Matten - The 100 Foods You Should be Eating How to Source, Prepare and Cook Healthy Ingredients

Like many a good idea, the idea behind this book is a simple one. I want you to think differently about the food you put on your plate. Thats it. See, I said it was simple. But before you flip the page and rock on with the recipes, heres the lowdown on what this books all about.

When it comes to the food we eat, I can sum it up in four words: weve lost the plot. I cant imagine there ever being a time when our diets have been the focus of so many TV shows, magazines or news headlines. In fact you can pick up just about any glossy magazine and read about the latest Hollywood diet craze or what your fave celeb is (or more likely isnt) eating. Yet despite all this (so-called) advice were fatter and less healthy than previous generations. I mean, whats all that about?

Weve forgotten about whats important. Food. The real thing. The stuff nature intended us to eat. The trouble is, were lost in a world of convenience junk food on the one hand and shiny vitamin pills and heavily branded superfoods (a bonkers idea if ever there was one) on the other. Its a classic case of not being able to see the wood for the trees. Even if the will is there and you want to make healthy choices, how do you go about making sense of all the marketing gobbledygook and half-truths? And what I really want to know, more than anything else, is how did something that should be so simple get so complicated?

So its time to get a few basic things straight. After all, if its good health youre after, the scientific evidence is pretty clear eating a healthy diet, including many of the foods featured in this book, is probably one of the best health insurance policies youre likely to take out. And it doesnt involve gorging on the latest superfood or swallowing a handful of vitamin pills, either. Its much easier and tastier than that. You just need to give some thought to what youre putting on your plate. And if you can do that, the benefits are yours for the taking. In fact, the only thing holding you back is whether youre adventurous enough to jump off the treadmill of convenience food, and, armed with your knife and fork and the information in this book, eat your way to better health. Im definitely up for that and I hope you are, too.

Okay, so heres the drill this book delivers pretty much what it says on the tin. Youve got my take on the 100 foods you should be eating. Not to mention the best way to buy, prepare and cook them. Sounds easy, and by and large it is. These are foods you should be eating because they promote high-level health and because they taste good (you can relax red wine, tea, coffee, chocolate and curry take pride of place here). Some of them you may already be an aficionado with in the kitchen. As for the flipside, therell almost certainly be a whole lot youll have breezed past in the supermarket without so much as a sideways glance. Everyday stuff that you might come across in the grocery section, amongst the herbs and spices, at the fish counter or, dare I say it, amidst the confectionary or even down the booze aisle. And if you dont know what hidden gems are there, youll be missing out on some top nosh.

To make life easier, Ive structured the chapters to make the foods and recipes fit in with peoples busy lives not the other way around. And if your life is anything like mine and youve got to juggle a busy job, family life and still want a bit of time to hang out with your mates, this book is written for you. Happy days for anyone who lives in the real world, not the make-believe world of diet books. But above all, Ive made it simple. Simple enough that anyone can benefit from the information in this book. Which means theres really only one thing left to say: Lets get started!

Glen Matten

There are quite a few of us who know that breakfast is the most important meal of the day and feast on porridge, muesli, eggs or some other equally wholesome fare, but there are just as many people who scoff at a healthy start or skip breakfast altogether.

Like it or not, breakfast is an important meal to get right and a chance to load-up on the right fuel to see you through the morning ahead. But a big problem is that most of us just dont have time for breakfast anymore, and if your home is anything like mine in the morning, its full-on chaos!

Lack of time to prepare decent food is a biggie for lots of people, so Ive included breakfasts for weekdays, which can be rustled up in no time or pre-prepared the night before, and weekend breakfasts for when you can take a more leisurely pace in the kitchen. But, and this is a big but, even with the quickest of these breakfasts, some of which probably take less than 5 minutes to throw together, youve still got to make a bit of time to eat it.

That said, once youve tasted some of these, youll think its well worth setting the alarm clock 15 minutes earlier...

Nuts. All that fat. All those calories. Best avoided, right? Wrong that way of thinking is actually a bit nuts.

Why you should be eating it

Okay, so they are calorific. And full of fat. But its nearly all good fats. Yes, you heard right. GOOD FATS. And with almonds were talking mostly monounsaturated fats, along with some polyunsaturated fats for good measure.

Packing all that fat you might think theyd clog your arteries quicker than you could open a packet of pralines, but check this out. The evidence actually suggests that consumption of almonds is likely to decrease the risk of heart disease, not increase it. Not only do they appear to help lower cholesterol levels, but they also contain an array of antioxidant compounds that help prevent bad LDL cholesterol from becoming oxidized, making it less likely to start clogging up the inside of artery walls.

Packing their fair share of vitamins, such as vitamin E, and minerals, such as calcium and magnesium, the almond has got itself some pretty tasty credentials, shaping up as more heart-friend than heart-foe.

How to buy it

Almonds are best in their natural state and not coated in a load of sugar or salt.

How to cook it

Almonds are great for snacking, but you can use them to make fresh almond milk (which works wonders in smoothies, for making porridge, and even in place of coconut milk in curries). You can also buy a mean nut butter made from almonds, which makes a nice change from peanut butter.