Another talk with Dr. Verburgh..

I don't get to talk back to Dr Verburgh, but who cares - he's so interesting and as soon as I think of a question he's already answering it!

When I was growing up I was encouraged to eat a lot of starchy food, such as bread and potatoes, fruit and veg, a bit of dairy, meat, fish and nuts and hardly any fats, oils or sweets. I have been loosely following this type of diet all my adult life. Or at least, I have thought this is probably the best way to eat even if I haven't always done it. Dr Verburgh's plan is different. It follows these basic rules:

• Eat no or vey little, bread, pasta, potatoes and rice. (Instead eat oatmeal porridge with vegetable milk, legumes such as lentils, peas, beans, etc or mushrooms).
• Cut out dairy milk and yoghurt and replace with soya or nut milk, normal dairy cheese and eggs are fine.
• Eat fatty fish, poultry, tofu and quorn, rather than red meat.
• Eat LOTS of fruit and vegetables.
• Drink ŵater, green tea, white tea, fresh vegetable and fruit juice, coffee (in moderation), alcohol (again in moderation).
• Take the right sort of dietary supplement, eg, iodine, magnesium, vitamin D and the B vitamins.

Why eat like this? Because we will apparently age more slowly and feel really good while that happens. See a food hourglass diagram for foods to eat more and less of at:

Dr Verburgh's food hourglass website

My first thought is, how can I make this way of eating interesting enough for me to want to do it for the rest of my (long) life? I hope Dr Verburgh has some tips. I made some oatmeal porridge with soya milk this morning and had it without sugar accompanied by a few blueberries. It tasted remarkably palatable, quite sweet in a natural kind of way, and instead of Yorkshire tea with milk I had a pot of white tea. Delicate, clean flavour and preferable to the orangey brew I am used to. Feeling good about this.