I admit that it took me a while to read up on this book by Alain Mességué, The smile diet (Cairo publisher) , where the famous naturopath and nutritionist reveals the tricks for eating in a healthy and nutritious way without making too many sacrifices (hence the smile ). It took me a long time because the Mességué are a fairly large family (Maurice, Marc, Alain…), often linked not only to the herbalist tradition and naturopathy, but also to wellness centers, spas and so on; and also because many of the Mességué treatments are aesthetic, and not only related to nutrition despite the fame of the Mességué method, so I personally had little curiosity about a new book on nutrition.
But then, thanks to the new season, I said to myself:why not find out more?

So let’s see, starting from the book, what are (and if any) some useful tips for you readers and for me bloggers. There are tips, and there are five. Alain Mességué summarizes his “smile diet” starting from five principles, namely:
1) The diet must be healthy and balanced:the diet must not be restrictive and hypocaloric, but healthy and balanced: no to those slimming regimes of a thousand calories or less a day, yes to a diet that, rather than taking into account calories, is based on the quality and wholesomeness of food. The foods to be limited until they are completely eliminated are: intensively farmed meat and fish; refined cereals and industrial products; simple refined sugars (no to white sugar, no to sweets, yes to ripe fruit). saturated fat, alcohol and high-glycemic index foods.
2) Alain Mességué’s diet is dissociated of a simple type: in a single meal, starchy foods should not be mixed with protein foods. So if we eat (wholemeal) pasta we can combine it with vegetables and olive oil, not with tuna or cheese, for example. For dinner, we prefer fish over meat, but always local.