What’s the best (nutrition/health-related) new years’ resolution anyone could make?

To do my 9-Day Liver Detox Diet. It gets you off to a brilliant start. If you are overweight and unhappy about it commit to following my low GL diet for one month. Not only will you lose weight but you’ll ‘get it’. It’s dead easy and then you have a good habit for life.

What are your top five hangover cure foods?

Drinking too much taxes both the liver and your digestive tract. You can minimise the damage, and any hangover symptoms, by simply:

Matching each alcoholic drink with a glass of water to stay hydrated.

Supplementing an extra 2,000mg of vitamin C.

Drinking a heaped teaspoon of glutamine powder, last thing at night with water.

Drink half a pint of watermelon juice. Blend the flesh and seeds. The outer husk cracks and sinks to the bottom. The flesh and seeds are full of anti-ageing antioxidants. You’ll feel better in minutes.

What are the top vitamins and superfoods to help you recover after the festive season?

Vitamin C is unquestionably the master immune-boosting nutrient. As well as supporting immune cell production and function, it has both anti-viral and anti-bacterial actions and can reduce inflammation. Eat berries – strawberries have more vitamin C than oranges, and blueberries have the highest antioxidant power score of all. Raspberries are also excellent and, like all berries, contain many phytonutrients that boost your immune system. So, when you are under attack, snack on berries – the more the merrier.
 
Vitamin E and selenium improve immune cell function, and zinc is especially important as it crucial for immune cell production. Watermelon flesh is rich in vitamins A and C and the seeds a good source of zinc, selenium, vitamin E and essential fats.

Garlic is anti-viral, anti-fungal and anti-bacterial. Include a clove a day in your daily diet. For infections, increase to 2-6 cloves a day (or take it in supplementary form).

Ginger is particularly good for sore throats and stomach upsets. Put six slices of fresh root ginger in a thermos with a stick of cinnamon and fill up with boiling water. Five minutes later you have a delicious, throat-soothing ginger and cinnamon tea. You can add a little lemon and honey for taste.

Grapefruit seed extract is a powerful natural antibiotic, anti-fungal and anti-viral agent. It comes in drops and can be swallowed, gargled or used as nose or ear drops, depending on the site of infection. Dose when fighting an infection: 20 to 30 drops a day.

Carrots  provide a rich source of betacarotene. To make an immune-boosting soup, simmer three carrots with two sweet potatoes or a butternut squash (all diced) and lots of grated fresh ginger root in 1.5 pints of vegetable stock for ten minutes. Add half a tin of coconut milk and seasoning to taste and blend before serving.

Seed vegetables contain antioxidant nutrients plus protein. Make a large salad with broad beans, broccoli, grated carrot, beetroot, courgettes, watercress, lettuce, tomatoes and avocados, adding seeds or marinated tofu pieces – organic if possible. Serve with a dressing of cold-pressed oil containing some crushed garlic.
 
What are some sneaky tips to help make the transition from festive fare to sensible food a bit easier?

Exercise restraint – don’t go mad on food and drink you wouldn’t normally eat. Ask yourself if it is really worth the after effects like headaches, weight gain and poor sleep.

Snack on fruit and nuts rather than crisps and chocolate. If you want a treat, choose Brazil nuts coated in dark chocolate, as the nuts provide plenty of antioxidants and selenium, while good quality dark chocolate (around 70% cocoa solids) is low in sugar and high in magnesium and iron

Alcohol – minimise the damage. Drinking too much taxes both the liver and your digestive tract. You can minimise the damage, and any hangover symptoms, by simply supplementing an extra 2,000mg of vitamin C and a heaped teaspoon of glutamine powder, last thing at night with water. Try and also match each alcoholic drink with a glass of water to stay hydrated

Don’t stop exercising just because it’s party time. It may be cold and dark in the mornings, but the endorphins released after you go for a run or to the gym more than make up for the rude awakening. Plus, exercise not only helps you control your blood sugar, it also boosts the immune system.

