the times | Monday January 3 2022 5times2
oil, roasted peppers and cherry
tomatoes, buttered leeks, homemade
tomato sauce (slosh in half a glass of
dry white wine) and chimichurri
(superb with fish or meat.)Why the timing of your
food matters
Fasting works wonders. By fasting
you’re mimicking what humans have
done for millennia. Our ancestors had
times of going without and our bodies
evolved to cope. Fasting doesn’t panic
our hormones, it galvanises them.
When you fast, there’s no reduction in
your metabolic rate or increase in
appetite (it does the opposite, in fact).
And when we say “fast”, it doesn’t
have to be anything scary. It can be
intermittent or periodic (after 12 hours
or more our hormones switch us into
fat-burning mode). You might stop
eating at 7pm or 8pm one day, and eat
a late breakfast the next day. Or you
might drink a black coffee but hold off
consuming anything more substantial
until noon, then feast on bacon, eggs
and mushrooms for lunch.
This takes getting used to, and if
you’re minimising carbs for the first
time we advise sticking to three meals
a day for a month before increasing
your FastSpan. But your hormones
understand fasting and support it.
Fasting subdues our hunger hormone
ghrelin (unlike low-calorie diets, which
cause it to go berserk.)
Fasting allows rest and regeneration.
It increases stress resistance,
suppresses inflammation and
improves blood glucose regulation.
(To prevent blood sugar falling, when
the liver’s glucose stores run out we
start to produce glucose from fats and
proteins.)
It leads to reduced visceral fat and
reduced insulin levels. It also increases
growth hormone (GH), which peaks
when we’re asleep, meaning you
retain muscle. (In a calorie-restricted
diet GH goes down and you lose
muscle.) Low meal frequency and
reducing your EatSpan (to less than
ten hours if possible) is a fundamental
part of whispering your hormones
into obedience.© Paul Barrington
Chell and Monique
Hope-Ross 2022Extracted from
The Diet Whisperer
by Paul Barrington
Chell and Monique
Hope-Ross, to be
published by Hodder
& Stoughton on
January 13 at £14.99
with metabolic disease, obesity and
poor health. However, if we look after
them, they look after us.
Fibre increases large gut
fermentation, enabling our friendly
gut bugs to produce chemicals that
make us happy. Recent research has
shown that subjects who ate a healthy
diet (aim for 30 types of plant a week
and probiotics such as fermented
vegetables, kefir and live yoghurt) had
high levels of good gut bugs and a low
risk of metabolic disease. Those who
ate an unhealthy diet (high in sugar,
preservatives, additives, emulsifiers
and sweeteners) had high levels of
bad bugs, associated with insulin
resistance and obesity.
Our friendly gut bugs’ favourite food
is fibre, from the indigestible part
of a carb. Carbohydrate fibre is a
nutritional gem — it’s the must-have
carb. It means the carb is slowly
digested. It reduces blood glucose,
blood insulin, constipation and
so-called bad cholesterol. Ideally we’d
eat more than 30g a day. Think greens,
not grains. How do you know if
you’re not getting enough? If you’re
not farting, that’s how. Wind may be
unacceptable at dinner, but it’s a sign
of a healthy diet and well-fed gut bugs
happily fermenting fibre, with gas
as a by-product.
Examples of fibrous must-have
carbs are whole fruits, beans, lentils,
potato skins, cabbage, carrots, Brussels
sprouts, broccoli, beans, kale. It can
be hard to eat enough fibre if you’re
minimising carbs, so go big on
vegetables — celeriac mash with
lashings of butter, garlic mushrooms
with herbs fried in extra virgin oliveBoth are essential and our body can’t
make them. But omega-6s are
pro-inflammatory, while omega-3s
are anti-inflammatory, so it’s vital to
consume the right amount of each.
Our omega-6 to omega-3 ratio should
be four to one or below. Alarmingly, in
the average western diet the omega-6
to omega-3 ratio is 50 to one.
Combined with speedily digested
carbs, this is associated with increased
inflammation, increased insulin
resistance and increased obesity, to
name a few. To improve your 6:3 ratio,
eat at least two portions of oily fish
a week, such as salmon, sardines,
mackerel and anchovies.
Crab has a 6:3 ratio of 1:60. Tinned
tuna in water has a 6:3 ratio of 1:30.
But in sunflower oil its 6:3 ratio is 13:1.
