Feast on healthy fat to unlock your inner GLOW: Our pioneering series shows how it'll boost your mood - and your skin

By Amelia Freer For The Daily Mail

Published: 19:08 EST, 27 April 2015 | Updated: 01:55 EST, 28 April 2015

Amelia Freer gives her tips for making your skin glow with health

All this week in the Mail, AMELIA FREER — nutritionist to the stars and author of bestselling book Eat.Nourish.Glow. — shows you how to change the way you eat for good. And that means curbing those sweet cravings. Not only will the weight fall off, your skin will be glowing with health...

So many weight-loss diet plans urge you to avoid fat but peddle foods soaked in sugar — and I’m a fierce critic of excess sugar. It’s right up there with smoking and drugs in my mind.

People used to smoke without any knowledge of the health implications and in a similar way, we all eat vast amounts of sugar blindly and unquestioningly, without really knowing if it’s OK. Let me tell you — it’s not!

Sugar is a drug that makes us fat (yes, many of those low-fat products are riddled with sugar!) especially around the middle.

It leads to fat deposits around our internal organs; it increases our risk of heart disease, cancer and diabetes, and it is now known to contribute towards premature ageing. And by that I mean every form of ageing from wrinkles to Alzheimer’s.

You may think cakes, biscuits and sweets make you happy but studies show any foods that spike your blood-sugar levels actually have a startlingly negative impact on brain health and moods, too.

The route to a consistently positive and upbeat demeanour actually lies in cutting sugar right out of your life, and enjoying a wealth of other delicious foods instead. Healthy fats and oils can have a noticeable impact on moods, so enjoy the feelgood boost of oily fish, avocados, olives and coconut oil.

I’ll be honest. It’s tough to cut out unnecessary sugar in your diet!

Not only is sugar everywhere, it can also be addictive, both physically and emotionally. Studies show sugar can be more addictive than cocaine because it has a pleasurable effect (like the feel-good hormones, endorphins) on the brain. So don’t beat yourself up if you’ve tried to quit but have failed.

But I can help you break this addiction — the secret lies not in ‘depriving’ yourself of something sweet and lovely, but ‘enhancing’ your diet with other better, more rewarding foods that will help you reverse the acceleration of abdominal weight gain, hold back the ageing process and achieve that elusive healthy glow.

Most of the sugar in my diet comes from fruit; I also get a little from the couple of glasses of good red wine I drink each week (wine is high in sugar, but at least red wine supplies antioxidants) and the occasional cube of dark chocolate. You can have a dessert every now and then, such as my delicious low-sugar recipes on the opposite page.

But it is important to stop regarding sugar as a treat and see it instead as a poison — something that’s making you fat, tired and miserable, and if eaten regularly and long term, could contribute to illness.

We often turn to sugar when we haven’t had a proper lunch because there’s little food in the fridge, or if we have run out the door and skipped breakfast.

So if you’re going to reduce the sugar in your diet, it is important to eat regularly — three good meals a day — because if you miss a meal and your blood sugar levels drop, or you become hungry, the quick burst of energy and taste a chocolate bar or biscuit provides can prove to be impossibly tempting.

Get the Glow with nutritionist to the stars Amelia Freer

You may think cakes, biscuits and sweets make you happy but studies show any foods that spike your blood-sugar levels actually have a startlingly negative impact on brain health and moods, too (file picture)

Cutting back is good, but the best method, and the one I recommend to my clients, is ‘cold turkey’ removal of that sugary drug in the form of total abstinence for one week. This doesn’t mean you can’t ever have cake or wine again — you can (I do)! But you need dramatic measures if you’re going to stop the daily drip-feed of sugar in your diet.

After decades of drinking ten or more cups of tea a day, each with three (yes, three) teaspoons of sugar, I know what breaking the addiction is like. But I’m out the other side and let me tell you, it’s wonderful! Because I now eat so little sugar I never crave it and that feels incredibly freeing.

When clients tell me they are hungry for sugar I tell them to drink more water, eat more vegetables and ensure a portion of protein at each meal to ride out the cravings. The cravings normally lessen after a week of breaking the cycle.

Believe me, getting control of sugar will be one of the best things you ever do for your body, health, face and emotional wellbeing.

Scientists now know that excess sugar can attach itself to cells all around the body, forming a hard sticky crust in a process called glycation. This crust is detrimental to the ageing process. So, no matter how much money you spend on amazing skin creams, if your diet is full of sugar you simply won’t be able to undo the cellular damage that sugar causes from the inside.

