{"id":314312,"date":"2025-11-29T12:17:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T12:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/314312\/"},"modified":"2025-11-29T12:17:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T12:17:08","slug":"i-invented-the-52-diet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/314312\/","title":{"rendered":"I invented the 5:2 diet"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\t\t\t\tMimi Spencer, author of ‘The Fast Diet’, shares her top six daily habits for a healthier diet\t\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n

Mimi Spencer is the journalist and author who helped transform intermittent fasting from a niche concept into a global health movement. She co-authored The Fast Diet, a book that changed how we think about fasting, metabolism and long-term health, and invented the 5:2 diet, which involves low-calorie consumption for two days a week\u00a0and regular eating for the other five days. <\/p>\n

For our new weekly series<\/a> Life Lessons, she shares her daily habits and the way in which her life is informed by her research and experience in the field. <\/p>\n

At a certain age, for me it was around 52, a satisfying epiphany happens. A realisation that you actually know stuff! All those years of gathering information, accreting wisdom, listening and learning and writing things down in scrappy little notebooks, finally pays off and something subtle but important has sunk in to inform everything you do. You have somehow arrived at a hard-won, easy-access philosophy of life.<\/p>\n

For me, my \u201cknowing\u201d centres specifically on diet<\/a> and healthy eating<\/a>, since that\u2019s the arena in which I\u2019ve spent much of my career as a writer. But, it also brings in ideas about absorption and flow, principles divined over many years from my other lifelong love \u2013 yoga.<\/p>\n

These are the principles I know I like to live my life by \u2013 and have found pay off now that I\u2019ve reached midlife<\/a>.<\/p>\n

New FeatureIn ShortQuick Stories. Same trusted journalism.<\/p>\n

Eat two meals a day \u2013 when you\u2019re hungry<\/p>\n

I have been fasting<\/a>, in one form or another, since I wrote The Fast Diet with Dr Michael Mosley back in 2012. Most days, I don\u2019t eat until 11am because I am not hungry till then, and I\u2019ll stop eating by about 7pm.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m old enough and wise enough these days to eat to my own schedule, one of those delicious freedoms that comes with midlife, when the kids have left home and it turns out you are the boss of you. This schedule not only allows a good long \u201cfasting window\u201d \u2013 with all its well-rehearsed health benefits \u2013 but it also amounts to two meals a day, not the textbook three. Which means fewer calories.<\/p>\n

In midlife, of course, our metabolism needs less fuel: the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that our basal metabolic rate decreases by two per cent every decade; typically, we\u2019ll put on a kilo or two for every four years in middle age. So two meals a day makes sense to me.<\/p>\n

Look for variety in the supermarket<\/p>\n

If you carry one word with you as you traipse around Sainsbury\u2019s filling up your trolley, make it variety. We\u2019re beginning to recognise that a well-fed gut microbiome<\/a> is associated with countless enhanced health outcomes, both physical and mental.<\/p>\n

Recent research suggests aiming for 30 different plant foods a week, though I reckon there\u2019s no need to overthink it. You don\u2019t need to hyperfocus on the lycopene in tomatoes, the quercetin in onions or exactly how much curcumin you\u2019ll absorb from a turmeric latte. Just keep diversity in mind with every meal and mouthful, seeking to maximise the bandwidth of your diet. In some ways, it\u2019s a question of eating outside the box \u2013 literally.<\/p>\n

Here are some easy principles that I use to access diversity: try to eat something every day that you haven\u2019t eaten so far that week. Eat more of the plant (so, beetroot leaves, coriander stalks). Change the usual colour, so purple carrots, blue poppy seeds, golden beetroot, black raspberries (darker-coloured fruit and veg suggests a higher anthocyanin antioxidant profile and therefore enhanced health benefits). And change the record \u2013 perhaps choose hemp oil over sunflower oil \u2013 and test-drive new things when you see them.<\/p>\n

At the moment, I\u2019m flirting with walnut butter, hibiscus, carlin peas and black turnips.<\/p>\n

Add jars of extras to your kitchen counter<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve found that one way to maximise variety in my diet is to add low-key extras \u2013 seeds, nuts, sprouts, herbs, spices, a dollop of kefir, a drizzle of tahini \u2013 to everything. <\/p>\n

