Helena Frith Powell - The Viva Mayr Diet

Once you have all your ingredients stashed away, then it’s time to make spelt bread. Spelt bread is one of the things for which the Viva Mayr Clinic is famous – or even infamous! Everyone who goes there, from film stars and property magnates to professional football players is put on a diet that includes spelt bread.

The first time you eat it, you may well be horrified. The bread tastes, well, stale. I can imagine the great and the good who visit the clinic – and are used to the better things in life – being rather shocked when they are presented with a bowl of vegetable broth and some, um, stale bread. But the point is that it teaches us to chew properly. Actually, I grew rather fond of the taste while I was at the clinic. Freshly baked, it is delicious, once you have learned how to chew properly.

Spelt bread is easy to make. You will need to prepare it the day before you want to eat it. I find it easiest to do the first part of the preparation when I get up in the morning and the second part when I get home from work. Here is the recipe:

Ingredients for the sourdough

Part one

125g sheep’s or goat’s milk yoghurt

125ml water

125g spelt flour

Mix all the ingredients together using a food mixer and leave to stand for 8 hours in a warm place (an airing cupboard is a good choice, or above an oven that has been previously heated). The dough is quite liquid at first but it will firm up as it stands.

Part two

750g spelt flour

250ml warm water

1½ tablespoons cream of tartar

½ teaspoon rock or sea salt

½ teaspoon ground coriander

½ teaspoon ground cumin

½ teaspoon ground aniseed

½ teaspoon ground fennel seeds

Sourdough (see above)

Mix all of the ingredients together with the sourdough and stir for 8 to 10 minutes. You might find it easier to use a food processor, or a mixer with a dough hook, rather than mixing by hand. The dough should be quite firm now.

Form flatbreads of approximately 70g each from the spelt dough. They must be very flat. Leave them to rise on a lightly floured baking tray for approximately 45 minutes, then prick and bake in the preheated oven at 190°C (375°F/Gas mark 5) for approximately 15 minutes. The breads should be golden brown and firm to the touch.

Leave them to rest for a day. That way they’ll be a little harder. You can also freeze the bread until you need it. It will last for several days; in fact, Dr S encourages you to eat it after a day or two so that it is tougher to chew.

If you don’t have time, simply buy a packet of Ryvita, a rye or wholemeal loaf from the supermarket, or pick up some spelt bread at your local health-food store. I’d really recommend this recipe, though, as taste-wise it beats any bread you can buy hands down. Please do make the time today – in between reading – to make your first batch of spelt bread. You also need to make it well in advance because when it comes to learning how to chew properly, the bread should be a day or two old.

Once you know what to eat, how are you meant to cook it? The goal of cooking the Viva Mayr way is to create a dish that tastes good, while at the same time preserving the food’s nutrients. Some methods are better than others because they make foods easier to digest. In many cases, food preparation is essential for us to be able to digest a food at all. Have you ever tried eating raw dried pasta?

By far the best way to cook vegetables is to steam them, and the best way to cook meat is to grill it. Fish can be poached, steamed or grilled. If you do end up frying, use only warm-pressed oils. Palm oil and coconut oil are especially suitable, because they have a very high smoke point of between 160°C and 180°C (320°F and 350°F), which means they can be heated without destroying the valuable nutrients. Heating cold-pressed oils turns them into trans fats – the very worst type of fats you can eat. If you do choose to cook with olive oil, or vegetable or seed oils, choose warm-pressed varieties. The fatty acids they contain will not be altered by cooking.

Contrary to what most other diet books will tell you, butter is fine. Butter contains milk fat, which has high levels of essential fatty acids, required for the brain and immune system. But don’t heat butter. At the most, butter can be melted gently and used to coat vegetables. Heating any more than this destroys butter and robs it of its health benefits, by destroying the healthy fatty acid chains.

Dr Stossier suggests we all cook using more herbs. They are excellent for supporting the digestive system, they taste great, and they can add flavour to just about anything you eat. Think about using herbs in a more Mediterranean way. For example, use fresh mint in a salad, as you would in Greece, or make fresh pesto sauce with basil. Basil is extremely versatile and perks most things up; add it to some steamed vegetables with some olive oil to finish off, and suddenly you have a tasty and nutritious meal. Any boring salad can be spiced up with a bit of coriander. Next time you eat salmon, pop some dill on top.

In terms of equipment, the only kitchen appliance in which you need to invest is a steamer. If you’re not yet convinced about the benefits of steaming food, just use a colander over a saucepan. But bear in mind that steaming preserves essential nutrients in food, such as the antioxidants, flavonoids, vitamins and minerals in vegetables.

You will also need a food processor or mixer for some of the recipes; if you don’t have one and don’t want to buy one, then do what your great-grandmother would have done and use a fork – and some wrist power!

So what foods should we avoid? Dr Stossier is pragmatic.

‘I can’t say this is best or this is better than others; we need them all. Each food has a different ingredient that our bodies crave,’ he says.

I ask Dr Stossier if he would ever eat a doughnut. ‘Not if there are other options,’ he smiles.

‘What about dark chocolate?’ I ask him hopefully, ‘and red wine – they’re full of antioxidants aren’t they?’

Dr Stossier looks at me with a wry smile. ‘You would be drunk before you were able to reap any of the antioxidant benefits of red wine,’ he says. ‘Which would then of course outweigh any benefits. As for dark chocolate, if you want to enjoy a piece of dark chocolate now and again, then go ahead. But don’t kid yourself that it is full of antioxidants.’

So are you ready for Viva Mayr? This has been a day of preparation for the new you. In terms of physical preparation it is fairly simple. You need to buy the food on the list (without succumbing to any doughnuts or bottles of beer) and also invest in a steamer if you can. You are easing into the diet with recipes made up from food you are likely to have at home. Begin and end the day with a cup of hot water with a slice of lemon in it.

Although we have not been through them all yet, there are some Viva Mayr rules you will need to follow today and from now on. They are:

• Chew as much as you possibly can.

• Eat nothing raw after four.

• Take at least 15 minutes of exercise a day.

• Eat more early on in the day, reducing portions in the evening.

Take some time for yourself on Day One. I have three children and know how difficult that can be. It is important that you have a chance to prepare both mentally and physically. Having said that, the Viva Mayr, unlike other diets, has an easy-to-follow menu that can be served to the whole family. There is no need to cook separately for anyone.