Breakfast like a princess … 50 after eating them! But if we combine them with protein … presto! we have the best of both worlds. This why a tandoori chicken salad, or a parmesan and asparagus salad, is a much better choice than skipping the chicken or cheese( i. e., the protein) in these dishes to make them‘ healthier’. Equally, a soup that contains protein in one form or another( meat or cheese) is ideal as it gets its volume from water( zero energy) while the protein leaves us feeling sated. For vegetarians it is a matter of maximizing the protein eaten from allowed sources. Cheeses are a rich source while beans are the best vegetable source, followed by asparagus and broccoli. It is much, much easier not to have seconds or dessert if we feel full. Equally, think how much food you can eat in 20 minutes between when you are full and when you feel full. For most of us that 20 minutes of eating is the time when we eat all the food that will be responsible for our weight gain( or lack of weight loss)! Twenty minutes is long enough to have both seconds and dessert! The beauty of having soup as a starter, or any healthy starter, is that by the time we are finishing our second course and considering dessert, the first course is starting to make us feel full. If we take our time, we won’ t feel like seconds or dessert. So, when eating out, it is better to order two starters and a side of salad or vegetables than have a single main course. Not only do you get more variety, but with a single course, come the time to contemplate dessert, you still feel hungry – wham! in goes the order for the banoffee pie! With two starters, the first is starting to register, just as you finish the second – then you have the side of salad or vegetables as back up! Many of the authorities at the forefront of obesity research are calling for public health guidelines to encourage people to eat more protein for these reasons. Because it does not have the energy density of fat and of many of the highly processed carbohydrates, it is the secret weapon in losing weight without having to go hungry or use buckets of that elusive entity of‘ self-discipline’ as we discussed in Chapter 2.