Eat real food, stay fit

What is ‘healthy’ food? Which fads should we ignore? Read on to find out.

Passing fads: I think the difficulty with cooking and trying to pay attention to various fads is that fashions change and people have different views every year. When I was young, people thought margarine was a health food. Now, they realise because it’s trans fat food that’s actually not good for you. So, stick to raw and original health food.

Eat real: I’m a great believer in real food, which is to say that I’m very happy about butter. I know how it’s made and I’m very happy about olive oil and various cooking mediums, like goose fat. So, I feel, on the whole, if you stick to real food as much as possible, you can’t go far wrong.

Be generous sometimes: People always exaggerate the amount of fat used in cooking. If they see you put four spoons of cream in something, they don’t take into account that maybe six to eight people are going to eat that dish. So, it’s not a huge amount each. Plus, you don’t cook like that every single day. So, I feel that there’s a certain amount of hysteria and I often feel that the people who are most worried about whether something is healthy or not probably eat a pretty unhealthy diet because they don’t eat real food.

Don’t go too low: I’m actually quite opposed to a low-fat diet because I think it’s bad for your spirits and I also think it’s very bad for your skin. I eat quite a lot of avocado, quite a lot of olive oil and a certain amount of other fats and I feel it’s healthy. It’s a radical view, but I believe in it.

Cook to stay fit: Cooking is a worthwhile activity for everyone. Shopping patterns though have changed over the years. People don’t necessarily have the time to go out shopping every day. But I think cooking is very important not least because otherwise, you have the feeling that your real life is lived in the office and you just rush through home in order to get to office again. It’s relaxing and a great exercise as well.

—As told to Dhiman Chattopadhyay

Nigella Lawson, a writer and a chef, hosts the food show Nigella Express on Discovery channel