EXCLUSIVE: Madeleine Shaw on healthy eating: ‘You can learn and be inspired by everyone’

How do we start making those steps towards a healthier diet?

Making simple swaps, whether it’s swapping cow’s milk for almond milk. Or whether it’s maybe not adding sugar in to your tea or cooking your curry from scratch instead of ordering from a takeaway. It’s rather about the simple decisions; it doesn’t have to be a whole lifestyle, total change-over. I never expect people to be perfect. I always say on my website and in the book that even if you can just take one thing from this that’s good There’s a balance and that’s important. It’s the simple things, reading labels is super important and cooking from scratch makes such a big difference in terms of your overall nutrition.

I used to buy diet low-fat, diet coke, sweeteners rice cakes. I felt awful I developed terrible IBS, I literally had the worst bloated belly. Literally everything I ate-even kale- would hurt me. I was living in Australia as I went to university there so I started working in this café. It was a paleo-holistic gym that had a café attached to it, and I just started working there and cooking. We made fresh salads everyday, smoothies, everything was organic and fresh from the farm produce. It just changed my life, I felt so good eating that way. I learnt so much about food and understanding that it’s there to fuel you not to be a hindrance. It was the first time that work felt effortless; I was just like oh my god.

I always used to have cow’s milk now have almond. Trying to make things from scratch like bread, I make that at home or pizzas. I do cauliflower-based pizzas. It’s just little things like that, that have been really fun. I make lots of cakes and use alternatives like coconut sugar and honey instead, which still satisfy your sweet tooth without loading yourself with a refined, processed food.

Is the process of preparing food an important aspect of healthy eating?

Definitely. I feel you want to get food that’s least processed as possible. I try and get foods that you can grow, hunt or gather. That’s what is natural and the more it turns from here to be bleached, to be heated, to be reheated, to be packaged to be put on the shelf – it’s just getting less and less nutritious until it hits your plate. So you have to eat more to get the same amount. I never blame the companies for doing it, I totally understand why they do it, it makes more money and that’s what makes the world go round.

I think making a veggie-curry from scratch doesn’t take long- it takes the same amount as a delivery. 45 minutes is a typical delivery and you could make yours in less time than that, and probably for less and you could have leftovers for lunch the next day.

How do you give yourself a boost during an energy slump?

I’ll normally have a smoothie or maybe blend some kale, avocado, some honey and almond milk together. Or, have that left over from breakfast and keep an extra bit that’s quite good. Or maybe like a handful of almonds, dates, I sometimes make little energy bars or something like that. Any form of protein and fats is always good, and with a little bit of sweetness from something like the dates as well but I try not to eat just sugar by itself.

You’ve worked closely with Millie Mackintosh, do you inspire each other?

I think I’m always her go-to for nutrition advice and things like that. But yes we often work out and do exercise classes together. So yeah totally I think you can learn and be inspired by everyone that you’re around, it’s always nice to do it with someone else rather than just by yourself.

What do you do to keep fit?

I love yoga because it’s not just exercise; it’s body and mind. I’m trying to mix up as I know it’s good to do a range of different things.

How do you suggest people incorporate more veg in their diet?

Hide it, be it in a Bolognese and you grate carrot in there, whether it’s that you blend some kale or spinach in your smoothies, or you have it in a juice. Or you make a mash with sweet potato and carrot, so it doesn’t look like a total vegetable. Disguising it in to foods, putting it in to a different appearance to something that you’re more used to. I often do cauliflower rice so I put cauliflower through a food processor so it goes in to a rice consistency then I steam or boil it. It honestly tastes so similar to rice and you’re cutting out all that white rice and adding vegetables instead. Cauliflower is great. You can use it as a mash, you can trick your kids or yourself. It’s a cruciferous vegetable, I don’t know if it’s totally all year round, but it’s grown locally. It’s something you can use quite a lot of the time.

Tell us about your book Get The Glow (out April 23rd)

It’s a 6-week programme and each week builds on the next. The first week is about cutting sugar and the next week is about eating healthy fats. The third week is about thinking positively so as much as what you eat it’s how you think that is also super important. The fourth week is about feeding your digestion system so it’s about creating good beneficial bacteria, that’s pretty much the most important thing you need to know. The fifth week is about relaxation, about how to unwind and de-stress. The sixth week is called “Live your glow” so it’s like okay we’ve learnt all of this so how do we take it long term.

There are 100 recipes, so from your green juices to your smoothies to your raw chickpeas- it’s got something for everyone in it.

Check out some of Madeleine's recipes

Madeleine Shaw is a nutritional health coach and an ambassador for Blue Diamond Almonds. Her recipe book Get the Glow launches in April. See more at www.madeleineshaw.com and www.bluediamondalmonds.co.uk