Читать книгу The Sirt Diet Cookbook - Jacqueline Whitehart, Jacqueline Whitehart - Страница 10

Ever heard of ‘5 a day’? Of course you have. The 5 a day of fruit and vegetables is one of the cornerstones of the British diet. It is taught in school and referred to in practically every healthy eating guideline around. In fact, I bet you know some of its intricacies too. Do potatoes count as one of your 5 a day? No. What about fruit juice? Yes. But only as one of your 5 a day, even if you drink more than one glass. It’s a fantastically clear and useful concept that teaches us all the value of eating fruit and veg and encourages us to eat more of them.

When we follow the SIRT diet we can build on and work with our awareness of 5 a day to make the ‘SIRT 5 a day’ to help you keep track of the SIRTS you eat and make sure you’re getting enough. Sounds simple? It really is. Get to know your SIRT foods and the quantities you need to eat by following the SIRT 5-a-day guidelines and you will be a SIRT diet convert in no time.

Here is the only ‘guideline’ you need to follow for daily SIRT goodness:

Eat 5 or more portions of SIRT foods every day, consuming the greatest variety of SIRT foods possible.

SIRT 5-A-DAY PORTION SIZES

Even when choosing foods from the ‘Top Ten SIRT Foods’ list it can be hard to gauge how much we need to eat for a portion. Is a pinch of turmeric enough? Do I need to eat a whole bowlful of kale? And if I just eat five chocolate biscuits that’s my SIRT 5 a day sorted? Right? Not exactly … but it’s not rocket science either. For example, one cup of green tea is a portion, 30g kale (that’s a handful to you and me) and ten red grapes constitute a portion. In other words, the amount you would eat as part of a balanced meal is more often than not a sensible portion size.

EXAMPLE MENU 1

Breakfast: 1 cup green tea, 10 red grapes, cereal of your choice

2 of your SIRT 5 a day

• • •

Lunch: Kale and Stilton soup

3 of your SIRT 5 a day

• • •

Dinner: Beef and broccoli

2 of your SIRT 5 a day

TOTAL: 7 portions of SIRTs a day

EXAMPLE MENU 2

Breakfast: 1 cup green tea, green omelette made with shallots and parsley

3 of your SIRT 5 a day

• • •

Lunch: Brie and grape salad lunchbox

4 of your SIRT 5 a day

• • •

Dinner: Grilled chicken with lemon and olives

2 of your SIRT 5 a day

TOTAL: 9 portions of SIRTs a day

By choosing the foods that are rich natural sources of SIRTs, it is very easy to get your SIRT 5 a day. To boost your SIRTs even more, just add simple snacks like an apple (1 of your SIRT 5 a day), a few squares (30g) of dark chocolate (1 of your SIRT 5 a day) and it soon adds up.

A full list of the most SIRT-rich foods and the relevant portion size for each food is in ‘Top SIRT Foods: Quick Reference’ (see here).

More than 5 a day

The SIRT 5 a day is a great way to make sure you are getting enough daily SIRTs and it is a building block you can come back to again and again to make sure you and your family are getting the fantastic benefits of SIRTs.

If you are about to follow The SIRT Diet Plan and want to actively lose weight following the plan, then the SIRT 5 a day is a minimum baseline. As you follow the diet you should be doing everything possible to boost your SIRTs beyond 5 a day, preferably towards 10 a day and beyond. If this sounds hard, then don’t worry – all the recipes and details you need to do it are here. The SIRT Diet Plan guides you through it every step of the way with meal planners, shopping tips and sneaky SIRTs to really make sure you are optimising your weight-loss in every way.