Research has also shown that sugar consumption could stunt short-term memory.

Our body is designed to only allow a very small amount of sugar in the bloodstream at any one time — about 1–2 teaspoonfuls.

If we eat more than this, the hormone insulin is produced to transport this sugar out of the bloodstream. This sugar gets converted into fat, which is stored around the waist and clings to the organs.

If we eat a lot of sugar our cells can become resistant to the presence of insulin (insulin resistance), which increases our risk of diabetes and heart disease, even if we’re not overweight.

If you want a trim figure, glowing skin and vibrant energy, and you’d rather not have diabetes or heart disease, then you might want to think about how much sugar you are eating.

• Extracted by Louise Atkinson from Eat. Nourish. Glow.: 10 Easy Steps For Losing Weight, Looking Younger And Feeling Healthier by Amelia Freer (Harper Thorsons, £16.99). © 2015 Amelia Freer. To order a copy for £12.74 (25 per cent discount) visit mailbookshop.co.uk or call 0808 272 0808. Offer until May 9, free P&P for a limited time only. 

How not eating enough fat takes its toll on your face  

My nutritional philosophy isn’t all about cutting things out — where’s the fun of living like that? Cutting back on sugar is one thing, but cutting back on fat, as so many diet plans recommend, is most definitely NOT on my nutritional agenda.

Forward-thinking scientists are now perfectly clear that the low-fat message that has been at the top of the dietary advice for decades has truly failed us.

The good news is we should all be putting more fat into our diets, not less. Dietary fat is known to be essential for neurological health, metabolism, joint health and of course skin.

Health experts have known for years that some fats, including that found in butter, are in fact essential for good health

I can usually see if someone is deficient in essential fatty acids from a quick glance at their face and body — flaky skin on the arms and face, a loss of plumpness to the skin — so it’s time to stop worrying about the fat content of real foods and worry about the sugar content instead.

The beauty of fat — natural and pure fat, not the kind found in processed pies or crisps — is that it tastes absolutely delicious. It is excellent to fill you up and to provide flavour in a way that low-fat/high-sugar foods just can’t. It also helps us reap the benefits of other foods more efficiently — a 2004 study from Iowa State University in the U.S. found that our bodies absorb more health-boosting nutrients like lycopene and betacarotene from vegetables when eaten together with fat.

Yes, there are some fats that should be feared and avoided — the chemically derived fats, which are mainly vegetable oils, such as canola (from rapeseed), soya, sunflower, safflower and corn. These oils go through an industrial solvent extraction process, which requires a number of heating treatments and chemical processes (petroleum, to mention one) before they are bottled and sold.

To turn them into margarine, they then have to go through a further process called hydrogenation, which makes them solid when cooled. Butter, coconut butter and olive oils, do not undergo these processes. Health experts have known for years that some fats are in fact essential for good health.

FRIENDLY FOODS FOR HEALTHY SKIN: FATS THAT SHOULD BE IN OUR DIET

• Coconut butter, milk, cream, oil and flesh.
• Olive oil.
• Nuts, seeds and their butters, milks and oils (don’t cook with the oils, just use them for flavour).
• Oily fish (salmon, mackerel, sardines and tuna).
• Avocados and their oil.
• Organic butter.
• Ghee (clarified butter).
• Organic red meats and poultry

Eggs were let off the hook after it was discovered that even though they contained cholesterol, it was the heart-healthy kind. Oily fish, such as salmon and mackerel, nuts, seeds, oils and avocados were found to contain essential fatty acids which serve multiple important health functions in the body and can only be obtained from food, hence the name ‘essential’.

Every cell in the body has an outer layer that’s made up of fat, so we need to consume good fats to keep these cells strong and healthy, which in turn keeps us strong and healthy. Research reveals that even saturated fats (found in red meat, butter and coconut oil) are healthier than thought.

So fat isn’t such a devil after all, but let’s keep this in perspective — it isn’t a green light to eat all the cheese, red meat, sausages and butter you can handle. Ditch the margarine, but don’t slather your bread with butter instead.

You’d be better off ditching the bread, too, and using a little butter on some vegetables. Enjoy red meat occasionally, not daily, but make it organic and locally reared if you can. Don’t buy processed red meats like ham, salami, sausages, mince and bacon that are insanely cheap and insanely corrupted.

