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Thank you to the very lovely Polly of msmugs.com for my gift of this fabulous mug. Indeed, carbs are not the answer, certainly if they are highly refined and processed, but let’s not make an enemy of all carbs. The carbohydrate food group is huge. It includes all vegetables, fruit and grains as well as sugars. There are carbs in nuts and seeds, there are carbs in beans and lentils, there’s lots of carbs in milk. In fact, the only foods that contain very little to zero carbs are meat, fish, eggs, pure fats and oils and some forms of dairy foods such a mature cheeses and butter.

So the big conundrum is about how many carbs should we be eating and which forms of carbs are best. I am really opposed to using apps for counting food grams of any kind as this inevitably makes choosing what to eat an intellectual process rather than an instinctive, intuitive one. We need to think less and feel more about what to eat and when. Everyone has different needs based on many factors, not least activity levels, muscle-mass, gut bacteria and to a certain extent, genes.

The simple answer is to eat carbohydrate-based foods as they appear in nature, or as close to as possible; eat then in conjunction with a balance of other natural foods that contain protein and fat – think eggs, meat fish, cheese, and if they are foods that contained high levels of concentrated carbs, such as potatoes, grains (wheat, rice, corn, oats etc.) or something that contains sugars, keep them to a minimum.

Many of you know that I choose to avoid GPS foods (Grains, Potatoes and Sugars/Sweet Tasting Foods), as these are all high carbohydrate foods that convert very rapidly in to the blood stream as glucose (sugar). This can be a problem if your body doesn’t manage blood glucose levels well. The reality is that the majority of adults in the UK, indeed around the world, struggle to maintain healthy levels of glucose in the blood. We should be averaging around 1 teaspoon of glucose in the full 5 litres of our blood. This level will go up after foods, but the less it goes up and the more quickly it returns to base-line, the better for our health. To have chronically high blood glucose levels is so very bad for the brain and the body. It is something we all need to be aiming to avoid if we are to age well. Therefore, reducing or avoiding GPS foods serves that purpose.

Chronically high blood glucose levels can not only result in type 2 diabetes, it can cause fatty liver, fatty pancreas, general body fat increase, inflammation throughout the body, plaque accumulation in the brain, hardening of arteries and so many more life limiting illnesses, so it really is prudent, even if you have no apparent symptoms of ill health, to eat fewer of the foods that cause blood glucose to rapidly rise – the GPS foods.

If you are feeling tired, low, upset, bored, happy or all of the above, it can be so tempting to indulge in a doughnut or have a few biscuits with a cuppa because of the momentary pleasure a high carb food can bring. But refined grains, sweet foods, even potatoes very rapidly become sugar in the blood, triggering all sorts of reactions that can lead to wanting more to eat, to energy crashes, to insane sugar cravings and over the long term, serious health issues.

So no, Carbs Are Not The Answer however quick, convenient, cheap, available or desirable they may be. The longer you go without, the easier it is to continue to go without. Try 14 days of nothing sweet or starchy, not even fruit or artificial sweeteners (they are evil), stay off bread, crackers, pastries and biscuits; avoid processed foods as they will almost always contain some degree of grain flour, potatoes and / or sweetening agents, and notice how quickly you start to appreciate the joy of more subtly flavoured, natural foods. Use natural seasonings, herbs and spices to add nutrients and intertest and explore the joy of great quality natural fats and oils like butter, extra virgin olive oil, black seed oil, avocado and coconut to bring texture, flavor, unctuousness and ultimately satisfaction to your meals rather than going for a quick sugar hit. The long-term benefits are endless energy, clarity of mind, reduction in body fat and now more food monster moments…so why would you?

A new year and as usual a mad frenzy of media, TV and articles on the latest must-do extreme diets; extreme exercise regimes; dubious explanations of what works, what doesn’t, ugghh! I find it so wearing and can only imagine that most other people do too? It is no wonder that this overwhelm of largely contradictory information leaves people so frustrated that they give up by mid-Jan and go straight back to previous habits, good or bad.

So I feel now is the time to remind you of my 4 Fundamentals to Good Health which, if you manage to address over time, your body will give back with bountiful energy, stabilized weight, optimal body fat levels and great balance of brain chemistry and hormones – what more could you ask for? Also, if you create the habit of these principles, whether it’s Christmas, Easter, birthday celebrations or commiserations, there will never be a need to ‘blow it’ and then have to claw back your ‘good habits’ and have that gut-clenching feeling of ‘oh no, why I did I do that to myself … here we go again’…..

