Western Morning News (Saturday)
Be careful what you eat... unless being polite
MY efforts at losing winter weight have not been helped by my mother-inlaw’s cooking. It’s taken until now for me to recover sufficiently to recount the tale.
Just before Christmas she decided to make us a cake. She borrowed a 7” tin, but then wanted an 8”. So I ran round the corner with the tin to where she lives. She didn’t respond to the doorbell. Frustrated, I phoned her, only to learn she turns the power off to the bell to save money...
Anyway, she then got on with the cake. Unfortunately, poor old Mrs E got her fahrenheit and centigrade muddled up and the cake was cooked at 300 degrees within 10 minutes. It was also as deep as a discus as she should have stuck to the smaller tin.
Undeterred, she read the recipe and noted that it needed feeding with brandy. This was a bit of a problem as she’s teetotal. So she rummaged through her cupboards and found a substitute – cider vinegar – which was poured liberally over the cake before she got going on the marzipan. Too many egg whites meant that it was gloopy, but never mind, “on with the battle” as she would say. Royal icing was a step too far, so she bought that ghastly oily pre-cut paste and squelched it on, topping it off with a bit of plastic holly.
The creation was duly delivered to us. We had no idea of its hidden depths and accepted a slice. Hubs suddenly made a dash for the loo while my daughter and I had to turn our backs wondering if we’d ever be able to swallow it. With gritted teeth we said “mmm... delicious”.
David Attenborough wouldn’t approve, but the cake landed up in landfill and I dread to think how it could be changing the planet.
I’ve been harsh though, because Mrs E will be 98 this year. You won’t catch me making Christmas cakes for my ungrateful family if I get to that age. And she used to be a cracking cake maker, supplying the WI with produce that sold, well, like hot cakes. There was a small glitch once when someone found some fag ash in one of them but we can move on from that.
So I was somewhat relieved to find Eat Better Forever landing on my desk recently. It’s Hugh FearnleyWhittingstall’s latest tome and is a really interesting read. It has some of the most gorgeous, simple recipes in it and the vegetarian ones are absolutely delicious.
Fearnley-Whittingstall, multiaward winning writer and broadcaster and successful food campaigner, has taken a practical seven-step view of how we can transform our diet, useful for many of us in lockdown who are putting on weight and comfort snacking.
The author, whose 100-acre farm is on the Devon-Somerset border, admits to succumbing to unhealthy habits, snacking on crisps while watching TV, drinking too much beer, taking too much sugar and more – until he weighed in at over 13 stones. It was time to act, and although he still gets tempted, he’s doing his best to live by the advice he gives in his book.
“I’ve streamlined the approach I took to changing my own unhealthy eating habits down to seven easy-tofollow principles, which help weight loss, turbo-charge health and achieve a healthy, balanced immune system” he says. “And that benefit, as Covid-19 has grimly insisted, could be literally lifesaving. There’s never been a more important time to think about what you eat.”
Fearnley-Whittingstall doesn’t believe in one over-arching diet plan, which is why his book is so refreshing. It covers all bases but “allows you to pick ones that work for you rather than pin your diet on a single approach,” he says...
Go Whole Look at what’s been done to the raw ingredients to produce your food. Lots of industrial or chemical ingredients on the pack, means they’ll be processed.
Go Varied A narrow diet puts you at greater risk of disease. No single food can protect against diseases or conditions, obesity or gut health. A combination of nutrient-packed wholefoods just might.
Go With Your Gut People are only just waking up to the fact that healthy gut bacteria are as important as a healthy brain or heart and this is a principle factor in determining health, and potentially our longevity.
Reducing Refined Carbs Again, check labels, especially for sugar, anything ending in ‘ose’ – maltose, dextrose, fructose, glucose – and flour are just some of the things to avoid.
Factor in Fat Don’t worry about butter but do avoid partially hydrogenated fats used in processed foods.
Drink A pint of beer or a large wholemilk cappuccino isn’t great for a diet, so think of them as food or a substantial snack. Drink herbal, black tea or coffee and if hungry drink water.
Eat Mindfully Think about your food. Don’t scoff it down in front of the TV but appreciate textures and sensations as you eat – even, I guess, if it’s your mother-in-law’s cake...
Extracts from Eat Better Forever by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, published by Bloomsbury, £26.
She rummaged through her cupboards and found a substitute – cider vinegar – which she poured over the cake