Fast Cook

shirataki Miracle noodles. Made of a water-soluble fibre called glucomannan, they have no fat, sugar, gluten or starch.

It may be radical, but the Fast Diet is also wonderfully economical with its rules. All you really need to know is that:

• You eat normally for five days a week and then, for two days a week, you consume a quarter of your usual calorie intake – around 600 calories for men, 500 for women. So, it is not total ‘fasting’, but a modified version. You won’t ‘starve’ on any given day; there are still calories coming in

• You can do your Fast Days back to back, or split them. Michael tried both ways and found he preferred non-consecutive days, fasting on Mondays and Thursdays. So, it is not continual fasting, but intermittent

• Most people divide their calorie allowance between breakfast and an evening meal. You can, of course, skip breakfast and have a more substantial evening meal if it better suits your day. The key is to aim for a lengthy ‘fasting window’ between meals

• It does matter what you eat – plan your 500 or 600 calories by sticking, as the recipes here do, to the Fast Diet mantra: ‘Mostly Plants and Protein’. That way, you’ll stay fuller longer and get adequate nutrients in your diet

Do this, and you should experience the many benefits of Intermittent Fasting. These include:

• Weight loss of around a pound a week

• A reduction in a hormone called IGF-1, which means that you are reducing your risk of a number of age-related diseases

• The switching-on of countless repair genes

• A rest for your pancreas, boosting the effectiveness of the insulin it produces in response to elevated blood glucose. Increased insulin sensitivity will reduce your risk of obesity, diabetes, heart disease and cognitive decline

• A rise in the levels of neurotr

You may also like to embrace the Fantastic Five – lime juice, soy sauce, fresh ginger, garlic and Thai fish sauce – a combination known as nam jim which delivers a hit of flavour for very few calories.