Eat Clean: Wok Yourself to Health

Being a cook, I have always been mindful of eating healthily but my own experience really opened my eyes. Now I truly believe that you are ‘what you eat’ and my own personal experience has taught me this. It’s funny that when you become more attuned to your body’s needs you also start to realise that you are very much ‘what you think’ too. These two truths go hand in hand. When you eat good, you feel good, and then you look good – a cycle of positivity!

This direct action of intervening in my own health made me feel better and more in control of my body. It felt good to have energy and know that I was clean on the inside and out.

As a result of my own personal ‘cleanse’ experience, I became even more discerning about the quality of my food – ultimately, the quality of the ingredients and produce we eat becomes the building blocks of who we are. After further research, I was given books by friends, including Clean by Alejandro Junger M.D. Inspired by their work and research I decided to share my collection of the recipes and dishes that helped me on my journey to health (which is still work in progress). I hope it helps you on your journey, too.

What I have learnt is that our bodies are amazing and work efficiently to clean and detoxify us every day if we are in good health. Generally, we don’t really need drugs and prescriptions. If we are ill, it is because we are not feeding ourselves with the right nutrients to allow our bodies to work optimally. Of course, illnesses may also be caused by viruses and cancers – but if the body is truly healthy, our ability to fight disease is greater and good health may prevent these illnesses in the first place. This is the basis of Chinese medical food therapy – that prevention is better than cure.

Our bodies are highly intelligent and are designed to self-clean. However, if we over-pollute them with toxins and the wrong foods, they will lose their natural ability to continue to clean and therefore heal themselves. If our system is imbalanced, it gives rise to illness. Just think: if we don’t take the rubbish out, bacteria breeds, creating more waste. If our bodies lose the ability to expel waste, bacteria breeds and toxins multiply. If the balance is not addressed, the toxins accumulate, clinging on to fat in the body, not only making us feel unwell, but preventing any ingested fat from being broken down, too. A downward spiral begins to affect our metabolisms, and our bodies gradually lose their ability to naturally regulate and burn fat efficiently because they are overloaded with too much toxicity and too many pollutants to cope with.

The main problem lies in the quality of our foods. Why is a vegetarian or dairy-free diet deemed more healthy? It isn’t, intrinsically – especially if, for example, vegetables are doused in pesticides and chemicals or milk comes from diseased cows. The ‘health’ of our food determines our health. So, ‘Food is medicine’. The famous Hippocrates quote is still very relevant today, but in the age in which we live, ‘Food can also be disease’ and causes illness if it is not ‘clean’.

What you will come to realise is that, by eating clean, your health will return and your body will find its natural rhythm. It will be able to metabolise and break down fat better and you will naturally start to lose weight and slim down. Consistent effort in this vein will produce great results – and all this without having to starve yourself.

During my ‘cleanse’ time I lived on soups, salads and stir-fries. I balanced my diet with a combination of hot and cold dishes, raw and cooked, vegetarian (I ate no dairy products for three months, but I ate organic eggs), a little quality organic meat and fish. Not only did this benefit my health, but it is sustainable, too.

Whatever you experience in your journey to improved health, I hope you find this book useful and that it opens your mind to a different East–West approach to eating healthily. And you should be able to use some of the facts I have found to help you achieve optimum health.

What is this book about?

For the last three years I have been travelling extensively in the US, working on TV shows promoting Chinese cookery. Along the way I have come across lots of people with health issues; many of those I have met are younger than me and suffer from diabetes and heart disease and are on a cocktail of never-ending prescription drugs. It is truly shocking. A lot of the people I met were also on some sort of weight-loss diet.

The simple truth is that there is no need to diet by starving yourself; you can lose weight and stay slim and healthy, as well as extend your life expectancy, if you consistently eat healthily, for example by eating a clean, balanced diet combined with regular exercise. This is not a secret, yet people find it hard to follow. I have had the same problems – stress, overwork, lack of time and expense; all these are everyday modern factors that contribute to the demise of our health and well-being. Anyone who is time poor will find it difficult to balance everyday nutritional needs.

