Detox your kitchen — and GLOW with health this summer

Want to look slim AND healthy this summer? Our major new series shows it’s not you that needs a detox — it’s what’s in your fridge and cupboards...

EFFORTLESS weight loss, improved vitality and a truly healthy glow — just from changing the way you eat? It sounds too good to be true, but all this week in the Daily Mail, Amelia Freer — nutritionist to the stars and author of bestselling book ‘Eat. Nourish. Glow.’ — shows how to transform yourself just in time for summer . . .

WHEN new clients come to see me, i begin by discussing the state of their kitchens. sometimes i pay a visit to open the cupboards and peer into their fridge. This is an essential first step to your new healthy way of living and transforming your relationship with food — because, believe me, you’ll never be truly healthy if you’ve got a fridge full of rubbish and cupboards bristling with packets of processed food.

The food you buy and keep at home says a lot about your diet and lifestyle. i firmly believe that if you clear the decks and stock your kitchen with fresh, brightly coloured, delicious and varied vegetables, fruit, pulses and proteins you won’t look back. And you’ll have all you need to make numerous healthy, glow-inducing meals.

i know from bitter experience that it’s hard to be healthy when you come home from work hungry and tired and peer into an empty fridge.

Don’t tell me that packet of biscuits you bought just in case your mother-in-law popped in or the tortilla chips left over from a recent party aren’t going to start looking rather tempting. But if you are properly prepared and have an organised fridge and freezer full of fresh, healthy food, you can bin the junk food with confidence.

A proper kitchen detox enables you to get the foundations right, get rid of the junk and become organised about what and how you are going to eat from this point on.

i’m very strict i n that i i nsist you must throw away All the junk — don’t be

tempted to keep a few packets or bottles in case of emergencies and don’t be worried about the waste.

Yes, it might be wasteful to throw away food but remind yourself that you are not a human dustbin. Give away the food if it makes you feel better, but my motto is: fill your bin, not your body.

Give your kitchen a detox and you will never waste food again because I promise you that everything you buy you will eat.

HERE’S WHAT HAS TO GO BREAKFAST CEREALS — ALL OF THEM!

These are processed packets of sugar and preservatives which will, inevitably, set you off on an all-day energy and sugar- craving rollercoaster, which causes mid-morning concentration dips and midafternoon energy slumps.

A bowl of cereal (even the socalled healthy ones) is just a bowl of sugary nothingness. It’s the worst way to start your day.

PROCESSED AND CONVENIENCE FOODS

Bin all your cans, ready meals and anything in a packet that comes with a long list of ingredients. This rubbish will simply leave you feeling rubbish.

Ready meals are heavily processed to the point where they no longer resemble their natural state or contain any nutrients. They are more likely to contain a long list of chemicals that leave your body crying out for nutrients.

MARGARINE

Chuck out those plastic tubs of dyed yellow chemicals — even the ones that carry dubious health claims. If you are Ok to eat dairy, chose organic butter instead.

CANNED MEALS

Get rid of tinned soups and spaghetti hoops. The canning process means foods are prepared in a way that makes them last longer, which reduces nutritional value, and may have added sugar, salt and preservative.

GLUTEN GRAINS

Wheat flour (even wholemeal), barley, bulgar wheat, couscous, pearl barley, rye, semolina, spelt as flour or in bread or crackers — they all contain gluten, a protein that the body finds particularly difficult to digest and can subsequently cause nausea and bloating.

It can also trigger an autoimmune reaction called coeliac disease in some people. Cut right down, experiment with alternatives (see opposite) and see how your body responds without it for a while.

Then see how it reacts when you reintroduce it — you know your body best.

SALAD DRESSINGS

Most bought salad dressings are a sickly, sugary way of trying to add flavour to your salad — why pay money for this when it’s so easy to make your own?

BISCUITS, CAKES, SWEETS

IT’s easier to kick the sugar habit than you think, but if you have anything sweet in the kitchen — even if it’s healthy, organic or gluten free — it will get eaten. so throw it out and don’t buy any more.

YOGHURTS

They may contain protein, probiotics and calcium, but most yoghurts aren’t t he healthy products we’ve been led to believe. You’ll get more probiotic bacteria from a capsule, and many yoghurts contain as much sugar as a can of fizzy drink.

FIZZY DRINKS

These are packed with sugar or artificial chemicals, which place an unnecessary burden on the body and trick your body into thinking it’s had sugar, hence they are still addictive. Into the bin now!

TABLE SALT

This contains additives to make it free-flowing, but it does not have any of the essential trace minerals we need to survive. Chuck it!

SUNFLOWER OIL/CORN OIL/DIET OIL SPRAYS

Chemically derived vegetable oils, such as canola (from rapeseed), soya, sunflower, safflower and corn oil go through an extraction process that uses industrial solvents.

Do you really want to eat oils that have undergone heating treatments and chemical processes — such as using a petroleum solvent to extract the oil?

It’s time to get rid of them.

WHAT TO REPLACE THEM WITH

PROTEIN

Allocate a shelf of your fridge to protein (fish, chicken or red meat) because this and non-meat protein (cooked pulses, nuts and seeds or dairy if you are not sensitive) should feature in every meal you eat. It’s the key to keeping you strong and healthy, preventing hunger and helping you fight the urge to snack.

SALAD AND VEGETABLES

Buy anything and everything you fancy and swap it around week by week so you get a good mix.

every meal should contain vegetables, so aim for a rainbow of colours (organic if possible) because the colour indicates the powerhouse of health-giving phytonutrients. Aim for ten portions a day. Yes, not five like everyone says — ten.

DAIRY ALTERNATIVES

ThOuGh dairy can be a useful source of protein for some people, I advise keeping it to a minimum (and organic) as it is often a trigger for digestive and other health problems (eczema, asthma).

I suggest trying a variety of alternatives such as coconut milk, nut milk or rice milk instead. I’m not a fan of soya milk because it is often highly processed, but if you have i t, choose organic and unsweetened.

Pop coconut yoghurts, feta and goat’s cheese in your fridge.

OLIVE OIL/COCONUT OIL

use olive oil cold for added flavour and dressings, and cook with coconut oil, butter, ghee or avocado oil, which have a slightly higher tolerance for heat. This means they are more stable when heated and their nutrients are not degraded by heat, in the way that olive oil’s nutrients are.

GLUTEN-FREE FLOURS

Look out for coconut flour, rice flour, gram (chickpea) flour for baking and thickening sauces.

Most people can tolerate oats, but get creative with almond flour, buckwheat, chestnut, corn (or maize), hemp, millet, polenta, potato flour, sago, soya flour and tapioca to free you from a dependence on wheat.

RICE AND PASTA

Stock up on brown rice, a selection of pasta — including wholewheat and gluten-free — and noodles or rice paper wraps for treats. Try quinoa, a rich source of protein, and invest in a spiraliser, which transforms vegetables into noodles.

HERBS AND SPICES

TUMERIC has immune supportive properties. Sea salt is a good source of mi- nerals. Apple cider vinegar is excellent in dressings.

EXTRACTED by Louise Atkinson from Eat. Nourish. Glow. by Amelia Freer (Harper Thorsons, £16.99). To order a copy for £12.74 (25 per cent discount), visit mailbookshop.co.uk or call 0808 272 0808. Offer until May 9, free p&p for a limited time only.