The Ice Diet

PENGUIN BOOKS

Published by the Penguin Group
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First published 2015

The moral right of the author has been asserted

Every effort has been made to ensure that the information contained in this book is accurate. Following a diet is not always the right decision for every person, and should in any event be undertaken only by those without underlying health problems. If in doubt, please consult your doctor. Neither the publisher nor the author accept any legal responsibility for any personal injury or other damage or loss arising from the use or misuse of the information and advice contained in this book

ISBN: 978-1-405-92049-0

Introduction

Hear the word ‘diet’ and what springs to mind? Self-imposed starvation and stomach-grumbling? Calorie restriction and energy slumps? It’s fair to say that most of us have encountered the downsides of dieting at some stage in our lives. In the last two decades, my job as a health journalist has introduced me to almost every fashionable new diet and exercise regimen to hit the headlines. Much of what I have seen has left me cynical.

I’ve discovered that the diet and fitness industries too often base themselves on false and flash-in-the-pan promises with short-term appeal, often restricting food choices to such a degree that there’s barely anything left to put on your weekly shopping list. What’s hot to eat (or avoid) today will invariably not be the thing that promises to make you thin tomorrow. And evidence backing the claims for many trendy eating plans and detox regimens is often alarmingly scant.

My background in sports science and nutrition left me with a burgeoning sense that weight loss comes down not just to what we eat, but when we eat it and how we live. In a nutshell, that’s what led me to the science that underpins the Ice Diet. So what does it involve? Well, what you won’t get on this diet is hungry. Neither will you be asked to crunch on ice cubes, take freezing-cold daily baths or generally subject yourself to temperatures that a polar bear would find challenging.

You will be eating delicious daily meals that provide a balance of macronutrients (fat, protein and carbohydrate), as well as all the vitamins and minerals you need to stay healthy. And you will lose weight. Not just because of the changes to the food you are eating, but by embracing Nature’s very best fat-burning mechanism: cooler temperatures. We all feel like hibernating when it’s cold. But science has proven that most of us are now warm to a fault and it is impacting our waistlines and our health. By reversing the habit, you really can transform your body for the better.

Sounds incredible? When I first came across the alleged benefits of exposing our bodies to cooler temperatures – not just outdoors, but within the home – I too was highly sceptical. I’d been asked to write an article for a national newspaper that would involve me taking part in a trial being conducted by scientists at the University of Nottingham’s Queen’s Medical Centre. Professor Michael Symonds and his team got me and other subjects to plunge our hands into a bucket of cold water before checking on high-tech thermal imaging cameras to see how our bodies responded. After just a few seconds of cold-water immersion, calorie burning was boosted. It was a revelation and triggered a strong urge for me to find out more.

There was something else that helped to sway my thinking. As a young university student in the north of England, I’d noticed that during the autumn and winter months, repeatedly and without exception for at least the ten years that followed, I lost weight without trying. Not a colossal amount, but enough to be noticeable. It was, I remember thinking, as if my body was consuming itself to stay warm. I could literally feel myself gobbling up extra calories simply to protect myself against the seasonal drops in temperature.

Being students, we were short of money and consequently, relative to today, short of food. We went out – exercising, to the pub, to lecture theatres – just to stay warm. It was little more than a hunch, but over the years I felt a certain pleasure at the arrival of the first annual cold snap, in the knowledge that I would at least be leaner for a few months as a result. It took on more significance in recent years when I realized that my seasonal weight loss, while still evident, was slowing down.

Whereas I’d found it easy to drop half a stone without much effort in my cold student and early career days, the scales were much less kind once I hit my forties. Age and the slowing metabolism it brings almost certainly had a role to play, I deduced. But I also knew that my lifestyle was considerably warmer. I’d become more deskbound, more prone to cranking up the heating and far less tolerant of cold in general. Only when I visited Professor Symonds’s labs and began investigating the links between healthy diet, cooler living and fat burning did the coin drop: the three really are inextricably linked.

Since then, I have interviewed dozens of leading experts, trawled through hundreds of scientific papers and spoken to people who really believe that by eating well and by doing their utmost to activate good fat and inject coolness into their lives, they have transformed their waistlines and their health for the better. And I’ve discovered that ice is undeniably cool. Many A-listers and elite athletes are already using coolness in the belief that it will boost calorie burning and fitness. From Daniel Craig, Usain Bolt and David Beckham to Demi Moore, Halle Berry and Jennifer Lopez, a regular dose of cool temperatures has become a way of life. Celebrity trainers like Romana Braganza, who works with Jessica Alba, and Jon Denoris, whose clients include Rachel Stevens and Whitney Port, prescribe cold exposure for calorie burning.

What I’ve discovered along the way has radically changed the way I live. And I am lighter, less prone to illness and fitter as a result. What’s more, my family is also more brimful with vitality and wellness. Now it’s your turn. In The Ice Diet, you too will discover the mounting and convincing scientific evidence that how you live is affecting your weight; that Nature intended us to eat well and to experience cold, not to be permanently stifled by warmth, and that our bodies respond positively to mild ‘thermal stress’. If you embrace only a few of the principles outlined in the pages that follow, you will be a healthier, and undeniably cooler, person for it.

Peta Bee

THE ICE DIET

PENGUIN BOOKS

Contents

THE ICE DIET

THE BEGINNING

Introduction

Part One