OCTOBER 13 2018 LISTENER 37
JAE FREWBlack-and-white
thinking – an apple
is good, chocolate
is bad – is a recipe
for disaster.
“I view my attempts to diet as either
successes or failures”, “I think of food
as either good or bad”, and, “When
dieting, if I eat something that I had
planned not to, I think that I have
failed.” Those who strongly agreed
with these statements were more
likely to fail in their attempts to
stick to their healthy-eating goals.D
itching rigid thinking about
food and healthy eating helps
us to create a happier, more sus-
tainable diet as we release ourselves
from the guilt and self-sabotage –
“I’ve eaten some chocolate now, I
might as well eat the whole bar, and a
tub of ice cream, too!”
This type of catastrophic thinking- viewing or presenting a situation
as considerably worse than it is – is a
recipe for disaster in our relationship
with food and our body.
If we banish inflexible rules – and
chocolate isn’t “bad” or the “wrong”
food – then we can enjoy some with-
out first eating a pile of nuts, fruit,
biscuits and popcorn. We eat less
food in total, and more of the food
we really enjoy.
Eating intuitively – giving ourselves
unconditional permission to eat
what we want, when we want; eating
for physical rather than emotional
reasons; and acting on our hunger
and fullness cues – has been linked to
improved psychological health, and
in some studies, to improved
blood pressure and cholesterol
levels, along with improved
dietary intake.
Food freedom, contrary
to popular belief, actually
allows us to settle into a
happy middle ground,
rather than swinging like
a pendulum from rigid
healthy eating rules to,
“To hell with it, I’ll eat
anything and everything in
the pantry.”
So yes, eating the
“wrong” food is sometimes
the right choice, because
in doing so, we break the
black-and-white rules that
push us further away from
a healthy, relaxed relation-
ship with food and eating.
Pass the chocolate,
would you? l
Do you bake? I don’t. But working on Bake Off has
encouraged me to get my bake on! I cooked a pie
using a recipe from one of the contestants on the
show. It was probably one of my favourite bakes
of the whole competition. I made it at home and it
tasted pretty damned good.What’s been your funniest or worst food-related
incident on- or off-screen? My wife [singer-song-
writer Ladyhawke] is a very good cook, but one
time she baked a cake and it came out like a flat
disc. It was so funny. From then on, we’ve always
referred to it as a cake-disc. Despite the lack of
height, it was delicious, and we ate it all.Is “healthy” eating a priority for you? Yes. I like to try
to have less pasta and sugar and eat lots of greens.Do you have a special diet? I try to limit my dairy,
carbs and sugar.What’s your usual breakfast? Today I had porridge
(made with water) and banana.What about lunch? If I’m being really well behaved,
I’ll have a salad with a bit of protein, usually
chicken, with a balsamic dressing.What’s your favourite evening meal? I’m
really into seafood at the moment. I’m
loving roasting a bit of salmon with
herbs and serving it with steamed
spinach or courgette.What do you snack on? Nuts and
carrots.What one ingredient can you
not live without? Hot sauce.What is always in your
shopping trolley?
Sweet potato, lamb
and a bag of spinach.
And, of course, hot
sauce.What nutrition advice
have you found most
annoying? I think you
should eat what
your body tells you. I
know my body func-
tions better if I limit
carbs, dairy and sugar.
Just eat what you feel
good eating.Madeleine Sami
Fresh from the success of The Breaker
Upperers, the actor is turning up the heat
as host of The Great Kiwi Bake Off. But does she
actually have time to bake in-between writing
scripts, acting, motherhood and hosting?Email your nutrition
questions to nutrition@
listener.co.nzThe Great Kiwi Bake Off
premieres on Tuesday, Oct-
ober 16, TVNZ 2, 7.30pm.