Energise Blog: Natural Health & Alkaline Diet

Arguably this is a month late for most people to get in great shape for the whole of summer, the Telegraph.co.uk have launched a very commendable and common sense guide to creating ‘Your Best Ever Body‘.

Their ‘Team Telegraph’ looks pretty good though focusing on four key areas, they have enlisted the following experts:

• Ian Marber - Food and Nutrition
• Jamie Baird - Fitness
• Lesley Thomas - Beauty
• Hilary Alexander - Fashion

Obviously I am not over concerned with the fashion and beauty elements so I will probably not discuss them here - but I am very keen to see how the advice pans out for the health section. While I certainly advocate reading the entirety of the documents, I will be giving my own key takeouts for each day…

Day 1 Food

This is clearly aimed at women as in terms of goals he starts going on about dreaming of wearing a bikini on the beach. OK, so it is not necessarily just for women as some men might have that dream too, although I guess that would be more about liberation and less about diet. But in all seriousness, I really wish that these types of resources didn’t actively push men away so much. This is in the second paragraph on the first page on the first day. (rant over)

The advice he gives here is pretty standard, but reinforces a few exceptionally important points and some points that are very close to my heart. My key takeouts would be:

Buy the best-quality foods you can afford, especially when it comes to fruit and vegetables

Start the day with a glass of hot water and a squeeze of lemon juice - a good way to kick-start the cleansing process.

Essential fatty acids are excellent at supporting the liver and are found in a variety of foods

Overcooking will destroy nutrients, so the way you cook your food is important, too. Stir-frying and steaming are the best ways of keeping the goodness in your food

Interesting stuff, and a good shopping list is provided at the end. This could shape up to be a really good series and one that is certainly worth bookmarking or tagging.

Let’s see what comes up tomorrow!