Although I’m a dietitian, I don’t believe in diets. What I do believe in, is Nude Food.
‘Nude Food’ all kind of started when I was just 12 years old and I came up with the idea of writing a cookbook and starring in my own cooking show called ‘Food in the Nude’. I wasn’t planning on cooking naked (if that’s what you were thinking!), but rather wanted to showcase how delicious natural food – that wasn’t dressed up in packages and additives – could be. Fast forward the clock almost two decades later and I stand by my nude food philosophy – eat real food that comes from the ground, sea and sky, and less from the factories.
We live in an age where there is more available knowledge about food and nutrition than ever. Diets, fads and food marketing hype fill our world with the latest science and theory on how to eat, yet preventable diseases such as obesity, type-two diabetes and heart disease are on the rise.
Isn’t it ironic that the more information there is, the unhealthier we’ve become?
Today, healthy eating involves a multitude of choices – navigating a tide of often conflicting or confusing information and advice from a wide variety of sources.
Our ancestors viewed food simply and instinctively, without the hang-ups and anxiety that food marketers and diet ‘gurus’ create for people today. The prevalence of first-world health problems reflect how disconnected we’ve become with our natural instincts – how little we listen to our bodies and how we have lost the innate sense of what is good for us. We need to re-discover our inner guide.
Nude Food is not a diet. It’s a philosophy, a set of guiding principles that lets you develop an intuitive understanding and healthy relationship with food.
Nude Food’s 3 key principles
Ignore the hype, fads and marketing.
They’re just distractions, things you don’t need to know about. There’s so much information clutter these days – every time you open a magazine, there’s a new diet being talked about; every week there seems to be some new research study that concludes we should now all eat X, Y or Z for some health reason; if you go to the supermarket there are whole aisles dedicated to a food product (e.g. breakfast cereals or dairy), and all the different options are making some sort of health claim. What I’m saying is you don’t have to pay any attention to this stuff. Have the confidence to ignore it. It’s just hype, fads and marketing. Don’t get sucked into it, you’ll end up more confused.
Eat real food
Food that comes from the ground, the sea and the sky; stuff that is easily recognisable from nature, that has been minimally processed. Eat less from the factories, because as soon as food starts being heavily tampered with, that’s when nutrients will be removed, often in order to prolong its shelf life. Go for food that is nutrient-dense, offering your body lots of useful nutrients, vitamins and minerals. However, also remember the 90/10 rule – aim to eat well 90% of the time, but feel free to enjoy being a bit more indulgent 10% of the time. A happy and healthy relationship with food is one where you don’t feel guilty about having treat foods every now and again.
Trust your instincts.
Most people have come to believe that some ‘expert’ knows better than themselves when it comes to what and how they should eat, and rely on them to tell them what to do (that’s why diet books by ‘diet experts’ are so popular!). The truth is, we’re all so genetically varied, that there is no one diet that fits all. YOU are your best guide. Once you understand what good food is (principle 2), you are the best guru to tell you what to eat; listen to your body and it will tell you what works for you and what doesn’t.