Chef and host of My Kitchen Rules, Pete Evans, lives the way he cooks ... healthy. Colleen Thorpe talks to Pete about his path to nutrition and his new cookbook Healthy Every Day
WHAT MADE YOU DECIDE TO TAKE THE HEALTHY ROAD? I have always embraced health, but sadly due to the fact we're at a point where politics and money have more influence than science when it comes to nutrition, for too many years of my life I was following the wrong advice, namely our dietary guidelines and I wasn't enjoying truly good health. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out that something is incredibly wrong with our system because of the alarming rising rates of obesity, diabetes and chronic mental and physical disease, so a few years ago, my partner Nic and I embarked on a journey towards understanding what truly constituted an ideal human diet.
YOU HAVE JUST COMPLETED A COURSE ON NUTRITION, HOW HAS THAT AFFECTED THE WAY YOU COOK? Before both Nic and I became qualified health coaches we were following a paleo-inspired lifestyle, so studying at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition encouraged us to feel even more confident that we were on the right path. The way I have cooked for the last three years is quite simply refined sugar-, gluten-, wheat-, grain-, dairy- and non fermented soy-free.
I also definitely don't use any toxic seed or vegetable oils or margarines - they are unnatural and should be labelled "sickness in a bottle" or "sickness in a tub".
WHAT IS THE EASIEST WAY TO WORK OUT WHAT SUITS OUR INDIVIDUAL NEEDS? An elimination diet is ideal. Cut out sugar including eating large amounts of fruit, honey, maple syrup and definitively artificial sweeteners too. Remove gluten and wheat (grains) from the diet, including whole grains which have been cleverly marketed as healthy. It's wise to remove dairy from the diet too as very few humans retain the ability to digest milk after infancy. Lactose and casein intolerance is so prevalent and usually goes undiagnosed due to the fact that the symptoms can often be silent, but there's no denying that dairy consumption can be a serious threat to your health. Almost all dairy products are highly processed, especially low-fat varieties, which really should be labelled "devoid of goodness with sugar added".