Food & recipes

Nutrition: Michael van Straten looks at Healther Mills’s diet

By Michael Van Straten

What will Michael Van Straten make of Heather Mills’ meat and dairy-free diet?

I first embraced a vegan diet rich in vitamins, minerals and proteins when I was injured in a motorcycle accident to help the healing process.
For breakfast I have oats pre-soaked the night before with grated apple, sultanas and stevia with oat milk or a vegan protein bar with almonds and sultanas.
For lunch I’ll have a salad of Redwood’s Vegideli vegan ‘duck’, beetroot, grated carrot, whole avocado, mixed seeds of hemp and sunflower, kale, spinach, arugula and pumpkin oil with mustard and Bragg’s amino acids or mixed veg soup in organic bouillon, cauliflower, broccoli, courgettes, onions and tons of garlic and chilli.
For dinner I love steamed kale with tahini, roasted Brussels sprouts with garlic and roasted carrots with mustard, vegan gravy with roasted shallots added to it.
I stock up on seeds, nuts, protein bars, bananas, rice cakes and edamame soy beans.
I love to drink an energy drink called Vemma from Mangosteen.
My drinks of choice are water, ginger tea, peppermint tea and macha tea and at the supermarket I stock up on quinoa and tofu.

Heather Mills owns ethical food brand The Redwood Wholefood Company and is author of vegan cookbook LoveBites, (£9.99, redwoodfoods.co.uk)

Heather Mills is a famous vegan who owns a food company as well as a restaurant and fronted an anti-milk campaign

For breakfast Heather includes stevia, which is a natural sweetener and on the whole her breakfast choices are good. I know that she’s a vegan and oat milk is a nutritious choice but using cow’s milk would provide essential iodine as there is none in oat milk. There is also 10 times more vitamin A; three times more potassium and six times more of the vital calcium she may need to prevent the onset of osteoporosis.
Lunch is an amazing variety of good things although Bragg’s amino acids are very salty and one teaspoon gives Heather a quarter of her safe daily intake. Plus, I have heard there is some controversy surrounding the product as it may contain monosodium glutamate (MSG).
Her choice of snacks are good and she fills some gaps in her diet. However, some energy and protein bars have a high fat and sugar content so she needs to be a little cautious.
Her favourite drinks include water, ginger, peppermint, or macha tea and they’re all fine. But the energy drink she mentions called Vemma is a different thing entirely as I think it is over-hyped and doesn’t any real science to back it up – just lots of multi-level marketing. A fresh fruit or vegetable juice is healthier and a great deal cheaper.
I have no problem with adult vegans but don’t think it’s advisable for anyone with young children to bring them up as strict vegans. Kids need omega-3 fish oils as they are essential for their brain development and function.