Amelia Freer: Maybe it's okay that we just simplify it down. I mean, of course there are some people who might have more specific needs and might need to be more careful, but I just don't believe that nutrition and healthy eating should take away the joy of a good meal and the joy that we can get from from eating good food. And and that doesn't mean that we have to be a Michelin-starred chef.
Dr Rupy: Welcome to the Doctor's Kitchen podcast with me, Dr Rupy, where we discuss the most important topics and concepts in the medicinal qualities of food and lifestyle. This is the podcast to listen to if you want actionable tips on how to improve your health and wellbeing. My guest today is none other than Amelia Freer, who is an experienced nutritional therapist who graduated from the four-year Institute of Optimum Nutrition course back in 2007. She's been really one of the pioneers in terms of improving people's understanding with of food and the appreciation for food. And and really, and I mentioned this on the podcast, she was one of my early motivators, a real inspirational character for me when coming to understand the importance of food and also the biological pathways by which we know food impacts our health and wellbeing. After years of struggling with her own diet, she uses her own experience to transform the lives of others. And amongst the success is some really famous names including Victoria Beckham, James Corden, Sam Smith. I mean it's really a scientific and holistic approach with clients that is really against fad diets and exaggerated food marketing hype and I just think that what she represents is is truly genuine. I've known her for a number of years now and the media backlash I think against her was quite unfounded. Something that we talk quite pertinently about in the podcast. I actually made one of her delicious recipes from her brand new book, Simply Good For You, which is really the perfect book for busy people looking for simple, tasty, nutritious meals. I think her experience of of now being a new mother has really changed the way she looks at food and focuses really on improving the the flow of meals, reducing the time needed and simplifying the ingredients list. Something that really does resonate with me and speaks to the fact that I have to create recipes for busy people on the go as well, including NHS workers. You can find more about the podcast and all the links to Amelia Freer's incredible work on the doctorskitchen.com podcast website. Please do give this a five-star review if you find it helpful and I'm going to summarise the discussion right at the end. And you'll also see on YouTube, The Doctor's Kitchen, the recipe that I made for her, which is out of her own book. Um, essentially it's a posh pot noodle. Onto the podcast. I hope you like it. Amelia, thank you so much for coming down to the studio.
Amelia Freer: Thank you for having me.
Dr Rupy: It's really cool actually because we've known each other for a number of years, but we haven't really like, sat down and hung out and stuff.
Amelia Freer: Exactly.
Dr Rupy: Although we did have that dinner I think with Drew who came down.
Amelia Freer: We did. That was so lovely.
Dr Rupy: Really nice. Yeah, with a whole bunch of us from the UK. Anyway, I'm going to be cooking an incredible recipe from your brand new book, Simply Good For You. And I love this recipe because it's exactly the kind of thing that I need when I'm working in A&E or in clinic and and shifts and stuff like that. I describe it as a posh pot noodle.
Amelia Freer: That's perfect. It's exactly what I was thinking actually because I had a client at the time who loves pot noodles. I remember thinking there must be a way to do something that's as delicious, you know, but much easier and more nutritious.
Dr Rupy: Absolutely, without the E numbers, the additives, the you know, excessive flavouring. And I mean the flavour comes from the miso, the beautiful mushrooms you've got here, broccoli, a bit of veg stock. I'm super excited to to get involved.
Amelia Freer: I'm so glad.
Dr Rupy: It's always like, I usually start these pods off with me explaining what the recipe is, but I'm just going to be explaining for the listeners.
Amelia Freer: Okay.
Dr Rupy: And the people watching on YouTube. So the buckwheat noodles, I've already par-cooked and drained with cold water, a little bit of sesame oil just to make sure that the strands are separated. Got some spring onions that I'm going to finely chop with mushrooms, some broccoli tender stem that I need to finely chop, some ginger, sesame, tamari, a bit of chilli, the miso, which I absolutely love.
Amelia Freer: I love miso.
Dr Rupy: It's so versatile as well.
Amelia Freer: I think you've done another recipe with miso butter and pasta.
Dr Rupy: I did.
Amelia Freer: Yeah, I do use it quite a lot. And I think these these kind of Asian recipes, people often think they're really confusing and it requires lots and lots of different ingredients or flavours. And actually, I think as you can see, there's sort of five main ingredients here that give the flavour. I was doing a podcast yesterday and they were raving about these store-bought cartons of like the miso broth that you can add. And I was like, it's not that difficult to make it and it doesn't have to cost that much. And that's got sunflower oil and lots and lots of unnecessary ingredients in. So I'm so glad that you chose this recipe to make. I love just sitting here while you're cooking.
