WIN a Sophie Michell cookbook and a month’s supply of Total Greek Yoghurt!

Dark, dreary days and unrealistic weight loss resolutions getting you down? We’ve got a competition prize that’s sure to brighten your mood – and you might even shed a few pounds, too…

Total Greek Yoghurt is offering HFG readers the chance to win a copy of The Total Greek Yoghurt Cookbook by TV chef Sophie Michell, featuring over 100 quick and healthier recipes (find an extract in the February issue of Healthy Food Guide). Plus, the winner will also receive a month’s supply of Total Greek Yoghurts, plus a Black + Blum limited edition lunch pot and other treats.

By using thick and creamy Total Greek Yoghurt to replace traditionally high-fat ingredients, such as coconut milk in your curries or even butter in your bakes, you could save fat and calories. That’s because the yogurt – made in Athens using the traditional Greek straining method – contains only milk and live cultures, meaning it’s 100% natural, low in calories and packed with protein. Needless to say, it’s a HFG staple.

HOW TO ENTER

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Terms and conditions

This competition is open to Healthy Food Guide readers, registered on the website (free) and who are UK residents, aged 18 and over, excluding employees (or families of employees) of Eye to Eye Media Ltd, or anyone linked to the competition. Website entry closes 11.59pm 28 February 2015 and entries received after the closing date of the promotion will not be considered. No responsibility is taken for entries lost or delayed. The winner will be drawn at random and the judges’ decision is final. No correspondence will be entered into. The winner will be notified in writing within 28 days of the closing date. There are three prizes to be won. The winner will receive a copy of the Total Greek Yoghurt Cookbook by Sophie Michell, one month’s supply of TOTAL Greek Yoghurt, a TOTAL Greek Yoghurt Tshirt and a Black + Blum limited edition design for TOTAL Greek Yoghurt lunch pot. In the event of developments outside its control, the promoter reserves the right to offer an alternative prize of equal or greater value. The winners may be required to participate in future publicity. The promoter’s decision is final and binding in all matters and no correspondence will be entered into. Promoter: TOTAL Greek Yoghurt

WIN a De'Longhi Multifry Extra worth £199.99!

Cake, creamy risotto, fried fish and chips… so much for lighter eating, right? Well, actually, yes – made in a De'Longhi Multifry Extra and traditionally high-fat dishes such as these could receive the healthy seal of approval. That’s because this innovative cooking appliance can bake, stew and air-fry with the minimum amount of oil – in fact, just 1tbsp oil (equivalent to only 2.3% fat) is needed for the Multifry to turn 1kg potatoes into crispy, healthier chips. But here’s the best bit – WE’VE TWO TO GIVE AWAY!

So how does it work? The unique Surround Heating System cooks food quickly and effectively, surrounding the food with (you guessed it) heat to ensure even cooking. The upper heating element and fan deliver uniform heat from the top; the lower heating element delivers heat from the bottom.

Then there’s the removable mixing paddle which, when attached, will take care of stirring the food as it cooks (no more hovering by the hob while your risotto thickens), while the adjustable thermostat and timer mean you can get on with other tasks safe in the knowledge that dinner is taking care of itself. Hello stress-free family meals!

You can also download the De'Longhi Recipe Book app available through Apple and Android, which has over 250 recipes.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

To find out more about De'Longhi's range of products, visit multifry.delonghi.com 

  

Terms and conditions

This competition is open to Healthy Food Guide readers, registered on the website (free) and who are UK residents, aged 18 and over, excluding employees (or families of employees) of Eye to Eye Media Ltd, or anyone linked to the competition. Website entry closes 11.59pm 28 February 2015. Entries received after the closing date of the promotion will not be considered. No responsibility is taken for entries lost or delayed. The winner will be drawn at random and the judges’ decision is final. No correspondence will be entered into. The winner will be notified in writing within 28 days of the closing date. There are 2 prizes to be won. Each winner will receive a DeLonghi Multifry Extra. In the event of developments outside its control, the promoter reserves the right to offer an alternative prize of equal or greater value. The winners may be required to participate in future publicity. The promoter’s decision is final and binding in all matters and no correspondence will be entered into. Promoter: DeLonghi

Can you get healthy fish and chips?

