The Shape Diet

Book by Maria Middlestead purchase here

Which foods are ideal for you?

High-animal protein? Vegetarian? Low-carb? Low-fat?

One diet cannot possibly fit all. Just as people are varied in shape, size and personality, they also have diverse biochemistry. Discovering your individual metabolic and personality type can provide the easiest path to maximum health and pleasure. A customised dietary plan can at last free you from the frustrations of weight problems, food cravings and erratic energy levels.

Visit the food pyramids but don’t try to live there!

Living well and eating well are not simply reliant on good advice; equally important to success are tailored psychological strategies. The Shape Diet contains simple, innovative methods for identifying self-sabotage and inner guidance. Also outlined are the contrasting key approaches that men and women require to initiate and sustain change in all areas of health.

Synthesising scientific, psychological, spiritual and practical approaches, The Shape Diet will help you enjoy great food and great health.

• Discover the distinct foods, strategies and stressors for your metabolic body-type.

• Understand and access governing brain/body links.

• Enjoy sustained and pleasurable health and weight management.

• Identify and manage food sensitivities.

• Benefit from research and history-ratified nutrition information made time-savvy and tasty.

• Learn the 5 core concepts to all cooking: your liberating key to easy and endless variety.

• Increase your dining satisfaction with 100 pages of recipes for international favourites that let you choose your preferred animal or plant protein options, and which are dairy- and gluten-free.

You Are Just A Few Steps Away From Peak Vitality

GOOD HEALTH SOLUTIONS (Report 1)

You Are Just A Few Steps Away From Peak Vitality

Purchase here

With this report discover:

• How to prevent mid-morning or mid-afternoon ‘slumps’, and maintain optimal mental and physical performance.

• The unsung dietary hero that is more significant than protein – or sugar – in how it affects your energy levels.

• The most therapeutic recipe developed in my 35 years of practice. This has transformed the lives of thousands of clients and readers, plus it’s tasty and inexpensive. It takes less than 10 minutes to prepare, was demonstrated on national television to popular reception, and is the #1 dietary way to assist the following conditions:

How To Thwart Fungal, Yeast, Viral, Bacterial and Parasitic Invaders

GOOD HEALTH SOLUTIONS (Report 2)

How To Thwart Fungal, Yeast, Viral, Bacterial and Parasitic Invaders – and Build Strong Immunity

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With this report discover:

• The inexpensive food in every supermarket that can create the ultimate barrier to invaders. How – and the important issue of when – to use it.

• The two most likely food intolerances with chronic fungal and yeast infections. And how undiagnosed food sensitivities can be the real culprit behind frequent infections of all kinds.

• Why iron supplements and calcium-enriched milks can be dangerous.

• How bloating, and tiredness after eating can lower your resistance to invaders – why these symptoms occur and the easy solution.

The Heart of the Matter

GOOD HEALTH SOLUTIONS (Report 3)

The Heart of the Matter: Significant Strategies For Preventing – and Repairing – Heart, Arterial, Stroke and Other Cardiovascular Damage

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With this report discover:

• How one quick and delicious meal per day can diminish high cholesterol; improve arterial and liver function; protect the brain from cognitive decline; and prevent insulin-linked fatigue, obesity and high blood fats.

• The 2 popular snack foods that provide the best cardiovascular health insurance.

• The benefits of all fat types – including saturated – and the best ones to eat for supple arteries, good circulation, and peak mental function.

• The surprising news about muesli bars and muffins, eggs and coconut cream, low-fat milks and cosmetics.

Maria Middlestead - Clinical Nutritionist, Auckland. Call (09) 418 5422

Lebanese Lentil Soup

Serves 3-4
(No gluten, dairy; with options for vegans and no nightshades)

It doesn’t get much easier than this: basically, throw everything into a pot and simmer. The final addition of lemon and parsley beautifully refreshes, lifts the colour and provides punch. This has a richer flavour with chicken stock, but can be done vegan with top quality vegetable stock (try a little non-traditional flaky yeast or dark miso* for the umami flavour or savouriness that meat provides). The soup is heartier with soaked green lentils, but you could use red lentils which require no soaking. Adding salt after legumes are cooked helps them cook faster. A stick/immersion blender is easiest to use right in the saucepan.

Tropical Caramel Sticky Pudding

(Low salicylates; no gluten, dairy, cane sugar, citrus or soy)

Good food should please us first by its aesthetics. It should enchant by appearance, aroma and expectation. This stimulates the first phase of digestion termed cephalic – or having to do with the brain. Thinking about and seeing food can call forth supportive enzymes and other digestive juices, hormones and neurotransmitters released to prime us for pleasure, fuel and performance. It is one reason why mindless grabbing and grazing feels less satisfying. Then we might overeat to try and find the fulfilment that the process lacked.

Herb Bread

(No gluten, dairy, yeast, soy, legumes, cane sugar, citrus or nightshades; with low starch/FODMAPS option)

Wonderfully colourful and moist, this slices beautifully and stores well. Serve as is or spread with avocado. Risen with baking powder, not yeast, this is similar in texture to banana bread. Or bake in paper lined muffin cups (serve with soup, salad or in lunch boxes), as tiny muffins for finger food, or in a 20 cm (8″) square pan and served as a slice. These options will need less baking time. All can be frozen and later toasted or reheated.

Japanese-style Sesame Ginger Noodles

Serves 3-4
(No dairy; with options for gluten, grain and nightshades)

Light and more-ish with subtle, smoky punch. All the ingredients mentioned are now available in supermarkets. Ceres is a good organic brand that produces the sesame oil, mirin (rice wine used in cooking) and rice vinegar. Check the label on the sweet soy sauce (kecap manis): some contain wheat; some use palm sugar* or cane sugar. Or make your own combination of tamari* and palm sugar.

Vietnamese Spring Rolls

Makes 17 large or 24 small; serves 3-4
(No gluten, dairy, soy or legumes; with protein options*)

There is something about parcels. They charm with their mystery and compact completeness. Plus cagey cooks can slip in nutritious elements that some diners might otherwise not prefer. These rolls are popular and soon vanish when served as a main or as fingerfood.

Peanut Butter Cookies (or make them peanut-free!)

Makes 24
(No gluten, dairy, cane sugar or soy – even with options for peanuts)

Children could easily help prepare this simple recipe. Although careful scrutiny is needed with helpers of any age as the raw batter is so yummy.

These cookies are high in protein and fibre, and low in starchy carbs. This dietary package helps regulate blood sugar critical for brain and body fuel. Peanuts are a particularly good source of Magnesium (see website TIPS page); have vitamins E and B, plus iron, selenium, manganese and Zinc (TIPS); and are similar to olives in monounsaturated fat levels. These fats are needed for the protection and flexibility of every one of your 50 trillion cells. They also help lower levels of sticky LDL cholesterol, which in excess can be obstructive to arterial blood flow. Peanuts are high in arginine, an amino acid that is a precursor to nitric oxide, which helps expand blood vessels and can decrease high blood pressure. They have significant levels of phytosterols which can also reduce LDL. Their antioxidant status rivals many berries. Some of these such as p-coumaric acid (linked with lowered free radicals and carcinogens) are considerably enhanced by cooking.