Dr Rupy: Yeah, I know. It's quite nice, isn't it? I mean it's the whole like the concept behind the Doctor's Kitchen podcast now is actually like you come to the Doctor's Kitchen. And like, I just think it it makes the conversation and everything a lot more relaxed with food. And you're enjoying food and stuff. So, so yeah. So tell me a bit about the book and how it came about because you've had a busy couple of years. Congratulations.
Amelia Freer: Thank you.
Dr Rupy: You have a beautiful Willow. I believe her name is.
Amelia Freer: Yes.
Dr Rupy: She's two.
Amelia Freer: She's two.
Dr Rupy: So she's going through the terrible twos maybe?
Amelia Freer: Oh yeah. She's very bossy and opinionated and really finding her voice. Which is lovely. It's lovely. But yeah, it's full on.
Dr Rupy: Gorgeous, yeah.
Amelia Freer: So the book came about, I suppose as you know, I've I've sort of been working in nutrition for well over a decade and worked with thousands of clients and learnt, I mean, you know, so much from working with those individuals. They've always pretty much shaped the themes for my for my books. Um, but I suppose what I've really observed over the last couple of years is that as as popular as wellness has become, and of course, you know, there's no disputing the importance of it. We still want to promote healthy living for to as many people as possible. But somehow it had started to become a bit negative and a bit faddy and certainly really confusing. And we know it is complex working with unique individuals. And obviously when you're working one on one with clients all of the time, we have that wonderful opportunity to be really personal with them and work out what their specific needs are. But for the general population, when you don't have the privilege of working with them one on one, they still want some, you know, guidance and to be inspired and and sort of shown that healthy eating is possible for for everyone. And I just wanted to, I I kind of made me sad that it suddenly had this heavy, confusing, expensive, negative attitude around it. And and I thought, no, no, this is terrible. It it actually can be really simple, or at least, you know, everyone can start simply and then, you know, work out if they have specific needs further down the line. But we all know that cleaning up the diet initially is one of the best places to start. So, since becoming a mum, I also have so much less time that I really didn't appreciate before to to cook and certainly cook in the way that I used to. So I had to learn quite quickly how to keep my healthy habits in place. And you know, I did lose them for a while. I won't I won't deny in the early stages of motherhood. But slowly because I was feeling rubbish, I thought, okay, how can I get the nutrients that I need into my diet in a really quick and simple way? And so that was really the the the how this book evolved. I just started to write down what I was eating every day and what I was feeding my daughter and cooking for her as I was weaning her and then obviously feeding my husband and friends and family as they came to visit. And it and it was just really, really simple recipes. So I'm not ashamed of how simple these recipes are. I'm not trying to impress people with culinary skills here. It's just actually to have a balanced meal isn't as complicated as as we've been led to believe. And of course, there are exciting times to be more gastronomic with our food choices and our cooking. But this is every day, the times in between, the every day real life when we get home from work and we're completely exhausted and we don't really have time to prepare a meal.
Dr Rupy: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think that's, that speaks to the sort of way I like to cook as well and letting the ingredients speak for themselves because it's really about, if you boil it down to its bare minimum, it's about getting as many different complex ingredients into your diet as possible, marrying it with some good herbs, spices, and that's pretty much diet in a nutshell for most people. But what you're honing in on this is actually the behaviour change around healthy eating, what the barriers are to healthy eating and actually taking those down, which I think is is really admirable and and something that you have always known. And it's it's really frustrating I think because I think when you are in the public eye, your message can be miscrewed in a whole bunch of different ways as as yours has over the last few years. And I just, yeah, I just think it's frustrating.
