Product InfoWe all know that a balanced diet will keep us healthy, but we can use food in a much more specific way to boost our energy, improve our skin, build up our immune systems or help us to relax. Innovative nutritionist Natalie Savona presents over 60 wonderfoods — ingredients that really do us good — in chapters on areas they will most help: Energy, Digest, Detox, Skin, Sex, Age, Mind, Immune and Heart. You could thrive on these wonderfoods with the addition of just one ingredient — water.

In this stimulating book, Natalie reveals the bonuses of her chosen range of good foods. She inspires us, in this fast food world, to enjoy such ingredients in over 120 simple, tasty recipes. The health conscious and gourmet alike will find curious facts, benefits and terrific uses for some of the world's most wonderful foods.

'A focus on what to eat, rather than what not to eat. How refreshing.' Elle

'No need to feel guilty about what you eat with Natalie's Wonderfoods.' Cosmopolitan

Contents

Contents

Introduction

• Energy
• Digest
• Detox
• Skin
• Sex
• Age
• Mind
• Immune
• Heart

• Wonderfoods week
• Wonderfoods contacts
• Wonderfoods nutrient sources
• Wonderfoods therapy
• Wonderfoods glossary
• Wonderfoods index
• Acknowledgements

Extra Info

It is possible to thrive solely on the wonderfoods described in this book. Well, you'd need one addition for your health — water — and perhaps others every now and then for your soul, like cheesecake or coffee! But by and large, wonderfoods are abundant, easy to get hold of, and remarkably delicious. Even if not all are to your taste, many will be and you may even surprise yourself by starting to like new ones.

Pretty much all foods in their natural state would qualify as wonderfoods. Whoever designed them all did a very good job in packing them with what we need for fit, well bodies that will last us healthily into old age. The trouble is that we get diverted somewhere along the way to foods that challenge our bodies — ones that have been 'refined' to make them more appealing, a process that invariably takes some of the goodness away. Refined foods generally have sugar, fat, salt and chemicals added to them to make them taste 'better' or preserve them for longer.

There's certainly no harm in having such foods occasionally — a good quality pizza, a few glasses of wine and some ice cream are surely a good way to share food. But when such foods make up the majority of our diet — say after a day of toast and jam, biscuits, ham sandwich and crisps, fizzy drink, an apple, a chocolate bar — we become hooked. Even the seemingly healthier options, like a tuna sandwich or rice crackers instead of crisps, are often smothered in mayonnaise and salt. After such salty, sweet, fatty foods, a mound of steamed, green vegetables, plain grilled meat and brown rice seems boring to our palates and to our minds.

If you're reading this book, you're either already cherishing the deliciousness and goodness of wonderfoods or you are prepared to be inspired by them. You'll find you could fill your shopping basket just with wonderfoods and still not have bought two-thirds of those available.

Not all wonderfoods are necessarily wonderful for you though. Each of us is individual in terms of our nutritional needs and health conditions, not to mention our tastes. While a tomato, for example, is a rich source of the powerful antioxidants vitamin C and lycopene, for someone with arthritis it may trigger joint pain. Raw foods are always touted as wonderfully healthy and energising. Yet for a weak digestive system, raw food and whole grains are hard work. Although fruits are indisputably wonderfoods, in large amounts they can upset blood sugar and energy levels, and cause bloating. Most of us know what suits us and what doesn't; if you're not sure, it's best to consult a health professional to help you work out your ideal diet.

Selecting the entries for this wonderfoods book was easy enough — virtually all fruit and vegetables, herbs, whole grains, nuts, seeds and quality proteins qualify. The difficulty was whittling them down to fit into a reasonably sized book! At this stage, it became somewhat random — "If we've got broccoli, kale and cabbage, then perhaps the less popular Brussels sprout will have to go!" Then came the categorisation. This, too, took on a somewhat random turn after I'd listed all the things that each food was good for. Many wonderfoods fit into many categories. The colour bars alongside the information on each wonderfood guide you to other relevant categories — the contents list on page 6 provides the colour key. Garlic, for example, is in the Heart section, but it is also a good Immune and Detox food.

What didn't get into the book were 'extras' that you might add to foods, ingredients from health food shops such as wheatgerm, spirulina or brewers' yeast. All wonderful in themselves, but not quite foods as such...

