zero-fat plain yogurt that, in addition to being low in flavour, is usually high in chemicals to get it to its zero-per-cent-fat status. I would suggest switching to Greek yogurt – both zero-fat and Greek yogurt have a similar calorie count (about 50 per serving). Add fresh fruit and almond flakes for an 80-calorie super-snack.