Madeleine Shaw - A Year of Beautiful Eating : Eat Fresh. Eat Seasonal. Glow With Health, All Year Round

Hello and welcome to A Year of Beautiful Eating! As a kid at school, I never knew what I wanted to do. I didnt particularly excel at anything (apart from smiling), but when I started to work in food and wellness something changed in me. I knew then that I wanted to dedicate myself to making healthy eating a part of everyones life and making it something fun, delicious and easy to adopt.

This book is all about keeping it simple. No food fads, just getting back to good produce in tune with nature. The way we used to eat. I wasnt always healthy before I got into cooking. I had been in a total food rut, existing on low-fat yogurt, Diet Coke, granola, rice cakes and the odd bit of dried fruit. That was it: no variety, just bland, boring and joyless food.

Not only that, what I ate was packed full of hidden sugars! Without realising it, I was pretty much living on the stuff and all in the name of being on a healthy diet. When I moved to Australia and discovered my passion for food, I had to unlearn all my bad habits. A key step was understanding that something calling itself low fat was probably high in refined sugars and would be much, much worse for me than a full-fat option. Gradually, I went from eating a low-fat, restrictive diet to something I would never call a diet it was a way of eating that nourished me from the inside out, full of fresh ingredients, wholefoods and healthy fats. These foods kept me feeling sustained throughout the day. The negative thoughts about diet and deprivation were banished and I became excited about the different ways I could heap goodness on to my plate and into my body.

I became passionate about sharing my knowledge with others, fascinated by flavour combinations and by the medicinal properties our food can possess. My training, first as a nutritional health coach and later as a nutritional therapist, really helped me to understand exactly which delicious nutrients make our skin glow, our hair shine and our eyes sparkle. Understanding the nutrients foods contain goes hand-in-hand with seasonality. I first started thinking about eating in tune with nature when I happened to eat a strawberry in winter one day; it was watery, tasteless and expensive because it had been grown on the other side of the world and ripened in transit. My mind flashed back to strawberry picking as a little girl and the delight I would experience from finding plump, sun-ripened fruit on the plant. There was nothing delightful about that poor, grey, winter strawberry I had eaten.

I vowed that day that I would stick to eating berries in the summer (unless frozen) and I started to shop in my local farmers market, seeking out what was in season. But seasonal food isnt just about taste: its kinder on your bank balance and on the environment too. Plus, its what your body wants at that moment in time. In the winter, root veggies thrive and we really need their starchy deliciousness cooked up in warming soups because our bodies are using up much more energy in the cold. Conversely, when the days grow longer and the summers heat is at its beautiful peak, the abundance of cooling foods like lettuces, cucumbers and courgettes should be taken advantage of. This book will take you on a year-long journey through the food of the seasons: Ill show you how to boost your vitamin D levels in winter, how to protect your precious skin in the summer months with SPF-rich smoothies, and how healthy fats can be a real remedy for dry skin, whatever the season.

To help you on your way, keep an eye out for these symbols so you can choose, at a glance, which recipes youd like to cook:

Vegan
Vegetarian
Gluten free
Dairy free
Good for skin
Vitamin D rich
Protein packed
Under 15 mins
Under 30 mins

I hope this book gives you the tools to understand what your food should be doing for you and helps you to maximise that beautiful glow, from the inside out, whatever the weather. Enjoy eating yourself beautiful! Madeleine x Theres nothing better than the freshness of asparagus on a crisp spring evening, or the sweetness of a juicy strawberry in summer. Earthy beetroot in autumn and the rich velvetiness of celeriac in winter make for the perfect supper. There are so many reasons why eating seasonally is good for you, but if you still need convincing, read on! Taste There is a huge movement in restaurant kitchens for chefs to source more of their ingredients locally, which also means seasonally and thats because they know its the best way to guarantee great taste. So lets follow suit in our kitchens at home. As with the strawberries from my childhood, fresh produce equals easy cooking as its already bursting with flavour.

Seasonal, locally sourced fruit and veg is picked when ripe so there is less time for it to lose its flavour and health benefits. Variety is the Spice of Life Is it a classic tomato salad or steamed broccoli thats always on your plate on the side? We are creatures of habit and often end up going to the same aisles buying the same veggies every week. Its amazing how many different fruits and vegetables there are and being more aware of whats in season will help you to step out of your food rut and introduce a bit more delicious variety into your life. I also get a weekly veg box delivered; sometimes vegetables turn up that I have never eaten or cooked with before so it keeps things interesting and, as I really hate waste, the box delivery makes me focus on eating up all my veggies!