So in this book I wanted to combine nutrition, delicious food and quick and healthy cooking techniques and yet also deliver on practicality – plus I wanted the food to be gourmet and exciting. Quite a tall order!

What you choose to eat determines not only the health of your body but ultimately its shape. A healthy body equals a more efficient one, allowing your body to burn fat effectively. This book contains over 100 easy recipes to help start you on your way. Every recipe is balanced with protein, seasonal vegetables, herbs and spices to help your immune system during each season. Eating a balanced, seasonal diet is an effective way to maintain good health. Each recipe also includes nutritional information so if you are following a restricted calorie diet on any specific day you can reach for those easily.

Why wok cooking?

Many of my recipes are made in a wok – wok cooking is easy, speedy, healthy and inexpensive. Ingredients can be seared at a high heat using a small amount of oil, making dishes taste crisp and delicious while also retaining their nutrients. You can invest in a good unseasoned carbon-steel wok for less than £15, and as long as you take care of it, it can last a lifetime (so that’s a pretty good investment!). Unseasoned carbon steel is great for healthy cooking, better for the environment and more stable, because there is less chance of metal chemicals leaching into the food – unlike seasoned non-stick woks. A good stainless-steel wok with a lid is also great for healthy cooking and is a one-pot wonder. You can not only stir-fry in a wok, but also make soups, steam, braise and make curries, so it’s the perfect versatile cooking vessel. Above all, wok cooking is fun and as we all have to eat 365 days of the year, you are more likely to stick to this lifestyle change if it is fuss-free and enjoyable.

Why Asian cuisine?

Asian cuisine offers a diverse range of recipes. Not only does it deliver on taste, freshness and speed, but the ingredients used in many classic dishes are also healthy. I won’t only be sharing classic dishes, but some fusion recipes too, making the very best combinations of Asian ingredients with up-to-date research on their health and nutritional benefits. The recipes are wide ranging and varied, so rest assured that there are plenty of delicious dishes to choose from.

De-clutter your mind

I also offer tips that I personally believe in, to strengthen and calm the mind. These nuggets of advice come from many sources – people I have met, stories I have heard, things I have read – and I hope they will help to strengthen, enlighten and enrich your spirit. They also make for fun reading. These words of wisdom were important to me in achieving a healthier version of myself. I believe you are not just what you eat, but what you think, too. The mind controls our eating habits and it is important to consciously eat for optimal health.

My personal motivation and beliefs

As a cook promoting food on TV, I always felt inclined to make nutritious dishes for taste, health and well-being, but I admit that health was not always the priority! However, seeing widespread health issues, and having experienced my own bout of bad health, I had an awakening. I felt I could no longer justify creating recipes to entice people simply to fall in love with Chinese cuisine and culture. My cooking has never been over-indulgent and I don’t use a lot of butter or sugar – but it could be cleaner and healthier. In general we could all eat better and be leaner, cleaner and kinder to our environment, and this book is my first step to reminding myself and sharing with others the importance of eating well.

Today people are suffering from more diseases such as diabetes and heart disease, and from allergies, than ever before. I was always taught that prevention is better than cure, that our diet determines the health of our bodies. With this in mind, I wanted to create a book that would be useful and practical every day, in every season, knowing that the quantities have been measured for salt, sugar, fat and calories. However, food and its health benefits don’t just come down to conventional nutritional analysis. There are many things we don’t know and we shouldn’t discount alternative, unconventional healing efficacies.

Traditional Chinese dietary advice, for example, follows the age-old principle of yin and yang. Thousands of years of Chinese medical research point to eating and living in harmony with nature. Based on this philosophy, a healthy diet relies on a balance of fresh seasonal ingredients – raw and cooked, hot and cold. Raw foods are deemed ‘cleansing’, cooked foods are considered ‘nourishing’, with some ingredients being more ‘healing’ than others. In traditional Chinese cuisine, few foods were eaten raw because they were deemed too hard for the body to digest. However, having experienced the health benefits of the Western culture of eating raw salads, I have combined the best of Eastern and Western ways of eating. Also vital for good health is knowing how to prepare and cook food to maximise its nutritional benefits, so I have tried to incorporate some of these Eastern principles into my recipes. Combining these with conventional Western nutritional research, I have taken an integrated East–West approach to nutrition, too.

