Philosophy

The Food Effect philosophy grew from the desire to teach people how to eat normally and healthily in a way that can continue for the rest of their lives.  It is based on the belief that healthy eating is an essential, pleasurable, colourful and vibrant way of life – one that can be achieved by everyone – we just need to be shown how.

The benefits of The Food Effect lifestyle

Many “diets”, nutrition plans, cleanses and “detoxes” will get you to lose weight, but leave you with dull, lifeless skin, lacking in energy, and often feeling hungry, tired, dizzy and even faint. Not only are such diets unadvisable from a health perspective, but they are unsustainable. By contrast, The Food Effect lifestyle recognises that weight loss is just one benefit of healthy eating. When properly planned to include all the key nutrients, what we eat will have a dramatic impact on how we look, feel and function. A diet should aspire to achieve all of that – weight loss should not come at the expense of overall health and optimal physical functioning.

When it comes to sustainability, the benefit of The Food Effect lifestyle is that it is self–reinforcing. The more we eat in a wholesome way, the better we look and feel, and the more we want to eat in a wholesome way. Our bodies adapt to an optimum weight, our biological systems improve and we find ourselves full of the energy that lies dormant inside every one of us. A diet like this then ceases to be a diet – but becomes a fully-fledged way of life.

The four elements to developing a healthy eating lifestyle are individuality, simplicity, pleasure and sustainability.

Individuality

All human beings are unique: in our genetic and metabolic make-up, tastes, preferences and lifestyle. Therefore, a one size fits all approach to eating doesn’t work – a diet needs to be tailored to each individual, addressing his or her specific requirements in each of those areas. When designed in this way, a diet will optimise health, ensuring you get the nutrients your body needs, and be sustainable – because you will both enjoy what you eat, and be able to make it work within your lifestyle.

Simplicity

Achieving proper nutrition can be confusing for two reasons. The myriad of fad diets, unproven practices and conflicting nutrition information that we are presented with daily in books, magazines and on TV can obscure our ability to properly understand what is and isn’t good for us. On the other extreme, even some healthy diets are over complicated through the inclusion of obscure and overpriced products which are entirely unnecessary for a healthy balanced diet.

With a thorough understanding of both the human body and the science of nutrition, it is possible to create a diet that is nutritionally complete in accordance with proven science, AND simple! Simplicity means that the diet is not complicated or expensive – but rather made up of ingredients available in every local supermarket at reasonable prices. Simplicity also means that putting the diet into practice is not time consuming – there is no reason why “no time” or “too busy” should ever be an excuse for unhealthy eating.

Healthy eating should be readily achievable for everyone – from busy mums at home, to high flying, frequently travelling flying corporate executives; for those looking to simply lose weight and feel better to those with chronic medical conditions who want to improve their symptoms and overall health. The Food Effect makes all these things possible.

Pleasure

Food is unavoidably a central part of our daily lives. A diet should not be something we “go on” and “go off”, but rather a way of life. In keeping with this, our food should be delicious and leave us feeling satisfied – not hungry and deprived. The focus of a diet should NOT only focus on what to exclude, but more importantly what to include. The elimination of entire food groups, calorie counting, and complicated instructions, result in eating becoming a chore rather than a pleasure. The end result is inevitably – “when can I come off the diet and eat all the things I miss again?”

Through sensible changes, The Food Effect will show you that eating in a healthy, wholesome way is tremendously pleasurable. You will enjoy the textures and tastes found in abundance across all the food groups. You will find yourself enjoying eating and feeling full; and your body will respond in kind, absorbing plenty of nutrients from a variety of sources, and staying slim! To achieve all of this is something that appears unachievable in the standard western diet, yet is in reality so simple.

Sustainability

It is self-evident that if a diet is going to work, and make effective change in our lives, it has to be sustainable. Otherwise, any benefits achieved will soon be lost. Incorporating all the elements described above – a properly designed nutrition plan, keeping things simple, pleasurable and tailored to the individual, makes a lifelong change achievable for everyone.

Once you learn to eat this way, you won’t want any other – it’s a change for life.