Q&A

What about Sweetcorn

We regularly get asked about sweet corn and it’s addressed in the FAQ section of Stop Counting Calories and Start Losing Weight (it’s on page 252 of the most recent version and it’s replicated here… Nature delivers sweet corn on the cob, so, strictly speaking, you should eat corn on the cob so that you

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Cooking carbs – Carrots and onions

Q: Hi Zoe, When we cook carrots and onions they become sweet-tasting so does this mean there are more carbs in the cooked version? Or more bio-available carbs/sugars? Just wondering if eating them raw would impact blood sugar less…? P A: Hi there It’s not a dumb question – yours never are! There’s two things

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Three little questions

We get many questions sent to us and although, due to the volume, we can’t reply to every one in person, we do read them all and try to answer the more common and unusual ones in blogs, newsletters, podcasts etc. Q1:I had a blood test today, courtesy of my Employer and my blood sugar

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Naturally increasing oestrogen

Hi Zoe, Since coming off the pill in late August i’ve had some probs with irregular periods (a 56 day cycle & a 49 day cycle). Doc wants me to go back in Feb if things are still funny because she doesn’t think i’m ovulating & wants to put me on some drugs to rectify

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Bad breath and high protein & meat intake

Here’s a great question that I recently had that I thought worthy of sharing the answer with anyone wishing to read it:   Q: Hi Zoe, I’m really enjoying the diet but I’m a bit worried that my breath is not the same. I have read that this can be down to a high meat/protein

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Physical or mental?

We challenged members to come up with some great questions for our recent open day. The winner was Ninamarina for her series of thought-provoking questions. Here’s the one that clinched it for her, along with Zoe’s answer: Ninamarina’s Question: You know these physical intolerances and allergic reactions to foods that some people get ? Well..there

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Is The Harcombe Diet OK for someone with high cholesterol?

Q) Is the Harcombe Diet OK for someone with high cholesterol? A) Wow – there is almost a book’s worth to answer this question – I’ll try to give the headlines: 0) There’s a point before even getting to point (1), which is that we don’t actually have cholesterol freely floating around in our blood.

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Can I have fruit teas in Phase 1?

Q) Can I have fruit teas in Phase 1? A) Yes – I just group all such things under ‘herbal teas’ – so everything from peppermint to chamomile to rosehip, blackcurrent, raspberry and vanilla – any such teas are absolutely fine in any phase of the diet. They always smell better than they taste I

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Can I have Tahini?

Q) Can I have Tahini? A) Tahini is a sesame seed paste. I’ve checked my nutrition composition database and it only lists Tahini in a sesame butter form (it must be butter based, therefore). It lists 100g of tahini as containing 53g fat and 22g carb (protein is 17g and the rest is water), so

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Can I eat Avocados?

Q) Can I eat avocados? A) In Phase 1, no, because an avocado is a fruit. In Phase 2, in a 150g portion of avocado, there are 23g of fat and 11g of carbohydrate. Avocados are, therefore, higher in fat than carbs, but have quite high levels of both. This means you should eat them

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