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Lighten Up: A healthy new way to cook
Jill Dupleix

This is not a diet book. As former Times cookery editor, food writer and author of 14 cookbooks Jill Dupleix says in her introduction, it’s for ‘people who love their food but want to be healthy. It’s a way of moving your kitchen, your cooking and your eating to a lighter place.’

What’s so great about this book is that it is based on a true life story. Well, two stories – Jill’s and her husband Terry’s. It’s packed with the kinds of foods and recipes that helped her husband (restaurant critic Terry Durack) lose six stone (38 kg) and Keep It Off! Jill sees her lighter style of cooking as low GI rather than low carb or low fat and making good choices. Here’s how Jill and Terry learned how to change lifelong (bad) habits and start new (good) ones.

• Eat for pleasure, flavour and health, not for weight loss
• Start the day with oats. Eat porridge in winter and Swiss style muesli in summer and you won’t be hungry for hours.
• Eat more fish, chicken, salads and vegetables and less red meat, pork, pasta and potatoes.
• Forget what your mother told you and don’t finish everything on your plate.
• Beware of 4 pm when blood glucose levels dip. Snack on fruit and nuts instead of chocolate and crisps.
• It’s not all about food. Walk instead of drive. Take the stairs instead of an escalator. Move instead of sit. Get enough sleep.
• When you eat bread, eat good bread – sourdough, wholemeal or rye.
• Don’t cut anything out, just cut everything down.
• Steam instead of grill; grill instead of roast; roast instead of fry; and pan-fry instead of deep-fry.
• Drink better, drink less and drink only with the evening meal.

Lighten Up is available in the UK, Australia and the US from major books stores and Amazon.