The Viva Mayr Diet: 14 days to a flatter stomach and a younger you. Dr Stossier Harald

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СКАЧАТЬ are healthier. I don’t even have any white sugar in the house; I do everything with brown sugar, even baking – which is not easy if you’re trying to bake a white fluffy sponge.

      

      ‘Brown sugar is very often only white sugar that has been coloured brown to give it the appearance of natural, healthy sugar,’ explains the doctor. ‘In fact, natural sugar wouldn’t even taste like sugar. If you have a sweet tooth then use the plant Stevia instead.’

      

      I have tried Stevia in its raw form and also in a chocolate mousse. It is delicious and sweet enough for anyone. You can buy it online or in health-food shops. But be aware that a craving for sweet things is a sign that your cells are asking for sugar because they need energy to digest your food. This means you have not given your body the best chance to digest, and is not good news. You are either eating the wrong thing at the wrong time, not chewing enough (see here), eating too much protein (see here) or eating when you are stressed (see here).

      Fruit is a better option than sugar. Instead of sugar, sprinkle fruit on your cereal. An ideal breakfast would be muesli and some fruit followed by eggs (preferably not fried, sadly, which will upset my daughter who likes nothing better than to start the day with one or even two fried eggs), and some raw vegetables. While I was at the Viva Mayr Clinic, I had an avocado with linseed oil for breakfast – surprisingly delicious and one of the most nutritious ways to start the day. But if you can’t imagine going on without your daily fix of doughnuts, Mars bars or fizzy drinks, please do me a favour and just give it three days; that’s all it will take to break your nasty habits, for your taste buds to mellow, and for those things to seem like sugary, unhealthy and fattening blasts from the past.

      Roll up your sleeves …

      Once you have all your ingredients stashed away, then it’s time to make spelt bread. Spelt bread is one of the things for which the Viva Mayr Clinic is famous – or even infamous! Everyone who goes there, from film stars and property magnates to professional football players is put on a diet that includes spelt bread.

      The first time you eat it, you may well be horrified. The bread tastes, well, stale. I can imagine the great and the good who visit the clinic – and are used to the better things in life – being rather shocked when they are presented with a bowl of vegetable broth and some, um, stale bread. But the point is that it teaches us to chew properly. Actually, I grew rather fond of the taste while I was at the clinic. Freshly baked, it is delicious, once you have learned how to chew properly.

      Spelt bread is easy to make. You will need to prepare it the day before you want to eat it. I find it easiest to do the first part of the preparation when I get up in the morning and the second part when I get home from work. Here is the recipe:

      Spelt bread

       Makes about 15 pieces

      Ingredients for the sourdough

      Part one

      125g sheep’s or goat’s milk yoghurt

      125ml water

      125g spelt flour

      

      Mix all the ingredients together using a food mixer and leave to stand for 8 hours in a warm place (an airing cupboard is a good choice, or above an oven that has been previously heated). The dough is quite liquid at first but it will firm up as it stands.

      

      Part two

      750g spelt flour

      250ml warm water

      1½ tablespoons cream of tartar

      ½ teaspoon rock or sea salt

      ½ teaspoon ground coriander

      ½ teaspoon ground cumin

      ½ teaspoon ground aniseed

      ½ teaspoon ground fennel seeds

      Sourdough (see above)

      

      Mix all of the ingredients together with the sourdough and stir for 8 to 10 minutes. You might find it easier to use a food processor, or a mixer with a dough hook, rather than mixing by hand. The dough should be quite firm now.

      

      Form flatbreads of approximately 70g each from the spelt dough. They must be very flat. Leave them to rise on a lightly floured baking tray for approximately 45 minutes, then prick and bake in the preheated oven at 190°C (375°F/Gas mark 5) for approximately 15 minutes. The breads should be golden brown and firm to the touch.

      

      Leave them to rest for a day. That way they’ll be a little harder. You can also freeze the bread until you need it. It will last for several days; in fact, Dr S encourages you to eat it after a day or two so that it is tougher to chew.

      No time for baking?

      If you don’t have time, simply buy a packet of Ryvita, a rye or wholemeal loaf from the supermarket, or pick up some spelt bread at your local health-food store. I’d really recommend this recipe, though, as taste-wise it beats any bread you can buy hands down. Please do make the time today – in between reading – to make your first batch of spelt bread. You also need to make it well in advance because when it comes to learning how to chew properly, the bread should be a day or two old.

      Cooking the Viva Mayr way

      Once you know what to eat, how are you meant to cook it? The goal of cooking the Viva Mayr way is to create a dish that tastes good, while at the same time preserving the food’s nutrients. Some methods are better than others because they make foods easier to digest. In many cases, food preparation is essential for us to be able to digest a food at all. Have you ever tried eating raw dried pasta?

      By far the best way to cook vegetables is to steam them, and the best way to cook meat is to grill it. Fish can be poached, steamed or grilled. If you do end up frying, use only warm-pressed oils. Palm oil and coconut oil are especially suitable, because they have a very high smoke point of between 160°C and 180°C (320°F and 350°F), which means they can be heated without destroying the valuable nutrients. Heating cold-pressed oils turns them into trans fats – the very worst type of fats you can eat. If you do choose to cook with olive oil, or vegetable or seed oils, choose warm-pressed varieties. The fatty acids they contain will not be altered by cooking.

      Contrary to what most other diet books will tell you, butter is fine. Butter contains milk fat, which has high levels of essential fatty acids, required for the brain and immune system. But don’t heat butter. At the most, butter can be melted gently and used to coat vegetables. Heating any more than this destroys butter and robs it of its health benefits, by destroying the healthy fatty acid chains.

      Dr Stossier СКАЧАТЬ