‘What diet are you following?’ I hear someone ask another lady the other day.

‘The ITG diet.’

‘Wow, you’ve really lost a lot of weight.  You look amazing.’

‘Thanks.  I’ve tried everything, but I always seem to put the weight back on as soon as I come off the diet.’

How many times have you heard this?  Quite a few, I bet.  Well, to be honest, so have I.  Not specifically the ITG diet, though the story above is true, but all kinds of different ones.  The Atkins, Miami Beach, Vitamin B Shot – the list goes on.  Many people swear by each of them.  However, I have seen what it does to those who know and understand little about food.  Their weight goes down and up like a yo-yo that never breaks momentum. It is heart-breaking to watch, and I’ll tell you why. While it is not good for anyone’s body weight to change so dramatically so many times, it surely cannot be good for anyone’s mind either. The stress of battling with how your body looks has got to be psychologically damaging, and all for whose benefit? The people making money off you, perhaps?

I trained as a chef eighteen years ago and know a bit about food and how it affects the body. Many friends and acquaintances have sought me out for my expertise and opinion, including those who are wanting to become healthier. What’s disturbing to me is when people assume that, because I am slim (ok, skinny), it means that I am eating ‘diet’ food. I use the term ‘diet’ here to mean low fat, low sugar, low sodium, and so.

I can’t tell you the amount of times people want me to give them a cookie recipe using no sugar and no dairy (and not because they are lactose intolerant, by the way), or a dessert recipe that has no fat and no sugar, including ice-cream! Again, I do not include anyone who has allergies in this equation. Don’t get me wrong, I will cut down on the sugar content in the majority of the desserts I make – cookies, cakes, ice cream, but not at the expense of disrupting the chemistry of the recipe. For meringue to come out perfectly, it really does need the exact amount of white sugar required – 4 tablespoons per egg white (provided it is not a small egg). And, FYI, I am definitely not going to use aspartame, saccharine, nor any other form of fake sugar. I cut down on sugar because I don’t want something to taste so sweet. I also won’t compromise my dish if eggs are in the recipes – sorry, but they go in, and if butter is asked for, it goes in, and so on. I am not going to use partially hydrogenated vegetable oil. I am not going to use that substitute for butter they sell in the supermarket, because it really is no substitute for butter, and it certainly is not healthier. I am not going to use low-fat cheese, low-fat yogurt, or anything that claims to be low-fat. If they took the fat out of something which was supposed to have fat, they have probably added something that is not healthy, or worse, not supposed to be eaten! If you come and ask me for a low-fat solution to a cookie, or to a cupcake, I’m going to tell you to go and eat some carrot and celery sticks, I’m afraid.

The key to eating healthily is to eat everything in moderation. Sure, sure, you all know this. You’ve all said it before, or at least heard it before. The question is, do you practice it? Are you quite sure this is the case? There is nothing wrong with indulging on popcorn, pizza, chicken wings, wine and dessert one night, provided you’re not doing it all the time. Providing you are getting a good range of vegetables, fruits, ground provisions and proteins the rest of the time.

The truth is, losing weight is a numbers game. It is a numbers game when it comes to calories consumed – in order to lose weight, you must burn more energy than you are consuming. And it is a numbers game when it comes to your blood and tissue chemistry and overall health, so it is imperative that you keep that diet balanced, to ensure you are still getting all the nutrients you are supposed to get. Giving up an entire food group will not achieve this, though it might make you shed pounds. I know, they make shakes to make up for the omission of some nutrients in one of these ‘diets’, but please be wary of these. Not everything in these shakes is always good for you. The concentration of certain nutrients might be unbalanced, particularly in relation to the other nutrients.

So the next time you decide that you need to go on a diet, please remember that we are all on a diet of some kind. I just believe that my non-diet diet is the best kind of them all.