So here goes with a pared down super-simple reminder of what it takes to help your body help itself and a few new little gems that I have come across since I wrote the book: ….

1/ Keep you blood glucose (the sugar in your blood) under control: You can achieve this by greatly reducing your GPS foods Grains, Potatoes / Parsnips Sugars / Sweet Foods.

Understand the significance of eating foods that significantly increase blood glucose levels:high blood glucose = insulin response = turning on your fat storage system and turning off your fat burning capacity. Depending on how many diets you’ve tried and failed on; how much greater your waist measurement is to your hip measurement; how long you have been eating GPS foods on a daily basis; how long you’ve been on a low fat diet – then you may have a degree of insulin resistance, meaning you are in a high insulin and therefore fat storage state for hours at a time. But this is not only an issue of fat burning, or not, high blood glucose levels are highly inflammatory, trigger issues throughout the body, including in the brain – hence Alzheimer’s being spoken of as type three diabetes.

2/ Nurture & nourish your beneficial gut bacteria on a daily basis: do not underestimate the power and importance of having healthy gut bacteria. From enhanced mood, sustained concentration, reduction in anxiety and better capacity to cope with stress, through to improving insulin sensitivity and fat burning, increasing energy, enhanced digestion and better balanced immune system. Our gut bacteria influence every system in the body, If you look after them, they will look after you.

This means avoiding or greatly limiting the foods that preferentially feed the nasties that are inevitably living in your gut, which funnily enough are largely GPS foods and meanwhile super-charge your beneficial bacteria by following the 3Fs:

F no.1 is Fibre-rich food for their PRE-biotic content:
Plenty of pre-biotic foods to improve the good gut cultures. Prebiotics are fibres that your good bacteria feed and thrive on and in return they produce wonderfully beneficial by-products. Diversity is key, so go for a wide range of fibre-rich foods rather than just lots of one of two kinds.

Prebiotic foods include
• A rainbow of vegetables i.e. a wide range of colours and textures. Different veg have different types of fibre that offer arrange of benefits.

• Nuts and seeds of all kinds contain lovely fibre. To super-charge the power of the fibre, soak nuts and seeds overnight inn water at room temperature with a spritz of lemon or lime juice. In soaking, you are not only make the nuts & seeds more digestible with fewer anti-nutrients, you also have swollen fibres, full of water that goes to the gut to feed your bacteria. Chia and flax seeds are especially good to soak. They attract a lot of water and then create mucilage, a lovey gloop full of gel water – highly hydrating and soothing for the gut.

• Pulses – known to be windy because of the high fiber content that can be challenging digestively if the balance of your gut bacteria favours the less than good. Some people have to limit pulses while some gut restoration goes on, but once assuming beans and lentils do not cause uncomfortable bloating or reactive bowel function, they provide great prebiotic fibres. Make sure they are really well cooked.

• Inulin-rich foods – inulin is a well researched highly soluble fibre that has many gut health benefits. Again, it can be challenging with those with IBS-type issues, so use with caution. Rich in leeks, onions & garlic, under-ripe bananas, plantain, asparagus and Jerusalem artichokes.

F No. 2 is for Fermented Foods:
Certain foods contain PRObiotic i.e. live, beneficial bacteria. The devil is in the details here, so look at labels to check for unpasteurized and raw. A live food, is a fermented food and if it is still live, it will have to be in the chiller cabinet of a shop, so anything on a shelf with a long shelf life will not be live. All fermented foods should also taste sour as the fermentation removes the natural sugars in the food. Fermented food include:

• Organic natural live yogurt
• Dairy kefir (a potent fermented dairy drink)
• Coconut Kefir -a non-dairy version of the above
• Fermented raw veg like sauerkraut, Kimchi and these days there are some
fabulous raw slaws becoming more readily available.
• Kombucha -a fermented tea (watch for the sugar content)
• Mature cheeses, esp. if made from unpasteurized milk.

F No. 3 is Fasting:
By eat less, or less often, the gut bacteria get a chance to a bit of super-charging and regenerating. The power of intermittent fasting is so significant and far-reaching that it is the third of my Four Fundamentals:

3/ Regular Intermittent Fasting
Allow your body to rest and renew by regularly practicing intermittent fasting:
Throughout all of history there is evidence of peoples all around the world fasting. It may have been for religious reasons, as part of significant ceremonies, to help purify and cleanse. Today many scientific studies have shown multiple and significant health benefits to fasting on a regular basis.