Gordon Ramsay's Healthy, Lean & Fit

THERE IS A LOT OF MISINFORMATION ABOUT HEALTHY EATING AROUND THESE DAYS.

It is widely agreed that consuming a diet of fried chicken, fries, cake, and cookies is not balanced or likely to be very beneficial for health! Our usual response is to try to cut down on the bad things like sugar, fat, and salt to improve our well-being. But to me, healthy eating is not just about avoiding the foods that we know are bad for us but about actively seeking out the good things and trying to eat as varied a diet as possible. This chapter is all about making good choices and finding new ways to add healthy ingredients to your meals.

One of the best ways to increase the amount and variety of nutrients and fiber in your diet is to consume more fruits and vegetables. The UK government recommends aiming to eat at least five portions every day, but recent findings suggest this number should be even higher. Happily, I love most fruits and veg, but I still need inspiration when it comes to trying new ones or finding ways to increase my daily intake. The salads, side dishes, soups, and even the snacks in this section will make hitting your five-a-day really easy.

Another way to eat your way toward better health is to ensure that you include lots of so-called superfoods in your diet. This term is controversial, because there is no official definition of a superfood, but it is generally considered to be an ingredient that punches above its weight in nutritional terms. The list includes nutrient-rich giants such as broccoli, avocados, kale, spinach, blueberries, quinoa, eggs, walnuts, and oily fish. While none of these foods have any actual magical powers, a diet that features a variety of superfoods will be very nutritious and a really positive step in the right direction.

As well as eating more beneficial foods, a great way to instantly improve your health is to cook more yourself. Many people rely on the quick fix of prepared meals without realizing that they are often very high in fat, salt, and sugar, not to mention artificial colors, flavorings, emulsifiers and stabilizers, and so on. In restaurant kitchens, almost everything is made from scratch, so the food, however fancy, is actually very simple. If you cook from scratch at home, you will always know exactly what goes into your meals (and into your mouth), and you can keep the all-important fat, salt, and sugar levels down.

The great bonus of improving the quality of the food you eat is that over time you will crave the bad stuff less and less. Your tastes will start to change and you’ll find healthy meals and snacks more satisfying than the greasy, sugary quick fixes you used to eat without thinking. It’s a virtuous circle—the better the food you eat, the better you feel, and the better you feel, the better food choices you make, the ultimate winner being your long-term health. You just have to get started…

REFINED CARBOHYDRATES AND SUGAR

When you begin to learn about nutrition, you discover that it isn’t always straightforward. Take carbohydrates, for example; all carbs provide the body with energy, but it turns out that there are good and bad sources. So-called good carbs are also known as complex carbohydrates because they are relatively difficult for the body to digest, due to their chemical structure and their fiber content. They tend to be whole or unrefined and because they take longer to break down, the energy they provide is released slowly and steadily for the body to access over time. Good sources of complex carbs include whole-wheat bread, brown pasta, oats, brown rice, peas, beans, and starchy vegetables. These carbs also provide a wide range of vitamins and minerals and will make you feel fuller for longer, thanks to the dietary fiber.

“Bad” carbs, on the other hand, are known as simple carbs and are either naturally very easy to digest (e.g., sugar) or have been processed or cooked in a way that removes all the good stuff that usually slows down digestion. These refined carbs are found in white bread, white pasta, cookies, cakes, and baked goods made with white flour. The lack of dietary fiber in these foods means that the energy they provide hits the bloodstream really quickly, causing blood sugar levels to spike and crash and leaving you tired, irritable, light-headed, and hungry for more. Over time, these fluctuating sugar levels may lead to weight gain, which can increase your risk of developing health problems like heart disease and possibly diabetes.

Because nutrition isn’t straightforward, there are two types of sugar, too. Naturally occurring sugars are found in fruits, vegetables, and dairy products and are not considered a problem for health as long as they are eaten in the form that nature intended; in fact, they can be an excellent source of accessible energy. But the other type, known as “free” sugar, is definitely considered a problem. Free sugars include those that are added to our food, like regular sugar, white and brown, as well as other sweeteners such as honey, maple syrup, corn syrup, palm sugar, agave syrup, and fruit juices. It is these sugars that we are advised to cut down on, because they provide lots of calories without much or any goodness and we tend to consume too much of them, not least because they are often hidden in prepared meals, snacks, and soda to make them taste better. Consuming too much sugar is one of the major causes of obesity and tooth decay around the world, and cutting back is a really positive way to improve your health. The recipes in this book do include free sugars such as honey, maple syrup, and agave syrup, but in small quantities and combined with complex carbohydrates and sometimes protein to slow down their effect.

FAT

Fat has had a hard time over the years. It’s been blamed for obesity, raised cholesterol levels, and heart disease, and we have been told to keep our intake to a minimum. But like many pieces of nutritional advice, the reality is not so simple; it turns out we actually need some fat in our diet to stay healthy. It’s a valuable source of energy and is essential for the absorption of various important vitamins like A, D, E, and K and for the production of hormones.

Like sugar and carbs, there are two main types of fat and, historically, saturated fat found in animal products like lard, butter, and cheese has been considered “bad” fat, while unsaturated fats from plant sources like olive, sunflower, and nut oils, as well as oily fish, is thought of as “good” fat. But a number of recent studies are questioning these long-held beliefs and are suggesting that saturated fat isn’t quite as bad for us as previously thought. While this may be good news for those of us who enjoy a nicely marbled steak and cooking with butter from time to time, the government guidelines haven’t changed, and we are still advised to keep our intake of saturated fat to below 20 grams a day for women and 30 grams for men.

Some of the recipes in this book use coconut oil, which is worth mentioning here because although it comes from a plant, it actually contains a lot of saturated fat—but it’s a special type of saturated fat that is thought to be helpful for weight loss by both reducing appetite and boosting metabolism. When buying coconut oil, choose the unrefined virgin variety because it is rich in these special fats.

There are also other forms of fat that are critical to good health; these essential fats (known as omega-3s) are good for your heart and important for learning and behavior. Good sources include oily fish like salmon and trout and, to a lesser extent, nuts and seeds like walnuts, chia seeds, and flaxseeds, and we should actively try to consume more of them.

Whether the fat comes from saturated or unsaturated sources, the key thing to remember is that fat provides, gram for gram, over twice as much energy as carbohydrates and protein. So if you are consuming too much fat without burning it off through exercise, the excess energy will be stored as body fat. Whatever the recent findings about fat being good for you, it is no time to celebrate with a plate of fish and chips!

A WORD ABOUT HYDRATION

Almost more important than what you eat is how much you drink. A human being can survive more than three weeks without eating but would die after three days without water. At least 60 percent of the body is water, and it is vital to keep liquid levels topped off throughout the day, particularly if you are exercising (see here for more information about hydrating for sports). It is recommended that we drink 6 to 8 glasses of water a day to ward off dehydration, which can give you a headache and make you feel irritable and drowsy. Happily, other drinks such as coffee, tea, milk, fruit juice, and smoothies all count toward your liquid intake over the day. On top of this, about 20 percent of the fluid we consume comes from the food that we eat, especially if we eat lots of fruits and vegetables—another reason to aim to beat our five-a-day target.