BOOK REVIEW: Eat Nourish Glow, Amelia Freer

I've not done a book review before despite being an avid collector of cookbooks. My shelves are packed with health orientated tomes, hearty home cook books and the occasional celebrity chef. Today I wanted to share my thoughts on Amelia Freer's wonderful book Eat Nourish Glow.

Freer has been getting a lot of attention recently in the press, especially around her celebrity 'transformations'. Sam Smith is an avid follower of her system and I must say I am completely sold on it to. Freer keeps things simple: eat to nourish your body and glow on the inside and outside. 

The book is separated into 11 chapters, 10 of which are her 'tips' on how to eat, nourish and glow. Rather than a simple list of tips, Freer breaks down her points into 5-10 pages of detailed nutritional information which explain her point excellently. 

We start with the fridge refresh, which reminded me of the start of Madeline Shaw's Get The Glow (review coming soon). Freer advises what foods to get rid of (anything processed, containing sugar, gluten etc), and what to replace them with. I found this section really helpful as its all good throwing everything out but without direct replacements things can get confusing. For example replacing white flour with brown rice flour or coconut flour, looking to non-gluten grains such as quinoa and amaranth, and even sugar alternatives.  

As with PURE by Sarah Cadji, Freer makes note of the importance of falling into the fruit sugar trap. According to Freer (and most other health writers) the body doesn't see fruit sugar any differently to other sugars. The 'natural' fructose in fruits still causes blood sugar spikes although they may be less extreme. Freer also points to lower GI fruits such as green apples as a go-to if you want fruit snacks and that eating fruits alongside a complete meal helps to slow down the sugars release into the bloodstream. 

The book closes with Freer's thoughts on exercise. I appreciate that she explains like food exercise should be taken mindfully and that excessive intense exercise will do more harm than good. In a world where we all reminded daily of how amazing our bodies could look if we live in the gym Freer's words are a refreshing approach.

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