INTRODUCTION - Eat Greek for a Week: Fabulous food that will improve your health in seven days - Tonia Buxton

Eat Greek for a Week: Fabulous food that will improve your health in seven days - Tonia Buxton (2015)

INTRODUCTION

THIS BOOK IS FIRST AND FOREMOST A LOVELY RECIPE BOOK, full of delicious recipes for you to cook for yourself, friends and family. As a by-product of cooking food from this book, you will feel wonderful, look great, have lots of energy and heal yourself.

My experience of eating Greek has shown me that by eating good food and living an active life I can not only look younger but I can also feel younger and I truly believe that I have, by living this lifestyle, prevented getting certain illnesses that I was genetically predestined to get. Both my parents have had varicose veins, which has a very strong genetic link - I have not. High blood pressure is on both sides of my family and I have perfect blood pressure.

Every recipe contributes to each weekly diet. If, for example, you wish to look younger, but follow the getting pregnant plan or the managing diabetes plan, you will still be on the road to looking and feeling younger, as all the recipes are good for you, provide the best, fresh nutrition, and will have positive effects on your life. The only ‘weeks’ that require a little more care are the ideal weight plan and the manage diabetes plan. The detail for each week - including nutritional information and how to gain optimum results - can be found in the pages after each weekly diet.

When I say eat Greek for a week, I mean eat Greek forever if you want to feel well, look young and have lots of energy and be healthy. It has been proven again and again in study after study that the Mediterranean diet is the best, and the best of all the diets of the Med is the Greek. You really do not need to be a scientist to understand why; the Greek diet is full of vegetables, fruits, pulses and lots of olive oil. This is no faddy, cutting-out-whole-food-groups plan or expecting-you-to-starve-for-long-periods diet. It is a way of eating and living that has been proved to work.

‘Ola pan Metron’ wrote Aristotle - ‘everything with moderation’.

Eating should be a joy, not a chore, and we should eat to feed our bodies and our minds with the nutrients we need to lead happy, productive lives. Eating well is so important, it affects the whole of our lives; if you eat a diet that is processed, full of toxins like hydrogenated fat, fructose-glucose sugars, fertilisers and pesticides you WILL get sick, but before you get sick, you will become unhappy, bloated and have less energy. You will start to look older than your years and you will start to be old in your mind too. The Greek diet is a naturally alkaline diet: it will help you slow down the signs of ageing, encourage weight loss, reduce bloating and constipation, renew your energy and vitality; it will improve your mood and help you think clearly; it will increase your fertility, defend you from disease and you will thoroughly enjoy cooking and eating delicious food!

I enjoyed writing these recipes and hope you enjoying preparing and eating them. The point to life is to be happy - so be happy, love life and eat good food.

Filakia xxxx

Tonia

HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

GREEK FOOD IS FULL OF FRESH, VIBRANT FLAVOURS, with vegetarian and vegan dishes that make your mouth water as well as slow cooked meats and lots of fish. The cuisine truly is the best food for your palate and the most amazing food for your body. This book is a wonderful representation of both facets of Greek cooking, so much so I have separated the book into five clear diets for you to follow during the course of a week. On the following pages you will find five diets, each with its own specific ingredient colour code and nutrition list (see key below). The colour of each diet corresponds to the ingredients contained in each recipe and you can therefore choose to follow a certain diet as you explore the wonderful recipes contained in this book. Eat Greek to get pregnant; eat Greek to manage and prevent diabetes; eat Greek to look and feel younger; eat Greek to increase your libido and eat Greek to reach your ideal weight - each diet is tailor-made to suit your own lifestyle while incorporating some of the most amazing ingredients from the south eastern corner of Europe.

Indeed, the ingredients in my recipes are not set in stone; if you do not like ground coriander, then take it out and add cumin instead. If you prefer less garlic or more, go with your own taste preferences - experiment with the recipes and most of all have fun doing it.

Here are a few pieces of advice that would be good to adhere to if you can: wherever you can afford it, buy organic. Unlike 20 years ago, organic produce is readily available in most products. There is no point in following a healthy diet if it is full of pesticides and fertilisers. Some things must be organic; anything grown under the ground, like carrots or potatoes, absorbs much more of the toxic chemicals, the same for anything soft-skinned like tomatoes and berries. Non-organic chicken, especially the breast, is full of hormones which really affect our bodies in a negative way, so it really must be organic. Never use anything white, it is just sugar - so no white pasta, or rice or sugar, it all tastes so much better brown or wholemeal anyway, keeps you full and the fibre clears your insides of toxins too.

Only use Greek olives as they truly are the best in the world. I adore Kalamarta olives with their variation of hues from black to purple to brown, as they should look, (unlike Spanish black olives, for example, which are all pitch black because they are artificially dyed). The best olive oil also comes from Greece and Cyprus. For salads and eating raw use low acidity extra virgin, but if using to cook, virgin olive oil is fine.

The whole world knows how wonderful Greek yogurt is. I use many different brands and luckily most supermarkets stock Total Greek yogurt, it really is one of the best, and if you are on the Ideal Weight plan you have the option to use the 2% or 0% if you like.

This is a Greek recipe book, but if you don’t fancy cooking, many of my recipes can be found at The Real Greek restaurants, where I am consulting executive chef and constantly coming up with seasonal choices or specials. Actually if you mention when ordering your meal you have my book you will get 10% off your food bill - now that’s Greek Filoxenia for you!

Key to Colour Coding:

illustration Ideal Weight

illustration Look and Feel Younger

illustration Pregnancy

illustration Manage and Prevent Diabetes

illustration Libido