DELICIOUS PUDDINGS THAT WON'T PILE ON THE POUNDS 

Guilt-free: Tasty, home-made apple pie 

APPLE PIES 

For the pastry:

200g/7oz gluten-free flour — plus extra for dusting

100g/3½oz coconut butter — plus extra for oiling (I use Tiana coconut butter)

75ml/3 fl oz cold filtered water

For the filling:

200g/7oz stewed apple

Juice and zest of 1 orange, grated

Juice and zest of 1 lemon, grated

½ nutmeg, grated

½ tsp ground ginger

1 tsp ground cinnamon

2 tbsp unflavoured coconut butter

Using your hands, mix flour, coconut butter and water together in large mixing bowl until it comes together to form dough.

Wrap in Clingfilm and chill for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, mix the filling ingredients and set aside. Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4 & lightly oil ten holes of the cupcake/muffin tray with coconut oil.

Lightly dust a board with flour and roll out the dough until 5mm thick, then cut into 20 7cm rounds. Arrange half of the rounds into the prepared tray, pushing them gently down around the edges.

Put 1 tsp filling into the middle of each round, then place a second round on top and push gently to seal. Using a fork, pierce the top of each pie, then bake in the oven for about 20 minutes, or until the edges are slightly golden.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool before sprinkling with a little icing sugar.

LEMON MOUSSE 

(serves 3-4)

400g tin of coconut milk

3 medium eggs, separated

75g/1 tbsp local organic honey

Juice and zest of 2 unwaxed organic lemons

Pinch of salt

Chill coconut tin in fridge for 2 hours so coconut cream floats to the top. Take off the cream (keep rest of the milk to flavour a soup or a smoothie) and beat with a whisk until stiff.

Place egg yolks, honey, lemon zest and lemon juice in a separate heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water and whisk constantly for about 10 minutes until mixture thickens. Remove from the heat and chill for 30 mins.

In a separate clean bowl, beat the egg whites and sea salt until stiff. Fold lemon mixture into coconut cream, then gently fold in egg whites.

Chill in fridge for at least 2 hours, then spoon into pretty glasses or bowls to serve.

CHOCOLATE MARSHMALLOWS 

3 tbsp grass-fed gelatin powder

250ml/½ pint/8 fl oz filtered water

125ml/¼ pint/4 fl oz coconut nectar

1 tsp vanilla extract

¼ tsp sea salt

Raw cacao powder, to serve

Line a 20 x 20cm baking tin with parchment paper lengthways and then, using another piece, line widthways, ensuring there is enough parchment paper overhanging the sides to cover marshmallows.

Put the gelatin and 125ml water in a freestanding mixer and mix until soft. Meanwhile, pour remaining water into a saucepan with the coconut nectar, vanilla and salt and bring mixture to the boil. Boil mixture for 7–8 minutes, then immediately remove from the heat.

Turn your mixer to low (or you can use a hand-held whisk if it is too powerful) and slowly pour coconut nectar mixture into the bowl, combining it with softened gelatin. Turn mixer to high and continue beating for about 10 minutes, or until mixture becomes thick-like. Turn off the mixer and transfer marshmallow creme to the prepared tin. Smooth the top, then press it down with parchment paper. Leave until the marshmallow is completely set.

Cut marshmallow into small cubes and dust with raw cacao powder to serve.

HAZELNUT CHOCOLATE SALTED CARAMELS 

14 small medjool dates, pitted

75ml/3 fl oz coconut milk

75ml/3 fl oz melted coconut oil

1-4 tsp Maldon sea salt, plus sea salt flakes for sprinkling

½ tsp vanilla powder

12 raw hazelnuts

Coconut flour, for dusting

Chocolate coating:

25g/1oz cocoa powder

25g/1oz coconut oil

2 tbsp coconut crystals

Soak dates in a bowl of hot water for 20 minutes, then drain and put them into a blender with the coconut milk, coconut oil, salt and vanilla powder. Blend into a smooth paste, then freeze for 1 hour.

Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper. Roll each hazelnut in the caramel mixture until coated, dust with a little coconut flour and put on to the lined baking tray. Freeze for 3 hours.

Meanwhile make chocolate coating by putting all the ingredients in a pan and set over low heat, stirring until melted.

Allow to cool a little until it is thick enough to drizzle over the caramel balls, sprinkle a little salt over each, then pop back into the freezer for 30 minutes.

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