This book is designed to help you eat clean and fresh every day. The basic tools you need to get started are a carbon-steel wok, an all-purpose chef’s knife or a cleaver, which I prefer, and a chopping board. With spices and Asian storecupboard ingredients that you can build up, eating nutritiously and healthily is at your fingertips.

By eating a diet made up of 80% plant-based foods and 20% organic meat, fish, dairy and eggs, you will be well on your way to good health. Again, the quality of those ingredients will determine the quality of your health. Clean air and water are perhaps the most important of those, aside from food. We cannot control our water and air quality on a daily basis, but we can control our food choices. Don’t get me wrong: I am no saint, as I succumb to the occasional slice of cake, but consistent efforts make the odd slip-up inconsequential.

I wish you clean eating and happy, healthy wokking!

Eat Clean – A Healthy Balance (#u9745d726-d118-5337-bb0e-f006963e8258)

The word ‘clean’, as described in the English dictionary, states ‘free from dirt, stain, impurities, pollution or contamination’. How can one possibly eat clean? Why do we need to eat clean?

When I started on my journey of eating clean, I did not expect to uncover the ‘dirt’… The chances are that if you eat processed foods, drink, smoke, eat a high-sugar and high-fat diet, your body is suffering from toxic overload and is unable to function at its best. You may not be suffering any physical symptoms or illness, but the long-term effects of this accumulation are not good. Daily accumulated damage to your cells and body can lead to serious irreversible damage that could be detrimental to your health. In the present day, there are so many auto-immune diseases and illnesses that doctors do not have the cure for and while there is no direct conclusive proof that diet affects health, you cannot help but see the truths that are right in front of us. Do people who smoke long term suffer lung damage? The answer is yes. Do people who drink excessively suffer liver damage? The answer is yes. Are people who eat a high-sugar diet more likely to suffer from type 2 diabetes? The answer is yes. My mother had type 2 diabetes and she reversed it by adopting healthy, clean eating more than 15 years ago.

What you put into your body directly affects your health and state of mind. Even a simple cup of coffee gives me a head rush, or a glass of wine makes my face flush. In other words, whatever we put into our bodies, there is an effect as a result of that action. Some effects from food can be more subtle and therefore deceptively harmless, so we often fail to recognise the signs and continue to pollute our bodies until they can’t take any more.

It isn’t as simple as eating healthy foods, either. It used to be. We have lost control of our food manufacturing and therefore we understand less about the processes than our grandparents did when they used to grow more of their food. Nowadays, 90% of the food found in the supermarket comes from a packet. In the past, most of the food came unpacked – either from a market or local shop or home grown.

If you truly look at wholefoods – defined as foods found in their natural state – only 10% of the foods found in the supermarkets can really be called ‘whole’ – and that is from the fresh fruit and vegetable counters. And yet within that section, only some products are labelled organic. Shouldn’t all foods be organic, as they once were? What is wrong with the inorganic stuff? What do we not know? Why is there a difference?

The way our food is produced is no longer simple. Complex food-manufacturing systems dictated to us by fulfilling economic efficiencies means we have lost our primordial ways of living and therefore eating. This balance has to be restored – but because of the complexity of the way our food is produced, we must work harder to seek out the best ingredients – if best means the most nutritious, and ‘nutritious’ being ‘clean’. Knowing where your food comes from and cultivating it as much as you can is difficult in the times we live in, yet, if everyone grew their own food or slaughtered their own animals, we would be a lot ‘cleaner’ and healthier, and we would have much less food wastage.