By Juliette Kellow

It’s not the obvious event for a dietitian to attend, but on Tuesday I went to The National Fish & Chip Awards 2015. Living by the seaside and being a firm supporter of the fishing industry (as well as working as a nutrition consultant for Seafish, who organised the event), I wanted to fly the flag.

How can I defend this? Fish and chips is loaded with calories and fat – a disaster for our waistline and heart with a typical portion of cod in batter and side of chips containing around 880kcal and 44g fat. Then we smother it with salt that’s just waiting to push up our blood pressure! And we add more salt and sugar when we dollop on ketchup – and extra calories and fat if we dip our chips in mayo.

With about 10,500 takeaway fish and chip shops in the UK, collectively serving around 380 million meals each year, that’s a huge contribution to our national intakes of the bad stuff. Indeed, a typical cod and chip supper provides 44% of daily calorie needs and 63% of a day’s needs for fat. But before we write off this classic combo, there’s plenty of good stuff to consider.

The good nutrition

• Providing you skip the salt pot, a typical portion of cod and chips contains no more than 0.4g salt. As we should have less than 6g a day, that makes it a good choice for a main meal. 
• It’s loaded with protein, which improves satiety – a serving provides three-quarters of our daily needs. 
• It’s not just protein that provides the filling factor – one portion also has almost a third of our daily needs for fibre – and that’s without mushy peas. 
• It’s the vitamins and minerals that really shine through. Most dietitians recommend that a main meal provides around 30% of our daily needs for calories and nutrients. This meal is a real winner, containing at least 30% of our daily needs for magnesium, copper and vitamins B1, B2, B3 and B6.
• Better still, a typical portion provides 63% of our daily needs for folate; 72% phosphorus and selenium; almost one and half times more vitamin B12; and over twice the amount of potassium and iodine!

A worthy award
All in all, it appears to be a dietitian’s dream plate of food! But the calories and fat still worry me, especially as obesity is headline news and heart disease remains the number one killer in the UK. So I was particularly pleased to see one of the awards was for Healthy Eating Fish and Chips. There were three nominations, including Fishcity in Ballynahinch, County Down, and Harbourside Fish & Chips in Plymouth (pictured, above). I’d actually been to the latter after a family outing to Plymouth Aquarium (oh the irony)! And we all agreed it was the best fish and chips we’d ever eaten.

In fact, the award went to Towngate Fisheries in Bradford. This chippie offers lighter options, including a mini haddock and small chips plate for 499kcal and 28g fat (or 571kcal with the addition of peas). They also offer alternatives to traditional battered fish, including poached haddock – perfect for anyone counting calories or who needs to avoid gluten or wheat. Plus, LoSalt – an alternative to salt that replaces around two-thirds of the sodium in salt with potassium – is offered as well as the regular white stuff. In fact, LoSalt (who sponsored this award) are working with hundreds of fish and chip shops to help fans reduce the amount of sodium – the blood-pressure-raising component of salt – in their diet.

As for the menu at the event! Well, naturally, I was expecting fish and chips. But even I can see how that could leave hotel chefs sinking rather than swimming – 650 portions of fish and chips for, well, 650 experts on this dish! Instead, we had delicious smoked cod with curly kale, rösti potato, baby leeks, baby onion and a champagne sauce.

How to get healthy this weekend

Every January people resolve to join the healthy brigade, and those of us who are already longstanding members vow to maintain the balance between eating well, exercising regularly – and having fun while we’re at it. But sometimes we all need a little live-well inspiration, and this weekend’s Fare Healthy event is an ideal place to find it…

If you’re in the capital on Saturday, head west to Paradise By Way Of Kensal Green, a baroque-style pub, which, for one day only, will be transformed into a healthy haven. Organised by boutique catering company Peardrop London, Fare Healthy brings together cooks, nutritionists and fitness experts (many of which you’ll have read about in Healthy Food Guide) for an event like no other. There’ll be talks, demos and book signings from the likes of Hemsley + Hemsley and Deliciously Ella, exercise classes such as yoga and a Beyoncédance workshop (it promises to be bootylicious…), plus stalls selling guilt-free treats and stylish sportswear. Did we mention there’ll be cakes and cocktails, too? 

 

‘If this January’s anything like the last one (and the one before that), the dark winter days will be giving our willpower a workout,’ says Peardrop founder and event organiser Rose Lloyd Owen. ‘So we’re getting everyone together to bring some collective resolve to those New Year’s resolutions. To get fit and healthy – and to stay that way.’

