Healthy Detox With Nosh

As a Yorkshire man, I don’t do ‘detox’, nor would I undertake a juice diet just to fit into a pair of jeans. In fact, if I didn’t have constant female supervision I’d be happy to eat sticks of butter wrapped in partridge meat all day.

Paradoxically, this behaviour makes me a perfect candidate to try a healthy eating programme. Cue Nosh, a wellbeing and detox venture that guides you through – and provides you with – healthy food and drink choices.

Founded by Geeta Sidhu-Robb, each of Nosh’s nutritionist-driven programmes are designed to help you with weight loss, allergies, fertility issues, illness or nutritional deficiencies. With several plans offering food delivered straight to your door, a quick browse of their website shows an array of packages filled with promise. However, I did still see evidence of more dubious regimes such as the ‘7lbs in 7 days’ weight loss plan. Although not a nutritionist myself, many reputable sources – such as the NHS (online) – suggest no more than 1-2lbs per week, so it does raise eyebrows.

Let’s not dwell on that though. I was far more interested in attending one of Nosh’s healthy eating cooking classes (beginner, intermediate or expert: currently £45-£85) held in Geeta’s own South Kensington kitchen, hosted by resident chef/nutritionist Tatu Bearcroft. On my visit, Tatu began with a vibrantly green spinach and parsley soup from the beginner’s menu. Minutes to make, and suitably tasty, it was a pleasant start, and well suited to the less experienced cook. However, even more pleasing than the soup was the information that Tatu conveyed throughout.

‘Your medicine cabinet should be your kitchen,’ she said, beginning what was to be quite a masterclass in dietary deficiencies, overindulgences and the nutritional contents of each ingredient. Parsley? Good for the heart. Garlic? A potent anti-inflammatory… and so on. Knowledge often went quite deep and, as a scientist whose day job revolves around heart research, I was particularly impressed with her understanding of the heart and its associated nutritional dependencies.

But back to the food. Our main course consisted of chicken in a chermoulla sauce (a mix of herbs and spices), served with roasted vegetables and quinoa tabouleh. Everything was full of flavour – albeit a little too heavy on the cloves for my taste – and a satisfying meal whether you are health-conscious or not. In fact, the only real disappointment came with the last course. Taken from the expert menu, it consisted of chopped fresh fruit, coconut cream, herbs and nuts. By all means healthy, but rather unimaginative and over-simplified for a budding ‘expert’ student.

Despite what my fellow attendees said, I don’t believe the cooking courses will give you new ideas for dinner parties as the flavours and wow factor of each dish didn’t match up to other ‘full fat’ courses I have been to. To be fair though, I’m not sure that is Nosh’s intention; it is more about a healthy and personal approach to everyday food, and in that sense I can fully recommend the cooking classes. Not for the recipes, per se, but for the food education aspect which I found fascinating, enlightening and extremely commendable.

Nosh Detox
14 Neville Terrace
South Kensington
SW7 3AT

Tel: 0845 257 6674