Even when choosing foods from the ‘Top Ten SIRT Foods’ list it can be hard to gauge how much we need to eat for a portion. Is a pinch of turmeric enough? Do I need to eat a whole bowlful of kale? And if I just eat five chocolate biscuits that’s my SIRT 5 a day sorted? Right? Not exactly … but it’s not rocket science either. For example, one cup of green tea is a portion, 30g kale (that’s a handful to you and me) and ten red grapes constitute a portion. In other words, the amount you would eat as part of a balanced meal is more often than not a sensible portion size.
EXAMPLE MENU 1
Breakfast: 1 cup green tea, 10 red grapes, cereal of your choice
2 of your SIRT 5 a day
• • •
Lunch: Kale and Stilton soup
3 of your SIRT 5 a day
• • •
Dinner: Beef and broccoli
2 of your SIRT 5 a day
TOTAL: 7 portions of SIRTs a day
EXAMPLE MENU 2
Breakfast: 1 cup green tea, green omelette made with shallots and parsley
3 of your SIRT 5 a day
• • •
Lunch: Brie and grape salad lunchbox
4 of your SIRT 5 a day
• • •
Dinner: Grilled chicken with lemon and olives
2 of your SIRT 5 a day
TOTAL: 9 portions of SIRTs a day
By choosing the foods that are rich natural sources of SIRTs, it is very easy to get your SIRT 5 a day. To boost your SIRTs even more, just add simple snacks like an apple (1 of your SIRT 5 a day), a few squares (30g) of dark chocolate (1 of your SIRT 5 a day) and it soon adds up.
A full list of the most SIRT-rich foods and the relevant portion size for each food is in ‘Top SIRT Foods: Quick Reference’ (see here).
More than 5 a day
The SIRT 5 a day is a great way to make sure you are getting enough daily SIRTs and it is a building block you can come back to again and again to make sure you and your family are getting the fantastic benefits of SIRTs.
If you are about to follow The SIRT Diet Plan and want to actively lose weight following the plan, then the SIRT 5 a day is a minimum baseline. As you follow the diet you should be doing everything possible to boost your SIRTs beyond 5 a day, preferably towards 10 a day and beyond. If this sounds hard, then don’t worry – all the recipes and details you need to do it are here. The SIRT Diet Plan guides you through it every step of the way with meal planners, shopping tips and sneaky SIRTs to really make sure you are optimising your weight-loss in every way.
The SIRT Diet plan is a four-week plan during which you eat SIRT foods at every meal. On the first two days of every week you limit your calories to 800 per day. For the remaining five days of the week you consume up to 1500 calories per day.
Lose up to 14lb on the four-week plan and get leaner and fitter as you burn fat, gain muscle and lose weight.
EATING SIRT FOODS
There are just two considerations when following the SIRT Diet. Firstly, you must actively seek out SIRT foods and incorporate them into your daily routine. Secondly, you need to show restraint in terms of portion sizes, extra snacks and empty calories. The easiest way to ‘show restraint’ is to count calories but if you are confident of your ability to track and curb your cravings, then a general awareness of calories rather than vigorous calorie counting should be enough, especially on days that are not jump-start days.
There is one huge advantage of eating SIRT foods that cannot be overlooked. Eating SIRT foods actually controls your appetite, making you less hungry. This is because the SIRT foods convert body fat into energy, reducing your hunger pangs.
You will now be aware of the easiest SIRT foods to fit into your daily life. Is it green tea? Dark chocolate? Red grapes? It is probably all of these and more. This is also where following the meal planners (see here) and the inspiring SIRT recipes in this book will really help.
You should have a bank of easy SIRT boosters that you can easily reach for if you need a SIRT top-up. Combine SIRT boosters with meals containing one, two or even more portions of SIRTs and you’ll find you can easily reach your SIRT targets.
Remember the SIRT 5 a day is a minimum. When you are actively following the SIRT Diet plan – on both jump-start and normal SIRT Diet days – you should aim for at least ten SIRT portions each and every day.
GETTING ENOUGH SIRTS
Are you worried that you can’t get enough SIRTs into your diet? Perhaps you have a passionate dislike for kale? Don’t worry, there are many different ways to get your daily SIRT requirements. So if there is a food or two you want to avoid, then just steer clear, there are many other options. Have a look through the ‘Top SIRT foods: quick reference’ (see here) and see what your favourites (or easy wins) are.
Think about your green vegetables – ideally one to two portions daily. If you don’t like the stronger tasting leafy greens, then perhaps plainer broccoli or cauliflower? You only need a handful of parsley (10g) and it has a mild, unobtrusive taste. You could buy a growing pot of parsley from the supermarket and add a portion to your main meal or a salad.
Olive oil and olives – at least one portion a day. Olive oil is such a versatile oil that it can be used in virtually all your cooking. Use extra virgin olive oil in salads and a light and mild version for frying when you don’t want an oliveoil flavour.
Onions and apples – at least one portion a day. Raw red onion is great in salads or salsa. Many a main dish starts with lightly sautéed onions. And what could be easier than grabbing an apple as a mid-afternoon snack?
Resveratrol: red wine, red grapes, chocolate – at least two portions a day. Oh the hardship!
Turmeric – at least two portions a week. You only need ½ tsp to get a portion of SIRTs from turmeric. Easy to add to Indian and North African dishes. There are lots of ideas for turmeric in the recipe section of this book.
Oily fish – at least two portions a week. I think you know the drill on this one. Salmon, trout and mackerel all count. Salmon is especially versatile and is very quick to cook. Or try a posh breakfast of smoked salmon and scrambled eggs.
With all these normal everyday foods, it is very easy to increase the amount of SIRTs you eat each day. A few wise decisions will pay huge dividends.
Here are ten easy snacks you can reach for when you need a SIRT top-up.
1 Green tea
1 cup (200ml) • 1 of your SIRT 5 a day • 0 calories
Never, ever, underestimate the healthy SIRT boost that a cup of green tea can give you. Have as many cups as you can per day – I recommend at least two cups. Not only that, the SIRTs in green tea are cumulative so you can get up to four