Amelia Freer: It is very frustrating, but I suppose it just provides an opportunity to learn how to be, you know, incredibly careful with the words that you use and and how you share information. And as I said to you earlier, it's totally different working one on one with someone. But when you're sharing a message in a more general way, you have to understand that there's so many different individuals who are going to read your message in a different way. And but you know, that's that's this this book has really achieved that. I'm not telling anyone how they need to eat. I'm just giving them options so that they can adapt each and every recipe according to their own, you know, individual needs. But I think the the point is really is just that there's been this continuous message that we don't have time to be healthy, we don't have time to cook from scratch. Um, life is too busy. And and I get it because I I I relate to it. There was a period of of time after giving birth to my daughter when I just ate toast. But I thought, well, okay, if I'm going to be eating toast, how can I make the toast nutritious? So there's a whole chapter in the book called hero toppings, which is just how to make a piece of toast a complete meal. And actually maybe maybe it's it's okay that we just simplify it down. I mean, of course, there are some people who might have more specific needs and might need to be more careful, but I just don't believe that nutrition and healthy eating should take away the joy of a good meal and the joy that we can get from from eating good food. And and that doesn't mean that we have to be a Michelin-starred chef and you know, have have really fancy skills and and knowledge.
Dr Rupy: Yeah, I mean, I'm as we're talking, I'm just putting a whole bunch of ingredients in a bowl and pouring hot water over it. So it's pretty much a meal made in a few minutes.
Amelia Freer: In a few minutes, yeah.
Dr Rupy: I'm just going to top this with a little bit of sesame seed and the sliced chilli. I don't think I forgot anything else, but I'm going to put some raw spring onions on the top because I love a bit of raw spring onion just for that bite. And then you just need to let that steep for a couple of minutes, right? And then allow all the beautiful flavours of the miso and the the bit of veg stock that I've used in there to infuse.
Amelia Freer: And as you said, this is the kind of thing that you want to take when you go to work. So obviously you're doing it in a lovely bowl now. But in the book, I've done it in a jar because you can basically put all of those ingredients dry into a jar and take it to work with you and just pour the hot water over the top. So hence why you said the posh pot noodle.
Dr Rupy: Exactly. So it is actually food that we can travel with. I tried to get that that Mason jar actually that size, but I couldn't get it from my local Sainsbury's. But I'm sure you can get it on Amazon. Yeah, yeah. Or other online retailers, I'm sure. So have you changed your your sort of the way you eat personally throughout the the years? Because I know you've spoken before about like how you challenge your diet, you challenge yourself with your diet, you change things up.
Amelia Freer: I don't believe that that you know, health is a destination and you sort of start eating one way and then say that's it for life. And and obviously as a nutrition professional, I'm always intrigued to understand the new different ways of eating, whether it be keto or intermittent fasting. So I always am quite intrigued and I experiment with it myself. I suppose I used to be I I dairy and gluten really don't agree with me and I know that and I've known that for years. But now that I'm responsible for feeding my daughter and I want her to have as diverse a diet as possible and there's no indication or reason at this time that suggests she shouldn't eat those things. And because I refuse to cook separate food for us, I'm now eating foods that don't necessarily agree with me as much. But I'm kind of relaxed. I've never been someone who's been sort of heavy about nutrition. I think that it's really important. I know that I eat a really good diet. But I'm incredibly balanced about it as well because I do believe that food needs to be joyful and you know, part of our social and emotional health as well. And I think that sometimes that message gets forgotten about. So so I'm pretty relaxed. I mean, I definitely if like the other night I went, I was doing an event for work and they gave me some food that you know, is not in my opinion healthy food and it wouldn't be the food that I would choose. But while I know some people would be like, I can't eat that, it's bad for me. I'm like, okay, well, it's not what I would choose, but I'm going to eat it because I think we need to apply some common sense to to nutrition.
Dr Rupy: It's really funny because whenever I'm out with my mates, right, and we're going to a restaurant and we're perusing the menu, they'll always jive me about, okay, well, there's no vegan option here or like Rupy's just going to get the green salad or whatever. I'm like, this is not how I eat. And that's why I think what I've started doing on my social media posting and and the messaging, I have done for for a while now, is just posting what I'm eating after a shift at the hospital. And last week, for example, it was a a pizza that I bought. Yeah, you see that. Yeah, it was a pizza that I bought. I I did make it with a broccoli salad and some olives and stuff like that on the side to be fair.