Follow the Rainbow Rule – make sure your plate is piled high with different coloured fruits and/or vegetables, so that you eat a full spectrum of colours each day. Brightly coloured fruit and veg contain phyto- or plant nutrients that are incredibly important for fighting disease and keeping you looking your best. Satsumas, Brussel sprouts, purple cabbage, cranberries are all classic Christmas foods that offer a range of colours to help keep you healthy

Christmas can be inflammatory in more ways than one. Not only can relatives drive you mad, but you are more likely to eat foods that cause inflammation than at other times of the year. Meat, dairy products such as ice cream and brandy butter and milk chocolate, and sugar all produce inflammation in the body, which exacerbates any inflammatory conditions like asthma, eczema and arthritis. Make sure you eat plenty of anti-inflammatory foods like fruit, vegetables, whole grains, oily fish, nuts and seeds to help restore balance.

Eat cinnamon – not only is the flavour of this spice perfectly suited to seasonal foods like stewed apple and mince meat, a teaspoon of ground cinnamon a day has been shown to help your body deal restore blood sugar balance, to help you cope with any sugary treats

What are your top five liver detox tips?

Drink eight glasses of water a day. Have a glass of water when you wake up and one with each meal. Always have a glass of water with a coffee or alcoholic drink.

Load up on fruit and veg. The ideal is 7 servings a day. Eg. a piece of fruit with breakfast, two as snacks, plus two servings of vegetables, twice a day with your main meals.

Load up on superfoods. These include berries, broccoli, asparagus, plums, oily fish such as salmon, pumpkin seeds.

Take supplements every day. The basics we all need is an optimum nutrition multivitamin and mineral, plus extra vitamin C and essential fats. Try Biocare’s Optimum Nutrition Pack, formulated by Patrick Holford. (www.healthproductsforlife.com)

Exercise. Even a brisk walk gets your metabolism going. You need to exercise every other day. It helps burn fat and detoxify your body.

Try a detox plan such as my 9-Day Liver Detox (The Holford 9-Day Liver Detox, Piatkus, £10.99 – available from www.patrickholford.com)

What would you say are the top nutritional mistakes people make?

Eating the bad stuff first. If you fill yourself up on good food you are less likely to veer from the path of righteousness. That and two much hidden sugar and caffeine – this is what makes people so tired, stressed and ultimately fat.
 
Going on an extreme diet can cause your body to go into starvation mode and put on weight more quickly once you resume eating normally. How is a detox different?

You won’t starve at all on my Detox diet. In fact, it will more than fill you up. At the same time most people do loose some weight. But when you eat the right foods your body’s metabolism doesn’t slow down. It improves. That’s why you feel better and more energetic, not worse.
 
What’s your favourite treat?

 I have a weak spot for chocolate peanuts and a good movie. Being dairy allergic I’ve hunted high and low for dark chocolate peanuts – and found them on a stall in Hammersmith tube station! Dark chocolate, low in sugar, is the least bad treat. Also, try Booja Booja dairy-free ice-cream. Delicious.

What are you having for dinner tonight?

I don’t know. But last night I had a spicy steam fry of prawns, Tenderstem (a kind of broccoli), red onion and a mixture of brown rice and quinoa, steamed with some soya and chilli sauce and lemon juice.

Why do you think books about nutrition and dieting are so successful?

The longer you live the more obvious it becomes that you eat makes a big difference to your health. But we learn nothing on this subject at school. So people want to educate themselves. When you realise you can change your health you become empowered. That’s what good books do.
 
What do you think is to blame for the UK’s obesity problem?

I have no doubt it’s our high sugar, high refined food diet – and being surrounded by temptation.. We are programmed to eat and store high sugar, high fat foods, so you have to consciously not choose these. A low GL diet is the antidote to today’s weight gain.
 
What age do you think people could currently live to, with new medical advances and healthy eating?

110 will become increasingly common. More is possible. Most people who adopt optimum nutrition principles early in life can expect to reach 100 with the same level of health as someone twenty years younger. I hit the big 50 in a couple of months. The only sign of ageing I’ve noticed is an inability to read the small A to Z of London and a few grey hairs.

For more tips on healthy eating visit: www.patrickholford.com