Choosing your wonderfoods
Simply choosing to base your diet on wonderfoods is, in itself, a positive step. A good but very general guide on choosing your foods is this: if a food requires a label to tell you what is in it, think again about buying it. Even supermarkets sell most wonderfoods. On many levels, however, I prefer to buy my food at smaller shops such as local farm shops, independent health food shops and farmers' markets whenever possible. Eating locally grown, seasonal food should be a priority, though of course it isn't always available. After all, I love brown rice and pineapples, which I would never eat if I only bought Devon-grown produce!

From the point of view of chemicals used in growing food, organic produce is always the best choice. Even just a couple of organic items in your weekly shop is useful in helping to minimise your chemical exposure. But two points here ...there is a good argument for having locally grown, non-organic food over organic varieties flown half way across the world and possibly farmed by underpaid workers. Secondly, just because something is organic, it doesn't mean it's good for you — organic cake and coffee, with organic milk and sugar is still a big hit on the sugar and stimulant front.

Preparing your wonderfoods
The recipes I have created here make use of as many wonderfoods as I could cram into each one and, you'll find, they are largely very simple to prepare. Even the recipes with longer lists of ingredients usually require only one pan or dish and very little effort.

You can rustle up a wonderfully tasty meal with just a few fresh ingredients as long as you keep a good stock of cupboard and fridge essentials, such as paprika, cayenne pepper, Chinese five spice, olives, peppercorns in a mill, a jar of tahini, garlic, stock powder such as Marigold, tamari (a type of soy sauce), Tabasco, Thai curry paste, miso paste, balsamic vinegar, cans of beans and chickpeas, cans of tomatoes and plenty of brown rice, oats, other grains, nuts and seeds.

A word about fats & sugar
I generally suggest using light olive oil for cooking as it is a monounsaturated fat. This means that it is chemically less susceptible to the damage from heat that affects sunflower and other seed oils, turning them into harmful trans fats. When you are softening onions or stir-frying, I recommend a method called 'steam-frying' which is pretty much the same thing but you use less oil and add a little water to stop burning or sticking. Butter does give a particular flavour to some recipes, but because it is high in saturated fat, it is best used sparingly, just for flavour. Blending it with olive oil also helps prevent it from burning.

Some recipes call for sugar and again, used sparingly, sugar is a perfectly reasonable part of a varied, healthy diet. Honey, maple syrup and molasses offer not only a different flavour from sugar but also a different nutrient base, though they are still, essentially, sugars. For this reason they are not valid substitutes for anyone who is avoiding sugar, such as a diabetic. One sugar substitute that I use very occasionally is xylitol, which sounds very chemical-like, but is a natural product extracted from plants. It looks and tastes like sugar but does not raise blood sugar levels in the same way, is lower in calories and helps prevent tooth decay.

My 'thing' on food
I was recently asked what my 'thing' was about food, what philosophy I espouse. And I'm often asked, "Do you believe in x, y or z?" regarding specific ways of eating such as veganism, raw food diet, high protein diet or whatever.

My 'thing' is to ensure that you eat a broad range of good quality foods and to enjoy what you eat. Do this, while being sensitive to what really works for you as an individual and that doesn't just mean for instant gratification. Just because your body is crying out for doughnuts every day at 11am, it doesn't mean they must be right for you. That said, I've seen far too many health-obsessed people control their diet to such a degree that the rigidity makes them irritable and ill and the odd doughnut would probably do them good. After all, there's no point worrying so much whether a food contains a little sugar if the worrying itself is going to give you an ulcer!

Food — preparing and sharing it — is, for those of us privileged to have the choice, one of life's joys and if you base what you eat on wonderfoods, you can't really go wrong.

About the author
Natalie Savona is a nutritionist with an inspiring approach to balanced eating. Her practical solutions and tasty, simple recipes have made her one of Britain's leading nutritionists. She trained at the Institute for Optimum Nutrition, having previously graduated from Cambridge and City Universities. In her clinical work, she supports people with a range of health conditions, from chronic fatigue and depression to digestive complaints.

Natalie is the author of The Kitchen Shrink, The Big Book of Juices and Smoothies and Solve Your Skin Problems. She present seminars and regularly features in the national media, including her column in Cosmopolitan, Natalie has presented her own series, The Kitchen Detective, on Discovery Health TV.