Amelia Freer: But that's because we know the importance of eating our plants. And I think it's perfectly fine to balance out a not so healthy meal and by adding some vegetables. And that's what I would do if I order out or that's what I do with my daughter, just trying to always, you know, balance it out. But I always say we don't have to be perfect to be powerful. And I don't think and and that's where I think again with the the message with simply is I wanted to say to people, look, you know, none of us are perfect all the time. Not not as health professionals and no one in real life. And I think we've we've got to sort of take that that extreme pressure off. Our life doesn't have to be perfectly Instagrammable at every single stage in order to enhance our wellbeing. We can have a sort of normal balanced approach to it. And that might be the occasional pizza or I don't know, ice cream or glass of wine or whatever. And I think looking at how I'm feeding a two-year-old is actually sort of it's just applying that common sense. You can never deprive a two-year-old of ice cream or cake. It would be unrealistic. But I'm just moderate about how I expose her to them and also how I approach it. So I don't make it a treat or a reward or anything special or fancy. It's just part of real life.
Dr Rupy: Yeah. You've probably gone on a like a long journey over the last couple of years in particular since having Willow because you're being exposed to all the other sort of nutritional practices within pediatric care. I I so I've been doing my nutritional masters, nutritional medicine masters this year at University of Surrey. And there are some modules that I perhaps I probably wouldn't have chosen to take had I didn't had I, you know, had the opportunity not to. But I did them and I learned so much about the complexities of weaning, of of preconception nutrition as well as postnatal or all the different types. And things as a GP, I kind of felt embarrassed that I didn't know about. And I think was that the same for you? So like since having a child, you've learned actually a lot more than
Amelia Freer: I'm so embarrassed to say that because I think when I was studying nutrition, having babies was so far in the future for me, I didn't pay that much attention. Whereas I I know that when mothers are sort of at that stage, they they really open up their ears and they want to have every bit of of knowledge. So I went into motherhood rather blindly and it has been a case of learning on the hop. And yeah, it's such a hugely challenging and complicated and and and difficult time of life for most women. So I'm fascinated by what I've learned. Just just amazing things like the human body will prioritize the the nutrition content of breast milk irrelevant of the mother's diet, but it will make sure that the breast milk is nutritious. Things like that's just genius.
Dr Rupy: Yeah, totally. So it's fascinating.
Amelia Freer: It's funny you said about like being embarrassed about what you knew before because I remember when I first started talking to patients about the microbiota and stuff. This must have been like five, six years ago. I just come across this and I was super excited. I remember I was prescribing some antibiotics for a child's, I think it was an ear infection or something, quite quite standard. And I said to the to the mother, you know, you might want to consider increasing the fibre in their diet. We know that antibiotics have a negative impact, although we're using it appropriately for this child. And I was like, you know, you can give them lentils and chickpeas and like all these different veggies. And she was like, she just turned to me, she's like, you know kids, do you? It's like, there is no way I can get all these different food to my kid. Like they're only eat this, this and this. And I was like, well, you can try. And I was like, and the conversation kind of descended. But yeah, yeah.
Dr Rupy: But yeah, we learn slowly, don't we? We learn. And I mean, I look back and I think of, you know, I've worked with so many clients who have been mothers of young kids and they've had the exhaustion and they've had the loneliness and the isolation and all of the mental health challenges that come with early stage motherhood as well. And you know, I I I thought I understood. I was empathetic, but I I I really didn't have a clue. So yeah, you you do kind of learn hard and fast when you're actually in that driving seat.
Dr Rupy: And I think embracing imperfection is actually a very healthy thing to do. It's almost like, you know, I I mirror it with the plant hormesis, which I'm absolutely fascinated with the the thought that, you know, turmeric or curcumin or whatever actually elicits a mild inflammatory response that generates a protective response from your own body. And I think the same could be said slightly of mild stresses in our food, mild behavioral stresses. It makes us a lot more resilient overall. And I think you have to look at the net positive.
Amelia Freer: That's a really good, yeah, that's a great way of thinking of it.
Dr Rupy: Oh, I'm glad you agree. Okay, I think we've had these noodles have had a nice bit of steeping. I'm actually going to try this because I know this is your recipe, so you know what it it tastes like.
Amelia Freer: I love this recipe.
Dr Rupy: I know. Yeah, so I'm glad you're going to try it. It's the first time I'm going to be trying it on the pod. I'm glad you chose to make this one.
Amelia Freer: Oh, I'm yeah, I mean it looks amazing. I do love a broth. All right, that's wonderful. That's really good. Really good. It's got a tiny bit of heat from the chili actually that's just steeping in there, but that is wonderful.
Dr Rupy: And that's a meal in minutes.
Amelia Freer: Exactly. That's literally a meal in minutes whilst we've been chatting.
