Slimming secrets of the queen of cakes
HER job involves tasting 36 cakes a day. So how on earth does Mary Berry manage to keep her trim figure?
The answer, according to the 81-year- old queen of cakes, is simple – soup and salad.
With the latest series of the Great British Bake Off under way, petite Miss Berry revealed that counting calories, filling up on vegetables and using a smaller plate were also essential steps to maintaining her waistline while judging all the sweet treats on the show.
The star of the hit BBC1 programme also said sugary drinks should be banned and that she won’t give them to her grandchildren.
Speaking to next month’s Good Housekeeping magazine, the presenter said: ‘I have soup at lunchtime and I know exactly how many calories are in that soup. I don’t have bread with it but I might have a salad if it’s very hot.
‘I’ll have a couple of starters if I am in a hotel in the evening. That’s it. Otherwise I will put on weight because I am having to taste 36 cakes a day. It’s my job. Freak diets, I don’t think work. It’s control. Have a smaller plate. I have mountains of vegetables. I have twice as much as my husband does.’
Healthy eating is clearly a passion for Miss Berry, who also revealed that her five grandchildren will drink only water and that she believes deep-frying food is completely unnecessary.
She said: ‘We need to teach parents about the right foods to give children. It’s very difficult.
‘Many people think children must have chips. I don’t think any household should have a deep fat fryer. I never fry a doughnut! I think it’s quite unnecessary. If you want a doughnut, go and buy one once in a blue moon.
‘It’s about everything in moderation. It isn’t what’s in children’s lunchboxes, it’s when they walk around the corner from school with money they’ve been given and buy all the other things.
‘I honestly think there shouldn’t be sugared drinks. All my grandchildren drink water all through the day. I’ve just had them to stay and at breakfast they have water. They don’t even know what sugary drinks are.’
Married to Paul Hunnings since 1966, Miss Berry said the key to their harmonious union was her ability to be quiet and simply listen: ‘My husband always says women talk far too much! We have a lot of peaceful times.
‘We’re very happy together. We don’t argue. My father said to my husband: Never go to bed on an argument. Always get it right before you go to bed. It’s quite true.’
She has credited her mother Marjorie’s enthusiasm for cookery and the kitchen for her long life – she lived until the impressive age of 105.
And the star confessed to thinking about the reaction of viewers when considering her diet.
‘I eat carefully because people don’t want to see a large person judging cakes. They’ll think to themselves, that’s what happens when you eat cake.’
However, she has previously admitted to indulging: ‘I think to eat cake is very good for us, but it’s the size of the slice and how often you have it.’