14 DAY TRIAL // There’s really no denying that Jennifer Aniston is in amazing shape. To assume that she looks so good thanks to a quick crash diet is nonsensical. The same goes for believing that any real woman could actually survive on her daily diet.
Anna Pursglove of the Daily Mail and her nutritionist set out to determine whether Aniston’s diet, as exposed in Jewels and Jill Elmore’s “The Family Chef” book, was actually doable in real life.
The recently released book holds the answer to the ever-burning question regarding the secret for Aniston’s enviable shape. Of course, everyone knows she works out a lot – but it’s down to what she eats as well.
The book begins, Pursglove says, with an introduction from Jennifer herself; moreover, the fact that it’s called “The Family Chef” and that it boasts reintroducing the modern woman to cooking help contribute to creating the impression that this actually a healthy and satisfying diet.
“The introduction to this work has been penned by Aniston herself, who reveals that in a time she refers to as ‘BJ: Before Jewels,’ she lived on an assortment of ‘prepackaged Zone meals, overcooked takeout and… the occasional piece of cheese’,” Pursglove writes.
“Jen claims they taught her that her kitchen was not a place to store her PowerBars ‘my once-upon-a-time alternative to all food groups!’ but a place to cook food in. Who knew?” she continues.
Upon closer inspection though, she realizes that, just like any other diet, it only seems easy to follow. The truth is, Pursglove soon finds out, she could be burning more calories preparing the meals than she actually eats.
One of the first obstacles Pursglove comes across is that some ingredients are not easy to find in most supermarkets – and, clearly, the other versions are no good, for one reason or another.
Then comes the time factor. For a woman like Aniston, who has a personal chef and no children to run after everyday, it’s easy to have a fancy dish for dinner, because she only sits down and eats it.
Regular women, though, have to actually cook it to be able to eat it – and they may not always have the time for it, Pursglove points out.
Thirdly, all items in the diet are tasty but they’re not filling, since they’re based on a lot of water. Entire food groups are cut out, which means Pursglove was famished the entire time she was on it.
“I think the The Family Chef pushes a flawed diet message. ‘It’s taken me time,’ writes Aniston in conclusion, ‘to learn that the key to having a great physique isn’t to deprive oneself of food.’ But the thing is Jennifer – that’s exactly what the key is if by ‘great’ you mean ‘thin’,” Pursglove says.
Nutritionist Janine Fahri of London’s NutriLife Clinic says the secret is not to deprive yourself (by following Aniston’s eating plan, for instance) but to have everything in moderation.
“My advice if you need to lose weight is not to cut out whole food groups but to watch portion sizes,” Fahri points out.
“As a basic guideline, your protein serving should be the size of a deck of cards and your carbohydrate (preferably in brown or wholegrain form) should be the size of a tennis ball, and then fill up on vegetables,” the nutritionist explains.
For the entire piece on Jennifer Aniston’s diet, please see here.