Take a superstore full of crazy nutritional advice and shove it all into the biggest pot you can find. Simmer gently for months, skimming the scum off the top occasionally. Finally, reduce until you have only the best, most trustworthy claims left. What’s left? The world’s healthiest meal.
That’s pretty much the recipe that the Leatherhead Food Research group followed in order to sort the good nutritional research from the bad. They whittled down thousands of nutritional studies until they were left with just 222 that were judged to be the most convincing scientifically.
Then they built a menu for a three-course dinner, which ticked as many of the health-giving boxes of their findings as they could manage. Course by course, it runs as follows:
- Fresh and smoked salmon terrine; high-fibre multigrain bread roll
- Chicken casserole with lentils and mixed vegetables; olive-oil dressed mixed-leaf salad
- Live yoghurt blancmange topped with walnuts and sugar-free caramel sauce
It certainly sounds healthy, and the researchers can argue that every single ingredient present is there for a reason: from Omega 3 fish oils for cholesterol, through protein for muscle mass, to walnuts that “contribute to the improvement of the elasticity of blood vessels”.
And for something that’s designed to be as healthy as possible, it doesn’t sound too bad. Well, apart from pudding. Who the hell eats blancmange these days? [Leatherhead Food Research via Daily Mail]
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