Channelling my inner Nigella, I keep Kilner jars of dried cherries, pistachios, pine nuts, all manner of things, placed provocatively on an open shelf in the kitchen to be spooned onto yoghurt, porridge, salads, wraps, visitors. It\u2019s a way of getting loads of goodies in without overthinking it.<\/p>\n

I buy these items in bulk to halve the cost. I also bulk-buy expensive extra virgin olive oil; weight for weight, it costs about the same as a decent bottle of wine. And it makes me smile everytime I use it \u2013 which is about six times a day, taken almost like a vitamin supplement. There are two more actual supplements I take every day: vitamin D3, to support bone health, and vitamin B complex, for energy and mood.<\/p>\n

\u2018In this slice of bread, there is sunshine\u2019<\/p>\n

Those words of Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh are my gentle reminder that food is energy. It\u2019s fuel, of course, but every bite we eat somehow connects us to this planet. In fact, each spoonful, from a Buddhist perspective, contains the universe. <\/p>\n

Take a single little pumpkin seed. In all its unassuming glory, it promises the thrilling potential for the whole plant. It is a mighty powerhouse of fibre, polyunsaturated omega 3 fatty acids, vitamin E, B vitamins, iron, zinc, choline. Eaten daily, with abandon and joy, it can help protect against heart disease, lower LDL cholesterol and stabilise blood-sugar levels. It can even improve mood thanks to its mind-soothing tryptophan \u2013 an essential amino acid required for the production of serotonin. All that in one pumpkin seed. <\/p>\n

Only eat to 80 per cent full <\/p>\n

As far as nutritional advice goes, a healthy plate ought to contain 50 per cent vegetables and fruits, 25 per cent lean protein and 25 per cent healthy carbohydrates, with good fats added in moderation. Fine. But, I\u2019m also increasingly drawn to the Japanese concept of Ma, the intentional empty space on a plate. This philosophical principle, which translates as \u201cpause\u201d or \u201cgap\u201d is fundamental to Japanese art and culture; applied to food plating it helps create a sense of harmony and focus by allowing the food to breathe, allowing a little room for contemplation. Nice, right?<\/p>\n

Another Japanese principle that I\u2019ve warmed to is hara hachi bu. This traditional Confucian practice suggests we \u201ceat until 80 per cent full\u201d, allowing us to recognise the satiety hormone leptin, which takes 20 minutes to kick in. It\u2019s one reason why Okinawans are renowned for their good health and longevity.<\/p>\n

\t\tYour next read<\/p>\n


\n\t\t\t\"Article <\/a><\/p>\n

Stop eating \u2018on the go\u2019 <\/p>\n

There is no more dispiriting phrase to me than \u201cfood on the go\u201d \u2013 where exactly are we going?<\/p>\n

For me, mindful eating isn\u2019t just a fad. It\u2019s the foundation of a healthy relationship with food. On a physiological level, mindfulness \u2013 eating with presence, free from distractions \u2013 allows us to tune into our bodies, to the nuances of our hunger and satiety hormones. This in turn helps with food choices and portion control. <\/p>\n

The upshot is a positive feedback loop instilling habits of lightness, engagement, intention. And this, in itself, is a practice of yoga \u2013 \u201cyoga chitta vriti nirodaha\u201d or \u201cstilling the mind noise\u201d. We might think yoga is done on a mat, but I\u2019ve found over the years that it can just as well be practised on a plate.<\/p>\n

The Midlife Kitchen, by Mimi Spencer and Sam Rice, is out now (\u00a327, Mitchell Beazley)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mimi Spencer, author of ‘The Fast Diet’, shares her top six daily habits for a healthier diet Mimi…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":314313,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[49,48,8758,5105,2998,10773,84,9475,139997,395],"class_list":{"0":"post-314312","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nutrition","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-diets","11":"tag-features","12":"tag-food","13":"tag-food-and-drink","14":"tag-health","15":"tag-healthy-diet","16":"tag-life-lessons-with","17":"tag-nutrition"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=314312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314312\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/314313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}