Shellfish are also a good source of
omega-3. If you don’t eat fish, take
fish oil daily (4-5g for men; 3-4g for
women). For vegetarians there are
algae sources such as spirulina and
chlorella. Grass-fed meats such as
venison have a good 6:3 ratio
(grain-fattened meat not so much).Look after your gut
Our gut bugs directly influence our
immune system, mental health and
function, hormone production and
metabolism. The more diverse our
gut-bug community, the greater its
resilience (and the healthier we are),
although some species are more
important than others because they
keep other potentially harmful species
in check. To tame our fat storage
hormones, eating a high-fibre diet that
enables our gut microbiome to flourish
is key. Treat them badly and we pay,— and turn on the burn
Why eating at night is bad for
your health and waistline
Our master body clock is set every day
by early morning light, and this master
clock resets all body clocks so every
cell clock in our body chimes in
unison. But these different body clocks
are also set by what we eat and when
we eat. Our body clocks thrive on
routine and order — it enables them
to maintain a healthy circadian
rhythm. They’re surprisingly
vulnerable to disruption. If certain
clocks receive conflicting cues — say,
a meal at midnight — they go out of
sync with the master clock. Your
master clock says “it’s night” and
your liver clock says “it’s day”.
Late-night eating works against
your hormones. This is because our
metabolism is co-ordinated by our
circadian rhythm. Our old friend
insulin, plus cortisol and growth
hormone (at its peak when you’re
asleep to allow the body’s maintenance
and repair) have rhythmical diurnal
patterns, to help us to respond to the
demands of the day.
For instance, our levels of cortisol,
a steroid hormone, peak in the
morning to make us alert. Cortisol
also affects sugar metabolism, and its
being persistently raised because we’re
chronically stressed is associated with
increased obesity and visceral fat,
insulin resistance and diabetes. This is
why learning to manage our stress in
a healthy way can be powerful enough
to prevent heart attacks.
Insulin also has a circadian rhythm,
and insulin resistance increases as the
day progresses. The later you eat, the
more insulin is needed. Plus digestion
and sleep are supposed to happen
at different times. Hormones are
produced to cope with both — but not
simultaneously. (Which is why, after
that late-night meal, you sleep badly.)
In an ideal world, only water would
pass our lips after 6pm. But in the real
one, aim to finish eating three to four
hours before bedtime, two if you must.
If you eat at midnight, gut bugs are
asleep, your digestion machinery is
switched off and anything consumed
is going straight to our fat stores. Bad
food timing is the ultimate disruptor
to clock synchrony — quit this habit
and it’s a hormone-whispering win.Three ways to mix your food —
and please your hormones
1 Carb absorption is slightly lessened
when eaten with fats, proteins or fibre.
(If you eat a potato, containing 20g of
carb, you’ll absorb 17.5g of carb if you
eat it with chicken and vegetables.)
Fibre reduces carb bioavailability and
is protective against insulin spikes.
2 If you eat a protein-rich meal with
fats, and slowly digested high-fibre
vegetables, it’s possible to double the
amount of protein you absorb. So if we
eat protein alone, we can absorb only
30g in one meal (one chicken breast).
If we eat it with fibre we can absorb up
to 60g. Protein suppresses the appetite
more than other foods.
3 For maximum nutrient absorption,
some foods are best eaten together.
Try tomatoes and broccoli, unpeeled
tomatoes and olive oil, turmeric and
black pepper, apples with their peel,
garlic and fish.GETTY IMAGES1 You feel
clear-headed,
with better cognition
and memory.
2 You’re far less
hungry.
3 After a meal you’re
full and satiated.
4 You no longer
suffer carb and
junk-food cravings.
5 You don’t feel tired
after lunch.
6 Your endurance in
exercise has shot up.
7 You have much
more energy.
8 Your blood pressure
is lower than it was.
9 Your resting heart
rate is lower.
10 Your sleep has
improved.
11 You weigh less.Dinner:
chicken stir-fry
11 signs of
being fat-
adapted
How to cook chips
If you fancy thick-cut chips as
an occasional treat, fry them
in beef dripping or goose fat.
(Corn oil, sunflower, safflower
and rapeseed oils are banned
in our house because they are
high in pro-inflammatory
omega-6.) And if you
value your health —
and want to reach a
healthy weight —
avoid man-made
trans fats or
partially
hydrogenated
oils and fats
(commonly
found in spreads,
biscuits,
margarine,
vegetable ghee and
fried fast foods).
They’re harmful toour gut bugs and our
hormones. They’re linked to
obesity, cancer, immune
diseases, neurodegenerative
diseases and cardiovascular
disease. (The World Health
Organisation hopes to
eradicate all trans fats
from the human diet by
2023 — that’s how bad
they are.) Here’s
what to use instead.
Fry eggs: on a slow,
low heat with extra
virgin olive oil.
Casseroles: low
heat (175C) and use
extra virgin olive oil.
Thick chips: beef
dripping or goose fat.
Stir-fries: walnut oil.
Roast potatoes:
organic butter ghee.