Tom Kerridge's Dopamine Diet: My low-carb, stay-happy way to lose weight

by Tom Kerridge

Thanks to his Dopamine Diet, Michelin-starred chef Tom Kerridge has shed eleven stone over the past three years. That's the same as 70 bags of sugar. If you're struggling with your weight and need to shift unhealthy pounds, this new approach makes it easy, and is guaranteed to make you feel happier in the process. Most people find it hard to keep to a long-term diet, but this one is different. The recipes feature ingredients that trigger the release of the 'happy hormone' dopamine in your brain, so it's a diet that will make you feel good! Tom's 'dopamine heroes' include dairy products such as double cream and yoghurt, good-quality meats including beef, chicken and turkey, and even chocolate. By ditching alcohol and starchy carbs in favour of plenty of protein, fresh fruit and veg, you will be eating meals that will help you shed the weight, whilst offering a satisfying intensity of flavour.Treats in store for Dopamine Dieters include spinach, bacon and mint soup; roasted onion salad with fried halloumi; shepherd's pie with creamy cauliflower topping; soy glazed cod with chilli, garlic and ginger; braised beef with horseradish; Chinese pork hot pot; and chocolate mousse with sesame almond biscuits. These are recipes that don't feel like diet food, and can be shared with friends and family. It worked for Tom and it can work for you. Give it a go! And lose weight the Dopamine Diet way.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Nonfiction, Reference, Nutrition, Food, Health

460 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 12, 2017

Reviews

[Pip · Rating 4 out of 5]

So super tasty but in true Michelin style, there are heaps of weird and wonderful (not stocked in lidl) ingredients. Cooking times aren't included and lots of the dishes take hours, in both prep and cooking time. Definitely worth it though if you have time - does NOT taste like diet food.

[Julieanne Thompson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book will almost certainly lead to weight loss and the food will drastically reduce insulin spikes because it is zero carb. Insulin, being the factor that drives glucose into cells. Once energy required by those cellular processes is used up left over glucose is converted to fat in storage compartments within the body. The diet is likely to drive participants into a state of ketosis and mobilise fat stores. Indeed, I lost 1kg after eating like this for a week. I have been a proponent of low carb lifestyles for some time, in rebellion to multi national food manufacturers who lace all our food with dopamine inducing rewards that are highly addictive and lacking in nutrition. These types of food choices are obesigenic.
In my opinion the book is not suited for New Zealand supermarkets and sourcing items such daikon and aubergine is difficult because they are not always readily available. Fortunately I usually have my own beef broth on hand and I believe this added quality and richness to the food. Having ones own stocks is crucial to these dishes. I cooked the following meals from Tom Kerridge's Dopamine Diet book.

Chicken and Coconut Curry P.128- minced meat pre-roasted is a new concept to me and I think it adds flavour and seals in the texture. This was a delightful surprise. I served it with my own chick pea curry spiced coated cauliflower and fried these in coconut oil as pakoras. My own addition to ensure my family had more than just a curry type slurry on thier plate.

Moussaka P. 132- again, this food was really flavoursome, pre roasting minced meat is a new concept to me and a little bit of extra work after a hard day.

Indian Spiced slow roasted chicken P. 210 this was great to feed a crowd. It looked impressive and tasted delicious.

Porky Bolognaise P.150 this dish was not pleasant at all, I found that pre-roasting the tomatoes left unsightly skins in the dish.

Spiced Lamb Shoulder with Curried Cauliflower P176 -this meal had the wow factor. the rub was simply divine, you know you are cooking with Michelin star recipes.

Beef Stroganoff P. 178- again another dish with lots of flavour, the creme fraiche and gherkins made it tasty with rich decadent flavours and mouth feel

Tom Kerridge asserts that dopamine centres in the brain can be rewarded and retrained with healthy food and I suspect he is correct, overall the work required to create the food was laborious and complicated for my busy household but a great week’s diversion from our usual fare. I recommend it as cookbook for your shelf to entertain friends while staying true to your dietary goals.

