‘Are these ingredients… ok?
A question that my patients frequently ask is, ‘Are these ingredients… ok?’ What they mean by this is are the ingredients in this food going to nurture my mind and body and will they be a friend or a foe when it comes to losing weight? The good news about the LML Programme is that you don’t need to follow involved instructions about reading food labels or shop using an App or calculator. Food and eating should be far more natural and enjoyable than that.
Instead, I advise applying this 5-step approach to guide your eating and food choices:
- In general, be wary of pre-prepared food that has not been cooked by you and that has ingredients. When you buy broccoli there are no ingredients. It’s broccoli. The same applies to, for example, eggs or chicken breast or milk or blueberries
- A food that you have not made from scratch that has ingredients should contain very few ingredients. yoghurt should only contain milk and bacteria. Hummus should contain chickpeas, tahini, olive oil, garlic and lemon juice
- You’ll see in step 2 that all of those ingredients are understandable and pronounceable. You will know food is off Programme and will not work with your body to achieve your weight loss goals when it contains unpronounceable ingredients.
- If you choose something in a box or packet with ingredients your grandmother should recognise these ingredients as food. She would understand all of the ingredients in the hummus example. E numbers, emulsifiers and other dubious additions would make no sense to her at all as this is not food.
- If you see an ingredient and you can’t explain what it is please choose not to eat it. If you don’t know what it is it’s guaranteed that your brilliant body has absolutely no idea what to do with it and your body will not recognise it as food.