Recipe for a Healthy Day: Interview with Pete Evans

Recipe for a Healthy Day: Interview with Pete Evans, Celebrity Chef, Co-Host of Channel Seven’s ‘My Kitchen Rules’, Ambassador of Mindd Foundation and Author
By Vanessa Finnigan

Pete is a mainstream celebrity and health coach but what you may not know is he is a down to earth guy who doesn’t own a suit, rarely wears shoes and has a niggling urge to learn how to sustainably survive in the wild as a true hunter gatherer! It’s a joy to share his thoughts about food, health and what brings him joy this month….

Vanessa: How do you start the day? And what challenges do you face with finding good food ‘on the road’…

Pete: I start the day with a large glass of room temperature filtered water and a ten minute meditation. If I’m in Sydney, or near the water my partner Nic and I will go for a swim in the ocean and if there’s waves, we’ll go for a surf. More often than not breakfast consists of meat and vegetables, or leftovers from the previous night’s dinner. We’ve actually become rather savvy at enjoying good, honest food on the road. We’ll do our research before we even arrive in a city and head straight to an organic co op, or store and stock up on goodies. And we always seek out restaurants that serve ethically raised grass fed meat and poultry & wild caught, sustainable fish to dine in, and we’ll order enough so that we have leftovers and can therefore take a doggy bag back to our hotel to eat for breakfast the following day. We always prepare our own meals to take on planes and if we’re abroad and can’t find anything nourishing we’ll simply choose to go without as intermittent fasting has proven to be very beneficial for us too.

Vanessa: Is there a ‘recipe’ for good health? What are your thoughts about cultivating an holistic lifestyle?

Pete: Absolutely, there is definitely a wonderful recipe for optimal health and it consists of living a conscious life made up of a combination of unconditional, loving, fulfilling relationships, moderate exercise, deeply breathed fresh air, time spent in mother nature, plenty of pure, filtered water and of course consuming, ethical, nutritionally dense foods. I also believe that meditation is a superb practise to achieve a healthier mind and the latest reputable research proves it to be wonderfully nourishing for the brain too! A life changing book to read to help people understand how food directly affects our physical, emotional and spiritual well being is, ‘Primal Body Primal Mind’, the astounding, non bias, up to date information in this book is eloquently shared by one of the greatest health crusaders of our time Nora Gedgaudas- I can’t recommend it enough!

Vanessa: What does ‘food as medicine’ mean to you? Have you seen food/good nutrition heal people’s lives (children and adults)?

Pete: Viewing food as medicine quite simply means to me that we need to understand and be mindful of the very simple fact that what we eat is what we absorb and therefore our diet is a crucial part of living a sublimely healthy, vibrant life. The amount of lives I’ve seen turn around due to a change in diet is absolutely astounding! From acne to diabetes to autoimmune disease and everything in between, the remarkable healing effects of a nourishing lifestyle has been profound!

Vanessa: What has it been like expressing ‘out of the box’ ideas about food with the mainstream world?

Pete: I love it! I love the fact and feel genuinely honoured to be able to share healthful ‘out of the box’ knowledge about food and how to prepare it! It is a truly great passion for me and I’m inspired daily by countless emails and stories from people and families about how adopting a paleo inspired diet has completely changed and enhanced their life. Nic and I fully embrace the paleo principals and we follow a very ketogenic paleo diet, which means a balanced amount of quality fats, protein and lots of non starchy carbs. We’ve been living this lifestyle for over two years and we’re both gratefully thriving physically and mentally. I would have to say that the clarity of mind that you experience when you cease eating addictive, inflammation forming wheat, gluten, grains and refined sugars has got to be one of the most appreciated benefits of a ketogenic paleo diet. Witnessing people and families whom experience renewed health by empowering themselves with knowledge and changing their diet is pretty damn powerful stuff!

Vanessa: How do you spend time with your two daughters? What is one of your favourite meals you cook and share together? What is the best part about being a dad?

Pete: Gosh, where do I begin, for Nic and I sharing our life with my extraordinary daughters Chilli and Indii is one of the greatest gifts of life! Our family dynamic is entirely uplifting, mindful, inspiring, exciting, harmonious and peaceful all rolled into one. We have a number of favourite family meals and both girls are becoming rather adventurous eaters. They’re happy to eat cultured/fermented vegetables with every meal, which in the beginning was a hard sell, but now they eat it without any issues. They’re both always eager to learn about where their food has come from and how it affects their growing bodies and it gives us great pleasure to watch them consciously developing an all important connection to food. Meatballs are definitely a popular dish for us because we all get involved with the preparation and Chilli and Indii’s little hands make short work of creating the best little balls, plus they love to pick the herbs to add to the mix too. We often enjoy family surfs, swims, picnics and all three girls will spend hours together creating art and energetic dance routines.

My ultimate life experience is paddling out with Nic, Chilli and Indii and catching waves together, for me that is the endmost joy I’ve been privileged to enjoy.

Pete feels fortunate to have lots of exciting projects on the go, perhaps one of the most thrilling being the release of the home fermentation kit that he created alongside good friend and fermentation Queen, Kitsa Yanniotis. It’s called, ‘Culture For Life’ and it basically takes all the guess work out of making your own nutritionally dense, enzyme and probiotic rich fermented vegetables. Pete believes fermented vegetables are an incredibly important addition to our diets to enable us to maintain a healthy digestive system, so it’s been a very passionate creation.

The best way to keep up with Pete’s adventures is to follow his face book page ‘Chef Pete Evans’ as his team diligently upload information and recipes daily. And look out for his new book release, ‘Healthy Every Day’.

“I wish everyone an incredible, fulfilling, enlightened journey through life! Keep cooking with love and laughter!” Pete Evans

Pete’s favourite five ‘brain foods’
1.Liver from ethically raised grass fed meat and poultry!
2.Virgin coconut oil!
3.Egg or duck egg yolks!
4. Ethically raised, grass fed meat, poultry and wild caught sustainable
fish!
5. Fibrous, seasonal, ethically farmed vegetables like kale, broccoli,
cauliflower, zucchini and fermented/cultured veggies too.

www.peteevanschef.com and www.mindd.org