The FastDiet Cookbook: 150 Delicious, Calorie-Controlled Meals to Make Your Fasting Days Easy - Softcover

Über die Autorinnen und Autoren

Mimi Spencer is a feature writer, columnist, and the author of 101 Things to Do Before You Diet. 

Dr. Sarah Schenker is a Registered Dietitian and Nutritionist who has served on both professional and government committees. She now combines her sports nutrition work, consulting for football clubs in the UK, with regular appearances on television and writing for scientific journals, as well as for newspapers, magazines, and websites.

Dr. Michael Mosley (1957–2024) was the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The FastDiet, FastExercise, FastLife, The 8-Week Blood Sugar Diet, The Clever Gut Diet, and The Fast800 Diet among others. Dr. Mosley trained to be a doctor at the Royal Free Hospital in London before joining the BBC, where he spent three decades as a science journalist and executive producer. Following his time at the BBC, he was a well-known television personality and won numerous television awards, including an RTS (Royal Television Award), and was named Medical Journalist of the Year by the British Medical Association.

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The Fast Diet Cookbook

contents

Foreword by Dr. Michael Mosley

CHAPTER ONE: All You Need to Know About the FastDiet

CHAPTER TWO: What, When, and How to Eat on a Fast Day

CHAPTER THREE: The Nuts and Bolts of the Book

CHAPTER FOUR: Simple Breakfasts

CHAPTER FIVE: Leisurely Breakfasts

CHAPTER SIX: Simple Suppers

CHAPTER SEVEN: Vegetables

CHAPTER EIGHT: Fish

CHAPTER NINE: Meat & Poultry

CHAPTER TEN: Soups

CHAPTER ELEVEN: Salads

CHAPTER TWELVE: Flavor Savior Condiments

CHAPTER THIRTEEN: Fast Day Snacks

Meal Plans

Fast Day Calorie Countdown

Resources

Glossary

Acknowledgments

About the Authors

About Mimi Spencer and Dr. Sarah Schenker

Notes

Index

The Fast Diet Cookbook

CHAPTER THREE

THE NUTS AND BOLTS OF THE BOOK

Some of the recipes are gloriously simple, others are more complex; some are favorites adapted for the FastDiet, while others introduce new flavor combinations. Some will get you walking or gardening. Others will send you to the cupboard for a bunch of cans.

• The book includes both simple recipes and leisurely recipes, allowing you to spend as much or as little time as you please preparing your fast day food.

• Each recipe has a clear calorie count per portion, with calorie contents increasing as you go through each chapter. The idea is that you can choose a breakfast and a supper, in whatever combination you wish, to arrive at your 500- or 600-calorie budget for the day. For good pairings, refer to the examples in the Meal Plans.

• Some recipes serve two or more—simply because the cooking method works better that way (it’s difficult to make a sauce work for one)—but the calorie count is always for a single portion.

• Feel free to bump up the leafy vegetables in most of the recipes; it won’t make much difference to overall calorie intake, but will add bulk and welcome nutrients.

• Each recipe clearly shows its Nutritional Bonus (look for NB), together with the GI or GL score where useful.

Finding Flavor Without Fat

We all know that adding a generous slab of butter to almost anything will make it taste fantastic. Our job here is to fill the flavor vacuum with something other than saturated fat. In this race, the humble lemon is in pole position: Lemon juice is a remarkable flavor enhancer, capable of lending goodness to countless slow-cooked savory dishes. Roasted garlic is similarly delicious. You’ll discover that plenty of the recipes in this book depend on the “fantastic five”—lime juice, soy sauce, fresh ginger, garlic, and Asian fish sauce—which deliver mighty bursts of flavor with the merest suggestion of calories. Herbs and spices also feature heavily in fast day cooking. Cumin seeds, cardamom pods, sweet Spanish paprika, dense green basil, delicate tendrils of dill . . . they are not garnishes here, but central to the proceedings. Chiles, too, are worth their weight in gold. Do remember to wear gloves when you slice or chop them—your eyes will thank you later.

Here, then, are the basic ingredients for a fast day cupboard.

CARBS

For an alternative to pasta or wheat noodles, try shirataki noodles. Made from a water-soluble, plant-based fiber called glucomannan, they have no fat, sugar, gluten, or starch. No flavor either, so call upon the fantastic five. If you need a bread substitute, have a thin rye crispbread. But as a rule, avoid white carbs on a fast day.

GRAINS

Though carbs are necessarily limited on a fast day, those you do eat should be whole grains, not refined ones—they have more fiber, B vitamins, and other nutrients, and take longer to digest. Quinoa is a great source of protein, as is bulgur, while the best fast day rice is brown basmati. Old-fashioned oatmeal outranks the rest: less processed, more bulky.

LEGUMES

Legumes such as lentils, chickpeas, split peas, and a whole world of beans are excellent sources of plant protein and fiber, and rank low on the GI scale. Toss cans of pintos, borlotti, or butter beans (experiment—you can’t really go wrong) into your shopping cart—you’ll find plenty of recipes here to turn a can into a dinner.

CANNED GOODS

You won’t get far around here without a can of diced tomatoes, so always have one or two on hand (plus a tube of tomato paste to add bass-note depth to all manner of savory dishes). I particularly like fire-roasted tomatoes, which are especially tasty. A couple of cans of tuna (in spring water to minimize calories) and a jar or can of anchovy fillets? Vital.

FATS

Choose “smart fats” over saturated fats, which means butter must take a backseat. Instead, use

Olive oil A monounsaturated oil that is more resistant to the damaging effects of heat than polyunsaturated oils such as corn oil. A recent study from the University of Munich found that olive oil keeps you feeling fuller longer.1 You need expensive extra virgin olive oil only for salad dressings and drizzling; use standard olive oil for cooking.

Unrefined flaxseed oil Flaxseeds are rich in alpha linolenic acid (an omega-3 fat) and are a condensed source of antiviral, antioxidant lignans. Use cold-pressed flaxseed oil for salad dressings (don’t cook with it or you’ll annihilate the goodness).

Coconut oil Slower to oxidize and less damaged by heat than other cooking oils; a good source of heart-healthy fatty acids, and it shouldn’t your raise cholesterol.

Canola oil Only 7 percent saturated fat (butter is 51 percent), and unlike olive oil, it doesn’t degrade at high heat, so this is one for the wok.

DAIRY

Steer clear of heavy dairy on a fast day. Some recipes in this book call for crème fraîche or unflavored low-fat yogurt. It’s worth noting that certain cheeses are lower in calories than others: Feta, for example, is made from sheep’s milk and is a good source of protein, calcium, and vitamin B12. Low-fat mozzarella is a handy staple in the fridge.

SEEDS AND NUTS

Sunflower and pumpkin seeds are nutritious additions to morning muesli and salad suppers, bringing good plant fats to your diet.

Nuts are satiating, full of fiber, and handy to have around when hunger calls. Though they are generally calorific, it’s worth keeping packets of pine nuts, almonds, pistachios, and walnuts (rich in omega-9s) to add to salads and oatmeal.

FLAVORINGS

Your own tastes will dictate exactly what you keep on this shelf (in the cupboard and in the fridge).

Bouillon cubes and powders, including Vegeta

As many spices as you can...