something I would advise all 100-per-cent plant-based eaters to discuss with their health practitioner.
Also, it’s important to remember that just because you go vegan doesn’t automatically turn you into a dementia-proof, cancer-kicking superhuman with spotless arteries. If I lived on chips and pasta with tomato sauce I could feel pretty ethically minded about not having killed an animal for my dinner, but I probably wouldn’t live for very long to tell people about it.
Ultimately, I have a deep respect for those who choose to live a life on plants alone, whatever their reasons, but my priority would be to make sure everyone is doing it safely.
Wrapping up
What a lot of these diets have in common is a focus on weight loss as a positive outcome, but is this what we should be striving for? Is weight management a reliable biomarker of general health and should this be the common denominator against which we judge the success of a diet? BMI is such a poor predictor of outcomes yet many studies continue to use this as a standard.149
Everyone has the ability to lose weight, tone up and feel lighter, but sometimes it’s at the expense of health rather than in pursuit of it. I want you to feel ‘well’. I’m convinced that good health, contrary to popular belief, is independent of size and especially weight.150 I think we could all do with a little less emphasis on weight as an outcome and more of a focus on wellbeing. Health and wellness conjure images of slim, vivacious, young 20-somethings, but a focus on this as the ultimate goal detracts from why we are trying to achieve a healthier life. I believe it is for the sum of our daily interactions to be positive in mind and physicality. It is to live a fulfilling and happy life. This doesn’t necessarily correspond to a certain number on a machine, even though an industry, and perhaps even your doctor, is trying to convince you it does. Your focus should be on health goals and habits rather than a physical endpoint.
There are endless ways in which you can add nutrient-dense foods to your diet on a daily basis and I want to encourage people to think along these lines. We have an opportunity to be truly nourished, rather than skip from diet to diet in the hope that we hit the ‘carb-protein-fat ratio jackpot’ and achieve that dazzling ‘perfect weight’.
I’m convinced that good health, contrary to popular belief, is independent of size and especially weight.
Medicinal spices
Growing up in an Indian household, I was constantly surrounded by spices, herbs and folk medicines. Everything from sore throats to constipation seemed treatable with the contents of our kitchen cupboards!
Most second-generation kids will concur: Indian families seem to have an encyclopaedic knowledge for complementary health cures. I have vivid memories of being fed a spoonful of toasted spices and salt whenever I had tummy ache. My father would always make a mixture of almonds, clarified butter and sugar during my exams, claiming it was ‘brain food’. And, of course, my mother was years ahead of the ‘Spiced Turmeric Latte’ trend.
You can imagine the number of ‘I told you so’s’ I got when I started researching the clinical validity of traditional treatments. My Indian heritage is steeped in Ayurvedic tradition and what fascinates me is the premise of ‘alternative therapies’ having the potential to become recognised treatment in the battle against chronic disease. Learning about the marriage of flavour and medicinal property was revolutionary for me.
The positive clinical effects of food are unlikely to be caused by a single ingredient, like a spice or herb, so it’s important to maintain a holistic perspective. Remember that any benefit from the inclusion of an ingredient has to be taken in the context of a ‘good diet’. Reiterating what I stated at the start of this book: do not treat food like a pill. Concoctions from herbalists or ‘natural’ food supplements are not panaceas or cure-alls, in exactly the same way that anti-diabetic medications will not manage a patient’s condition if they don’t make changes in their lifestyle to complement treatment. Nonetheless, this does not stop me getting excited about the incredible effects of spices.
Spices make food visibly enticing by adding colour and enhancing the flavour and aroma of the most uninspiring ingredients. Using precise techniques, we can quantify their high antioxidant capacity and activity, which explains why we’ve used spice as a preservative for centuries. There is enough evidence to support the daily inclusion of nature’s wonderful spices and here are some staples I believe everyone should have in the store cupboard and the clinical evidence as to why.
Turmeric
Turmeric is probably one of the most extensively researched spices we have in nutritional science and it’s now commonly accepted that daily dietary inclusion can prevent bowel cancer. There’s also evidence that it could be beneficial for helping dementia, chronic pain syndromes and inflammatory conditions.151 It’s astonishing what effects a single ingredient can potentially have on the body.
As is usually the case in nutritional therapy, supplementation using high doses of one of turmeric’s active compounds, ‘curcumin’, has had mixed results.152,153 Turmeric is not just curcumin. The spice is made up of hundreds of different plant chemicals of which curcumin is just one. These studies teach us a lesson: use whole plants as much as possible rather than isolated chemicals. A single component is not likely to be responsible for their health benefits; it’s the complex arrangement of molecules in whole ingredients that we find in nature.
Herbs and spices
These are some of my favourite herbs and spices to use when I’m cooking. I always have these in my kitchen and I highly recommend that you get as many of them as you can into your diet.
I use ground turmeric in everything from Malaysian curry pastes to soups and stews; and if you can get hold of the fresh stuff that looks like ginger with bright orange flesh, even better. Using fresh turmeric in cooking with other ingredients like chilli and black pepper (that contain capsaicin and piperine) heightens its effect and availability in the body.154 If nothing else gets you interested in ‘food as medicine’, this herbaceous plant from the ginger family should.
Garlic
I’ve been raised to expect garlic to be used in most dishes cooked at home. But even now, whether I’m cooking Italian, Chinese or Moroccan food, garlic forms the flavour base for most of my meals. Enough research has been published for me to believe that it can lower your risk of cancer, and laboratory studies demonstrate its anti-bacterial and anti-viral properties.155–158 It may have a positive impact on human gut microbe populations159,160 too, and it’s so easy to incorporate into meals. It’s definitely an ingredient I get into my food on a daily basis (you’ll notice how often it’s used in my recipes).
Garlic is also so versatile. You can simply cut the top off a whole bulb, drizzle it with olive oil and roast it for 20 minutes, squeezing the cooked pulp out of its papery skins and storing it in the fridge. I use it as a spread or flavour enhancer when making quick meals. Look out for fresh, smoked garlic and my current favourite, black garlic: it has a sweet balsamic vinegary taste and is a wonder ingredient in pesto and sauces.
Ginger
