I recently bought the book ?You Are What You Eat? which was issued in conjunction with the programme recently shown on at 20.30 on Tuesday evenings on Channel 4. I had missed the first couple of programmes but, after insistence by my daughter that I should watch, I begrudgingly did so and then became hooked on the programme.

Hunting around the shops trying to find a book was hard as most shops had sold out but I managed to buy one from W H Smiths at £12.99 only to find it being sold at £9.99 at Borders bookshop. It can be purchased from Amazon.co.uk for, I think, £7.99 + P&P but there was a 7-14 day delivery time and I wanted the book immediately!

The book is highly colourful and easy reading and Dr Gillian McKeith, a nutrionist, promises that if you follow her rules then you will be slimmer, healthier and happier. The book is not only about losing weight but actively tries to encourage us all to think about the rubbish food that we stuff down our faces. Gillian has research food for many years and knows what she is talking about and actually she does talk a lot of sense. As eating is one of the main activities of our lives then we should really start to treat our bodies with respect and not keep giving ourselves food that isn?t of any real nutritional value.

The book got my attention immediately as I read about the lady with cancer who had been given two weeks to live ? every bone in her body was riddled with cancer and she could hardly breathe, let alone walk. The hospital had sent her home to die but a friend started to spoon feed her an esoteric diet (also called macrobiotic) which incorporated natural vegetarian foods like brown rice, seeds, seaweeds, green vegetables, beans and lots of soy or ?miso? soups. The lady regained her strength after one month and within two months no longer felt ill and
the hospital checked her and her cancer had gone. Now if that story is not inspiring to eat healthily then I don?t know what else is.

Gillian is of the firm belief that the food we put into our bodies is our medicine and if you put the wrong kind of medicine into the body then energy levels will decrease, sex drives can disappear and fat is the outcome.

?Poo? is mentioned quite a lot and Gillian can tell the state of a person?s health just by looking at their poo. Poo is usually a taboo subject but what she says makes sense. If you don?t eat enough fibre then food can stay in your intestines for weeks and become bad creating smells. She also looks at people?s tongues and can tell the state of their health from this body part also. It is absolutely fascinating to watch the programme and read the book.

She describes the top 5 troubles of most of her patients:

Continual tiredness
PMS and other hormonal aliments
Stress
Weight struggles
Digestive problems

She addresses each of these issues and let us know how to tackle the problem and overcome it with the food that we eat.

Then she talks about detoxing our bodies and looking at our external appearance. She always advises her patients to have a colonic irrigation before embarking on her health regimen (regimen is a favourite word for Gillian). Did you know that the walls of our colon can have approximately 8-14lbs of rotten food inside it? Isn?t it a horrible thought. That is why she insists on the colonic irrigation. I know a couple of people who have had this done for medical reasons and they have all said that they felt great afterwards. Well, getting rid of up to a stone of rotten food from your body is just great! I might even try it myself.

Gillian gives a quick 7 day eating plan for beginners to get started but her book is ful
l of very good information and for most common complaints she has a good eating plan to rectify them.

There are also some recipes at the back of the book to get you started on the programme and, at first glance, they don?t look too appetising but her website: www.drgillianmckeith.com is also a mine of information too.

One of her chapters called The Next Level explains what to do after reading her book and she also recommends further stages of advancement once we understand food and its components and which foods are good for various complaints etc. She informs us what we should look out for in things such as sweeteners, colourings and additives and which ones could be carcinogenic. This was a real eye opener for me and really made me think that, although I thought I ate quite healthily, I wasn?t eating healthily enough.

The book is full of information on lots of fruit and vegetables and how our body needs them, and how they aid digestion. Gillian advocates eating lots of raw, green leafy vegetables, pulses, beans, miso soup and fresh fruit. She introduces the reader to vegetables they may have not heard of previously, I know I certainly hadn?t heard of some of the veg and pulses eg. quinoa (pronounced keen-wa) which can be used for a breakfast cereal. Aduki beans is another favourite of Gillian?s.

Gillian also tells us that we should never really drink or eat anything that is either really hot or very cold. Our digestive system copes easier with warm food and drink and that we should all try and eat raw vegetables more often or, if we cook our vegetables, only cook them for 3 mins. I cooked a whole load of green veg last night for myself for 5 minutes and they were wonderful. So much tastier than the usual 15-20 minutes cooking time I do.

Another no-go area is dairy products, instead of milk she advises using soya milk or rice milk
. I actually bought some rice milk at the weekend and it looks very watery and has quite a strange taste, I can only liken the taste to a nutty flavour but it is OK. The rice milk is made from brown rice so is extremely healthy.

As I am following the Slimming World eating programme I realised that I could also incorporate a lot of the suggestions from this book. I am introducing it gradually into my food regimen but I can tell you that I am actually enjoying my food more. I have bought a juicer and now have a juice drink each day, have introduced bean casseroles and am eating lots of fresh, raw salads and vegetables. I did buy quite a lot of vegetables from Salisbury market last week which were wonderfully, fresh, cheap and wholesome. Let me tell you that the celery actually had soil on the base! I haven?t seen that for quite some time and the taste was lovely ? much better than the very clean versions I usually buy from the supermarket.

This book has definitely made me think more about the food I eat and has taught me to start trying to be a bit more adventurous with my food. Who would have thought that a bean casserole would be ready and waiting for me tonight after my Slimming World class!

I now look at pre-packaged food and think that there is no actual nutritional value in it whatsoever. If at all possible, I will try and buy organic food in future though it is quite expensive but, as the programme and the book says:

We Are What We Eat ? if we owned a beautiful car would we put sawdust into it instead of petrol? No, we wouldn?t dream of it, so why do we do it to our bodies?

I thoroughly recommend all of you to buy and read this book and set yourself a new goal to eat more healthily. You don?t have to follow everything Gillian advises but, if you do just a little bit of it
, then you will start to feel better.