When: Saturday 24 January, 9.30am–6pm

Where: Paradise By Way Of Kensal Green

Price: £17 for general admission and one book-ahead talk or exercise session; £10 general admission on the day

For more information and to book your ticket, visit peardroplondon.com/fare-healthy

A weighty question

With one in four adults in the UK considered obese, we’re delighted to support this initiative in helping tackle the problem of being overweight. Last week (12-18 January), saw National Obesity Awareness Week, a well-planned programme of events to help children and adults understand more about obesity and how to tackle it. Whether it’s by cooking more healthily, or being more active, the idea is to encourage a positive approach to the problem.

One fun idea for the campaign was a quiz where MPs and school children put their nutrition knowledge to the test. It was organised by the Eat Like A Champ (run by Danone), part of the Change4Life scheme designed to encourage healthy lifestyles among pupils between nine and 10.

So how much do you know about nutrition and healthy eating? Why not take a look at this extract from the quiz and see for yourself (answers at the end).


Eat Like A Champ Quiz

Q1 The Eatwell plate is the UK healthy eating model. How many food groups does the Eatwell plate have?
(a) 7 (b) 6 (c) 5

Q2 Which of these two Eatwell plate food groups are the same size?
(a) Milk and dairy foods group and Meat, fish, eggs, beans group (b) Bread, rice, potatoes, pasta group and the Fruit and vegetables group (c) Foods and drinks high in fat and/or sugar group and Milk and dairy foods group

Q3 How many portions of fruit and vegetables should we eat each day?
(a) At least 5 portions (b) 2 portions of fruit and 2 portions of vegetables (c) 5 small spoonfuls

Q4 Which one of these should be included in your lunch every day?
(a) a large portion of food high in fat (b) a portion of oily fish (c) a portion of starchy food

Q5 Approximately how much more fat do crinkle cut crisps have compared with baked crisps?
(a) twice as much (b) three times as much (c) four times as much

Q6 Which of the following does not count as 1 of your 5 a day?
(a) a glass of fruit juice (b) a portion of raisins (c) a jacket potato

Q7 How many drinks should a primary school pupil have each day?
(a) 10-12 drinks (b) 6-8 drinks (c) 3-4 drinks

Q8 If you don’t eat regularly, you will probably feel…
(a) healthy and happy (b) tired and hungry (c) focused and energetic

Q9 Which of the following snacks is highest in sugar?
(a) a berry muffin (b) a portion of potato wedges (c) a ring doughnut

Q10 Which of the following do we need to do to be a healthy weight?
(a) eat fruit, vegetables and salad (b) do a lot of sport (c) eat well and be active

Q11 Which of these nutrients is needed for healthy bones?
(a) carbohydrate (b) calcium (c) protein

Q12 Which of these activities would use the most energy if they were carried out for 15 minutes?
(a) swimming (b) cooking (c) football

Answers:
Q1 (c) 5 Q2 (b) Bread, rice, potatoes, pasta group and the Fruit and vegetables group Q3 (a) at least 5 portions Q4 (c) a portion of starchy food: Q5 (c) four times as much Q6 (c) a jacket potato (explanation: potatoes are high in starchy carbohydrate and therefore count as a starchy food such as bread, rice and pasta) Q7 (b) 6-8 drinks Q8 (b) tired and hungry Q9 (a) a berry muffin (explanation: a berry muffin = 16.8g sugar, a portion of potato wedges = 0.5g sugar, a ring doughnut = 9.2g sugar.) Q10 (c) eat well and be active Q11 (b) calcium Q12 (a) swimming

How to get results from your new year’s resolutions

By Laura Day

Six years ago, Australian Joe Cross made a radical change to his diet by giving his system a reboot. He started drinking green juice and eating a mostly plant-based diet. He not only lost weight but reversed a rare autoimmune disease, chronic uticaria. Joe documented the changes in the film Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead. In his new film, Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead 2, he explores how to maintain a healthy lifestyle – and how much of his sensible approach can work for us.

Step 1: Commit to now
Many of set new year’s resolutions – either to stop doing something ‘bad’ or to start doing something ‘good’. These often relate to health. We resolve to lose weight and get fit, or simply to eat healthier, drink less alcohol or to quit smoking for ever. All too often, though, we find ourselves making the same resolutions year after year, because we don’t keep our promises.

