I reject the bleak, joyless food culture of gym bros and wellness influencers who view eating as mere fuel, or even the enemy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Fed up with influencers telling you how to eat when they look like they\u2019ve never, in their life, looked at a vanilla slice with a longing usually reserved for the love of your life (which I suppose, in a way, that slice may well be)?<\/p>\n
Worried at the impact of body image on a younger generation obsessing about calorie deficits \u2013 what with their skinny parents on peptides and weight loss jabs already aping the very questionable current Hollywood trend for gaunt lollipop physiques?<\/p>\n
Maybe you\u2019re simply bored with \u2018gym bros\u2019 suggesting that a daily diet of steamed chicken breast, boiled sweet potato and egg-white omelettes is anything other than a monotonous life sentence?<\/p>\n
It’s almost as if these people see food as the enemy rather than a good, if potentially slightly wild, friend that needs to be respected and loved but perhaps only given total free rein on occasion.<\/p>\n
Their exhortations for choosing a \u2018diet\u2019 that is usually all about denial would be more palatable if they weren\u2019t so boring.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I mean, when did society decree that good food had to be dull food?<\/p>\n
Related story: Alice Zaslavsky’s Spicy grilled sweet potato tacos<\/a><\/p>\n The brutal truth is that boring food is the enemy of success when it comes to persuading people to eat more healthily.\u00a0<\/p>\n In the UK, The Independent reported a few years ago that 50 percent of people who gave up diets did so because they were boring\u2026 And 30 percent of these people were bored in the first month!\u00a0<\/p>\n Furthermore, diet fatigue can trigger negative emotions that themselves trigger emotional eating. Earlier this year a team of researchers from Beijing Normal University revealed that bored people ate more potato chips than sad people. Boredom causes a drop in dopamine, so our brains trigger cravings to eat, which increases dopamine levels.<\/p>\n Related story: Teresa Cutter’s Healthy carrot cake with yoghurt frosting recipe<\/a><\/p>\n Basically, you eat to feel good. Nice that someone has made that official!\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s thought that for 30 percent of us, the mere thought of healthy food stops us from eating well. But does healthy food have to be dull? For example, research published in Frontiers in Psychology found that if a healthy food offering was seen as \u2018exciting\u2019, it was seen to be a more attractive option.<\/p>\n How to learn to love healthy food<\/p>\n I\u2019ve spent the last year challenging the widely held trope \u2013 constantly reinforced by the TikToks and social media reels that bombard us \u2013 that healthy meals need to be bland, repetitive and uninspiring. Or, even worse, the commentary desperately trying to persuade you that frozen cottage cheese is a substitute for ice cream (it\u2019s not) and that baking egg whites with berries and Greek yoghurt \u2013 oh lord save us \u2013 is just as enjoyable as a berry cheesecake.\u00a0<\/p>\n That\u2019s not a recipe for living. It\u2019s more like dropping your monk\u2019s habit for a culinary scourging.\u00a0I reject the bleak, joyless food culture of gym bros and wellness influencers who view eating as mere fuel, or even the enemy.\u00a0<\/p>\n So how do we make healthy food exciting but also keep it fun and joyous? Here are a few initial pointers I\u2019ve picked up in what is becoming my new life\u2019s work…<\/p>\n Related story: 37 healthy bliss ball and bar recipes<\/a><\/p>\n Focus on texture<\/p>\n Textural interest makes for interesting food. Research has revealed that many people find the texture of healthy food to be less appealing. Ideally, you want to deliver an appealing texture without sacrificing other goals. Think of the creaminess of avocado or slow-cooked cannellini beans; the chew of almost-candied, slow-roasted carrots, the crunch of potato chips from the air fryer or the snap of chilled cucumber and the pop of peas. There\u2019s also the mellow juiciness of white-cut poached chicken or the chew of a great steak, which both remain superbly virtuous.<\/p>\n Related story: 112 recipes that prove you can make friends with salad<\/a><\/p>\n Seek out flavour bombs<\/p>\n I popularised this phrase for ingredients that add big punches of flavour in one of my cookbooks over a decade ago now (even if I recognise that Samboy chips pre-empted me and everyone else by almost 30 years!) Add stuff like umami-loaded anchovies, nutritional yeast, parmesan, slow-roasted tomatoes or Vegemite. Bring joy with a dollop of sriracha, char siu sauce and gochujang. Employ plenty of herbs, alliums, citrus and spices to help take a dish from dull to delicious. Even better (if you need it) is if these flavour bombs bring other benefits, like being loaded with extra nutrients.<\/p>\n Related story: 28 ways to cook with Vegemite<\/a><\/p>\n Sidestep the curse of convenience\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2018Easy\u2019 is the enemy of good intentions. Be prepared for the inevitable siren\u2019s call of that addictive golden triangle of salt, sugar and fat by having something just as delicious, but quicker and far more luxurious on hand. Here I\u2019m thinking about a tumble of fancy smoked king salmon with fresh dill and cucumber, cool satin-slippery tofu with a punchy Sichuan dressing or seared prawns dancing with lime juice, chilli, Thai basil and fresh coriander.\u00a0<\/p>\n This is doubly important for those of us with a sweet tooth, and I\u2019ve found Ninja CREAMi and my old-school \u2018instant ice cream\u2019 recipes that I was obsessed with a while back are vital sources of fun and joy here. Imagine if a pina colada or chocolate ice cream could be virtuous?! Imagine if you could could make a sugar-free sorbet in 45 seconds?<\/p>\n