[Sharon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well as usual Tom Kerridge does not disappoint! Received this and could not put it down. Excellent descriptions and the recipes are set out easy and efficient with very good photos and tips. Keen to use this book a lot. Never have been disappointed in his recipes before so happy to add book.

[Book_nook_belle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love the recipes however a bit UKcentic. I can almost see the ingredients in the isles of the supermarkets in the UK, so readily available and cheap, but not so easy to get hold of and cheap in NZ :(

[Lydia Smith · Rating 2 out of 5]

You can watch my full review on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/5GhGr3OqZGw
This is Tom Kerridge’s low carb diet book, he’s lost a lot of weight doing a low carb keto style diet, and this is his cookbook to accompany that. I try and do low carb, some things I find easy to cut out; bread, pasta, potatoes, things like that; cake is a little harder. I’m always interested to try new recipes, I think there is a difficulty in finding good low carb recipes.

I didn’t love this book I’ll be honest, not just because some of the meals came out looking really gross, they also tasted a bit gross, so that’s not great. He seems to have some really overpowering flavours in a lot of his recipes, even when you’re making it you’re thinking, do we really need this much onion or this much vinegar, and then you eat it and you think no we really didn’t need that, it’s way too much and really overpowering, can’t taste anything else, which makes you wonder why you did a stupid overcomplicated recipe. And many of his recipes were properly overly complicated, that was another thing I didn’t like.

I do quite a lot of cooking and if I find recipes where there’s two, three ingredients that not only have I never used before, but that I’ve never even heard of – it’s a bit stupid! Some of them that I did do had really overcomplicated ways of doing things; where a normal person would just fry off some beef mince in a saucepan, he says no put it in the oven and roast it for half an hour and then break it up so it has the consistency of ground coffee; and it’s like – no, just fry off the mince, we haven’t got an extra half an hour to spare doing that pointless task.

Things that I did like in here was the moussaka, I thought that was really nice, and there was a beef chilli mince thing, that was really nice as well. And there was a bread, I think he called it a soda bread but it was like an almond loaf, with ground almonds, that was really nice, but pretty much everything else we have tried I wouldn’t try again. So, I’m not overly impressed with that.
You can watch my full review on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/5GhGr3OqZGw

[Patricia Ross · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting concept

The science behind the diet made sense and a lot of the recipes look and sound great. Might have to adapt the lamb recipes with another meat or protein as not my favourite.

[Morpheyy · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author is a Michelin starred chef, and his enthusiasm for his diet shines through every pre-recipe description. His occupation makes it doubly convincing that you just might be able to have the cake and eat it too. I've never come across a recipe book that's this much fun to read.

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was intreagued to read about Tom Kerridge's Dopamine diet journey - he's lost 11 stone over three years. He talks about his eating habits in a clear way that makes you think you need to give it a go. Some lovely recipes to try in this book too.

[Stuart · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Good introduction to Low Carb cooking

Some good recipes that can be added to if one or more aren’t eating low carb. Loved the baking section, especially as the recipes are gluten free. A bonus.

[Jan Duthie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting recipes although not always speedy if you are in a rush but worth the wait if you've got the time. Excellent book.

[Roseanne Robinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some good recipes but uses a lot of sugar alternatives. Quite long winded and lots of ingredients. Having said that, if you have the time, some really tasty stuff.
Not an everyday book

[Alana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing!

Finally a healthy eating plan I really think I can follow long term. Tasty recipes and something for everyone. No more cooking two different meals.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loads of fish so I’d have to find ways to tweak a lot of recipes

[Colette Brennan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovely recipes

[Cass Simpson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok, you follow the recipes in this book and you will definitely lose weight. However, you will also be deeply in debt and will have spent half your free time looking for obscure ingredients.

[Emma L Speake · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pork overload

Too many pork dishes, and too little in the way of everyday dishes. Read about the dopamine diet online instead.

[Zoe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Omelette take as long as a sandwich to make. Who new kale was edible after all. Its not a diet its a new way of sustainable loosing and keeping off weight for foodies.