Step 2: Get a plan
If your goals are diet-based, not only will you need a meal plan, you’ll also need to create a schedule. Check your calendar; look for a time when you have a relatively quiet period with no major social events. Decide when you’ll start, then get a meal plan. Schedule when to do your grocery shopping, when to make your juices, when to do your daily exercise. Planning ahead means you’re more likely to do it, rather than finding yourself at the end of the day with that 20-minute walk or trip to the grocery store still awaiting you.

Step 3: Join a community
Understand that it won’t be smooth sailing. Lifestyle change like this isn’t easy. Having a supportive community to share progress with will help achieve your health goals. Recruit someone to follow your journey; share your aims and update them on your progress. They may be friends and family – or join the online community at Reboot with Joe.

Step 4: Track your progress
A daily diary is one of the best tools for helping you stay focused and recover from slip-ups. Record which foods you consumed, how much you ate, how you felt, and the amount of progress. Studies show that people who regularly monitor their progress while losing weight actually lose more, and those who continue to measure are more likely to keep that weight off. Progress doesn’t need to be measured by a number on the scale. Fitting into a smaller size of jeans, reducing your medication, or feeling more energetic are a few of the other ways to measure it. Set small milestones along the way that show your success, and reward yourself as you hit them.

How to get the best from a fitness tracker

By David Stalker, CEO ukactive

Did you get a shiny new activity tracker for Christmas? As well as measuring distance and pace, they’re vital for monitoring your heart rate. You need to understand what they can do for your health so they don’t end up in the back of your drawer with the loose batteries and old phone

The activity tracker market has expanded dramatically in the last two years. Measuring distance and pace are pretty standard, but the most important one is to be able to track and record data on your heart rate. This shows how intensely you’re exercising.

Why is this useful? To get the most out of exercise, whether running, cycling or anything else, to get fitter and healthier you need make progress. By knowing your heart rate you can understand how hard you’re working and not just how you're feeling. Armed with this knowledge, you can vary the intensity of your exercise to push yourself harder next time. All this information can also be displayed in readable charts – so even if you don’t fully understand the data, you’re able to see if you’re improving or not. Everyone gets encouraged when they see progress. You can be training hard but the improvements are not always obvious unless you know what your body is doing.

Share your progress
Your tracker should form a part of your wider exercise routine and use them as an additional tool to keeping motivated. They allow you to compare your progress and share successes, both big and small, with others so you’ll be accountable not only to yourself.

Trackers are often best used when part of the tech hub of a wider social community. Some exercise groups track your efforts in real time and integrate that with wider online communities, where you can log your miles or the points you get from meeting certain challenges.

Activity trackers won’t do the hard work for you, but they can become one of the important tools you use to motivate yourself.

Super bakes!

By Laura Day

Childhood friends – now time-short, food-loving parents – Philippa Askham and Tanya Mitchell, launched nutritious baking brand Sweetpea Pantry last year. They won Richard Branson’s Foodpreneurs Award in 2014, and are on a mission to make nutritious food for kids easy

“We’ve always been passionate about children’s nutrition but we found it hard to find time to feed our kids well. Then we decided to create baking mixes that would save people time and energy but not compromise on great-tasting, healthy ingredients.

Tanya and Philippa, founders of Sweetpea Pantry

 “When developing our recipes, we worked with paediatric nutritionist Belinda Blake. Along the way, we spoke to a lot of people who love baking but don’t know how to make it nutritious. They’d heard of things like quinoa but felt it’s a bit ‘out there'. And they knew they should cut back on sugar and add wholegrains, but didn’t know how. We thought about what kids like to make and eat and added the nutritious angle without making it too complicated." Result? A range of good-for-you baking kits – everything from pizza dough (flax and chia, anyone) to pancakes – and not forgetting choccie biscuits and flapjacks (with ‘yes, we can use’ quinoa).

“Our kits are perfect for time-pressed parents who can’t cook from scratch all the time but want to give their children nutritious food.

“We didn’t realise our gluten-free products would be so big. Our flapjacks were re-launched this year to be gluten free. So many products are sugar-loaded that people were excited to find a health-conscious brand. We want to make our products flexible so they can be made dairy-free, too.

“We’d like to develop the Free From (gluten-free) and savoury angle, which is where we’ve seen our strengths. Long-term, we want to launch on-the-go snacks, which are natural, contain wholegrains, and have less sugar.”