Through my own journey, I realised that the food allergies I suffered from were due not to the ingredients themselves, but to the additives the ingredients were combined with. For example, I noticed that when I consumed frozen shellfish, I would sometimes have an allergic reaction. However, on one occasion in Macau, I visited a seafood market where the catch was extremely fresh and the prawns hadn’t had time to be preserved. I didn’t have any allergic reaction at all; I ate six gigantic prawns with no effect, whereas previously any slight contact would have made my face swell in a second. I was in heaven.

This is when I started to notice a pattern. At first I thought the allergy was just with prawns, but when I consumed pizza dough, nuts or wines, the hives would resurface. My system must have been experiencing a toxic overload whereby any chemicals consumed would give rise to these allergic reactions. It was my body’s way of telling me that I had reached the limit and something drastic had to be done. I didn’t look unhealthy, but internally my body was not happy.

The body’s natural rhythm and metabolic function is affected by what we consume. If this is disrupted by ingesting high amounts of pollutants and additives, the body will struggle to reach its natural equilibrium. If the metabolism is affected, so is the body’s ability to burn fat. By eating clean, the body will stay clean and, ultimately, it will also be lean.

Why eat organic?

I’m a great fan of organic foods and believe that organic produce is healthier, as it is less exposed to artificial chemicals and fertilisers. It has a lower environmental impact and may have a higher nutritional content, too. Organic foods are more expensive to buy, but because of the benefits I really believe they are worth the extra money, so I choose to buy organic fruit and veg, dairy products and fish where possible.

I also exclusively choose organic meat. This is because I care about animals and their welfare. Organic livestock are given access to the outside, are fed organic food and are not allowed to be given hormones or antibiotics. This is obviously a much more pleasant environment for an animal to be raised in. And even if you are not concerned about animal welfare, eating organic meat makes sense because it means you get tastier cuts of meat that are free from chemicals and artificial drugs.

The general belief is that animals are not as evolved as humans. They hunt and follow their instincts blindly. However, I believe that as humans we have been blessed with greater consciousness and thus responsibility. Regardless of our instincts, we can consciously choose which actions we take, and by these actions are we defined as people.

At one time, of course, all foods were organic and I hope that we can return to this state of being again some day.

Seasonal, local food

Shopping for seasonal, local fruits and vegetables is something that I’ve been doing for a while; eating within the seasons ensures that produce is at its best both flavourwise and nutrientwise and is in abundance at the time. Eating seasonally is also better for the environment and produces fresher, cheaper ingredients.

To go one step further is to grow some of your own food. Recently this has become popular in cities where people are utilising any outdoor space to grow vegetables, berries and herbs. What could be more local than that?

From first-hand observation, my grandparents seemed much healthier than many of my parents’ generation and lived illness free until old age. They were farmers and lived off the produce from their land by necessity, not having access to processed foods. They were more active, too, and ate whole, organic foods within the seasons. Their generation probably had a lower life expectancy than elderly people now, but they lived until their late eighties. My point is that they lived until that age without heart disease, cancer or diabetes and died of old age, not disease. Of course, most of us don’t live on a farm – but we can still be in control of what we eat by choosing wisely.

Why no alcohol?

Limit alcohol or just quit drinking altogether. If you enjoy wine, look for wines with ‘no added sulphites’. Sulphites occur naturally in wine so no wines are actually sulphite-free; they just contain little enough that it doesn’t need to be declared on the label. Sulphites are one of the biggest causes of allergies (see here (#ulink_8c9d5963-4281-5cb9-ab6d-1373dd622b5d) for more information). They are also regulated food additives that are used as preservatives to maintain food colour and prolong shelf life, prevent the growth of micro-organisms, and maintain the potency of certain medications. Sulphites are used to bleach food starches (such as potato) and are also used in the production of some food-packaging materials (such as cellophane).

The sulphites that can be added to foods are potassium bisulphite, potassium metabisulphite, sodium bisulphite, sodium dithionite, sodium metabisulphite, sodium sulphite, sulphur dioxide and sulphurous acid. You may also see them described as sulfites, sulphites or sulfiting or sulphiting agents.

Why no caffeine?