Tom Kerridge - Tom Kerridges Dopamine Diet

I dedicate this book to Ninja Mum Bef, youre the best, love you always. And to Acey, the funniest, most amazing and incredible thing to have ever happened in my life, who as I write this is chewing on one of his dirty socks!

MY DOPAMINE DIET

OVER THE PAST THREE YEARS Ive lost eleven stone. As a chef and someone whos constantly on the go, Ive always known that Id only be able to stick to a diet that allows me to eat really delicious food. I started by cutting out booze and then began to devise my own low-carb regime built around ingredients that are known to facilitate the release of dopamine, the pleasure hormone. Thankfully, these include some of my favourite things, such as free-range eggs, good-quality meat, oily fish, artichokes and leafy greens, so I havent felt deprived or hungry for a minute. Since Ive lost so much weight, people always ask me how I did it. The answer is in these pages.

My looming fortieth birthday was a turning point. Even without weighing myself, at a rough guess, I reckon I was nearly 30 stone. When you live a full and busy life, its easy to ignore the obvious as you frantically try to cram as much as you can into each day. But theres nothing like a major milestone to focus the mind.

I work in an industry full of hard-drinking party animals, and I had built the reputation of being the last man standing at every awards do, party and get-together. My love of booze and late-night food was legendary. But as my birthday approached, I started to think I needed to change. I couldnt continue to live like this.

But in a business that is all about delicious, rich food and limitless drink, how could I begin to make a change and find a weight-reducing regime that was right for me?

Of course, everyone tells you how important exercise is. And I get that, but unless youve walked in my size 10 shoes, its difficult to imagine just how intimidating it is to go into a gym as a 40-year-old, 30-stone bloke and hand yourself and your health over to some 25-year-old personal trainer with a six pack. Emotionally, physically, youre so far apart there is no common ground. You feel awkward, embarrassed and particularly challenging for someone like me, whos used to being in charge of everything around them out of control. I realised that I would have to start with food and gently find my own way into exercise (see ). You will find your own way too.

Open any paper or magazine, turn on the telly, or click on the internet, and you are bombarded with diet advice. Its overwhelming and often contradictory. Professors, doctors, nutritionists and all sorts of other experts will tell you that its about a balanced diet and lifestyle.

I knew that for me and for anyone who has lots of weight to lose this wouldnt work. I wasnt going to drop the daunting amount I needed to lose by having one scoop of ice cream instead of two. Balance keeps you the same. Balance is for when youve achieved a weight youre happy with and want to maintain it.

It was clear that to lose a lot of weight my diet had to be unbalanced. I am aware this flies in the face of popular diet wisdom, but I knew that at 30 stone, I had to take a really hard look at my life and make a big shift. To reduce my size I would have to remove some of the things that were making me and keeping me fat. I needed to think about what my priorities were, what was wrong in my diet, and what I needed to take away to get the results I wanted.

I spent ages researching diets and trying to find inspiration for something that would work for me. I read everything I could get my hands on. I looked at calorie counting, fat-free diets and protein-led regimes. I even considered quirky ingredient diets like the cabbage soup diet. At one point, I thought Id find out if there was such a thing as a beer diet, so I could eradicate food and just drink beer. (Sadly, that doesnt exist.)

None of the existing regimes seemed right for me they were too fussy, too restrictive or just plain unpleasant. So it was back to the drawing board. I knew my situation could not be solved with a quick-fix, two-month fad diet. It was important for me to find something I could stick to in the long term, a style of eating I wouldnt get bored with after a few weeks before sliding back into my old, bad boy ways. I needed to find something that could become a way of life.

I realised pretty quickly that calorie counting wasnt for me. Even though I could still eat the foods I wanted, I feared I just wouldnt be able to eat enough to satisfy my hunger and fairly quickly I would fall into the habit of having a sneaky something. And then another sneaky something.

Following a fat-free diet would prove very difficult because of my job. Butter, dairy and animal fats are in high use in both of my pubs and, as all chefs and good cooks know, fat carries flavour. How could I sign up for a diet that reduced how good your food could taste? Especially when I was well aware that a bit of butter or a splash of really good olive oil could make all the difference?

So next up, I looked at a low-carbohydrate diet and tried to understand how that works. It quickly became clear to me that a traditional way of eating, even if its balanced, is high in carbohydrates, which increases insulin production, and which in turn leads to more fat accumulation.

I looked at my menu at The Hand and Flowers and saw that one of our best-selling main courses is steak and chips. Hardly surprising its lush! Under a low-calorie or low-fat diet, I wouldnt be able to eat this at all. But on a low-carb diet, I realised I could eat at least 50 per cent of it. This is when I knew I was getting somewhere.

As I came to understand the low-carb diet, I realised I could have double steak, no chips, or swap the chips for a side order of vegetables from the menu, such as cabbage, spinach or sprout tops. I could eat out (or in my own restaurant) without feeling like the odd one out. Result!

Also, and significantly, I discovered that swapping bland white carbs for leafy greens has another advantage. Those side dishes are high in iron and have strong, huge, flavours that leave you feeling very satisfied and banish cravings. More about this later

PUSHING THE PROTEIN, CUTTING OUT CARBS

Once I understood the steak and chips (or rather steak and no chips) theory, I decided to take this approach to everything I ate. I knew that whatever plan I devised, I needed to stay on it long term. Im easily distracted and Ill happily turn to something new, so I wanted to find a way of eating that would always seem to be the best. It wouldnt work if I became unsatisfied or bored. It had to be as rich, varied and delicious as I could make it.

With this in mind, I knew that a high-protein, high-meat, full-flavoured diet definitely interested me. I knew it could provide enough variety to stop me getting bored, which meant, most importantly, I would be able to stick to it for the long haul. After all, if you can eat pork scratchings on a diet and still lose weight, surely thats a good thing, right?