For more information, visit sweetpeapantry.co.uk

How to get your fitness on track

Physical activity is a huge part of a healthy lifestyle, says David Stalker, CEO of ukactive. And, whether you’re active by habit or not, it’s easy to go astray. Here are some tips to help you stay on the go

Just start...
That first step is always the hardest, so willpower is key. Focus on and remind yourself why you want (need!) to make being active an important part of your daily life. Even if you start small, getting started will make all the difference.

Make time
Decide on a time that works you and stick to it. If a walk at lunchtime fits your schedule, a light run after work is better or even a short fitness class before work – put it in your diary, then refuse to move it.

Find something you enjoy
It’s all about doing something that appeals. If running isn’t for you, try a new sport or an exercise class. There will be something out there that gives you a buzz.

Involve your folks
Tell friends and family about your fitness plans and they’ll give you the encouragement we all sometimes need. They might even join you in getting fitter and make it a part of your social life.

Don’t focus on losing weight
Even if it’s your weight that kickstarts you into exercise, getting fitter and healthier should be the priority. By being more active, the weight usually takes care of itself as long as you make good nutritional choices. Importantly, muscle weighs twice as much as fat, so weight isn’t always the best indicator of health or fitness levels.

You don’t have to be sporty
Being active doesn’t have to be all about sport, though. Recreational cycling, swimming, dance or anything that gets your heart rate up and your body moving will get you on the way to a healthier future.

Make sure you rest
Eating healthy food and having plenty of sleep after exercise is vital in recovering from exertion. I know as much as anyone that finding time to get enough sleep can be tough, but trying to do an hour of hard exercise after only 4 hours’ sleep isn’t fun for anyone.

Record your progress
Activity trackers can be great way to keep motivated. Apps that learn from your daily movements and give advice can act like a virtual coach, helping you improve and maintain your fitness. Remember effort leads to rewards so look for something that tracks heart rate so you can get an accurate picture of how hard you’re working. Listening to your body is vital, but knowledge is great and keeps you accountable.

Healthy eating advice for the year ahead

Healthy Food Guide’s experts share their tips for important diet tweaks that could make a difference to your health in 2015

Boost fibre – senior nutrition scientist Bridget Benelam
Fibre will be in the spotlight this year, as recommendations may be increasing from about 24g per day to as much as 30g per day. With average intakes around 18g per day, we're way below the current recommendation, let alone an increased level. Fibre can have a range of health effects - not just keeping you regular! It can help control blood sugar and blood cholesterol (mainly soluble fibre found in oats, barley, rye, pulses, root vegetables and fruit), can help support the healthy bacteria in your gut, may help reduce the risk of bowel cancer and can help with weight control.

To boost your fibre intake, make sure you get your 5-a-day, have wholegrains, or potatoes with skins, at each meal and go for high-fibre snacks, such as unsalted nuts and seeds, rye crispbreads or oat cakes.

Cut sugar - GP Dawn Harper
We all eat too much sugar and most of us don't even know we’re doing it! Start looking at a few labels and you’ll soon find hidden sugar in all sorts of places you would never have guessed.

Ditch beige - recipe consultant Phil Mundy
Cut back on all the pale carb heavy foods, such as pastry, biscuits, white bread and regular pasta, swapping them for wholegrains, sweet potatoes and other brightly coloured foods that will fill your plate for far fewer calories, while adding a lot more vitamins.

Reduce portions – nutritionist Amanda Ursell
If there’s one thing we can do to help reduce our calorie intake and, over time, our weight, it’s to reduce portion sizes. Shaving off 100 calories from breakfast, lunch and dinner, two snacks and one drink each day means we could drop 3,500 calories a week – which equals 1lb of fat. It may not sound much, but this adds up to 4lb a month, over half a stone in two months, almost a stone in three and over a stone in four. In other words, you could lose more than 3 stone a year just by making a little adjustment in portions each time you eat.

Get diagnosed – dietitian Norma McGough, Coeliac UK
If you think you have symptoms (of coeliac disease) that won’t go away, go to your GP and get your condition investigated – don’t try to second- guess what the problem is and treat yourself. For more information, visit coeliac.org.uk

Drink aware – dietitian Juliette Kellow
Drinks can contribute a huge amount of extra calories to our daily intake. A glass of orange juice with breakfast, a medium-sized coffee shop latte in the morning, a smoothie with lunch and a large glass of wine with your evening meal adds up to a massive 570 calories – that's more than a quarter of your daily calorie needs! Swap these for calorie-free options every day and in a year you could lose more than 4 stone!

And drinks can unwittingly push up our sugar intakes – the example above provides 49g sugar or the equivalent of around 12tsp of the white stuff (all sugars – regardless of whether they occur naturally in foods such as fruit or milk, or are added – count towards the maximum 90g a day that's recommended). Part of the problem with drinking calories is that our bodies don't recognise the calories from fluids as well as the calories from food. This means that although a drink can give us a calorie hit, it often doesn't leave us feeling satisfied or fill us up so we still continue to eat the same amount of food. The best drink, without doubt, is water – if you need a sweet hit, try sparkling water with a squeeze of fresh lime or lemon juice.

Choose mindfully - David Stalker, CEO, ukactive
All the time, we hear in the media that we should be cutting out fat, reducing sugar, exercising more, watching our weight. I’d like 2015 to be about simplicity and going back to basics. A little bit of everything is generally fine. Healthy living is about making mindful choices and consciously thinking about what we’re doing when we open the fridge, or avoiding that spin class to go down to the pub.

Ditch dieting - dietitian Helen Bond
The first thing should be to say no to the ‘D’ word! Weight-loss diets, gurus, celebrities and fads come up with anything and everything to help you see the number on the scales drop. But, if a diet is time-limited and has a start and a finish date, it’s bound to fail – that small break from bad eating habits means you’ll soon be back to lifestyle that made you put weight on in the first place. Evidence has shown that people who lose weight gradually are more successful at keeping the weight off long term. So get yourself on track, by making a plan and setting small, realistic and sustainable healthy eating and lifestyle goals!

Conscious eating – dietitian Tracy Kelly, Diabetes UK
My challenge to HFG readers is to develop a healthy relationship with food. Know what you are eating, the effects it has on your body and ask why you’re eating the foods you are. Many people eat when they aren’t truly hungry, ie, when they’re bored, stressed, feeling emotional, or to please other people. Be kind to yourself and enjoy eating, by choosing foods that nourish your body. And don’t ban anything. Instead, make informed choices. Recognise when you’re hungry and stop eating when you’re satisfied. Make yourself your number one priority! For more information about eating a healthy, balanced diet with diabetes go to diabetes.org.uk/enjoyfood

Move yourself! - Professor David Haslam, Chair of National Obesity Forum
Partly because I detest slow people who get in the way, for example stepping off an escalator and standing motionless at the top, and people who walk down Oxford Street at a snail's pace while texting their mother. But [I feel this way] mainly because moving one's carcass from A to B without the assistance of carbon-based fuel is a healthier way to go.

What have you resolved to change about your diet or fitness this year? Tell us in the comments below.

Should you have a dry January?

’Tis the season to cut back or stop drinking alcohol – and, if you’re in any doubt about whether you’re having one too many or are unaware of the risks excess alcohol poses, GP Dawn Harper presents the facts

Most of us overindulge during the festive period, and giving your liver a rest in January is a good idea. Recommended alcohol limits are 21 units a week for men and 14 for women and this is probably a lot less than you think.

Forget a glass of wine being a single unit. That was based on 8% wine and a small 125ml glass. Most wines today are over 12% proof and, if you are pouring a glass at home, it is likely to be a large glass and much nearer 3 units.

Work out your units

To calculate your units, simply look at the % alcohol of the drink you are drinking. That is the number of units in a litre of that fluid. So, let’s make the maths easy – say you are drinking 12% wine, then there is ¾ x 12, ie 9 units in a standard 75dcl bottle. If you are pouring yourself a large 250ml glass in the evening you are drinking 3 units in one go, so it is very easy to exceed recommended limits.

Liver disease

Consistently drinking above recommended limits causes liver damage. Firstly the liver develops fatty deposits. If you carry on drinking at this stage, you risk developing alcoholic hepatitis. Both of these are reversible if you give up drinking altogether. In fact, a fatty liver will start to recover after just two weeks of abstinence. Hepatitis takes several months of no alcohol to revert to normal but if you carry on drinking in the presence of hepatitis, you risk developing cirrhosis, which is irreversible and causes liver failure.

So now you know and can make a more informed decision on how much alcohol you should allow yourself.