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but different kinds of grilled meat, accompanied by one green vegetable or another, the World was beginning to seem a rather boring place. But - the regime was clearly working. Demonstrably so. In which case, the way to proceed was to take the low-carb principle and apply it to a rather more sophisticated gastronomic palette than the Atkins people had done.

And so, over time, I did exactly that.

And the result is the following set of guidelines:

- Replace sugar with Splenda in your cooking. In things like sauces, where the sugar is providing only sweetness, and has no 'structural' work to do, this can be a complete substitution; and in baking, where the sugar has the dual role of sweetness and texture, then replace half of the prescribed amount of sugar with Splenda. (I'm not merely banging the drum for a branded product here - the fact is that at present Splenda is the only artificial sweetener I know of that retains its sweetness during cooking......if anybody knows of any others, I'd be happy to hear of them)

- Remove Potatoes from the menu entirely. They can easily be replaced with other vegetables - Turnip gratin, for example, is just as delicious, and much lower in carbohydrates than the Potato version; Pure of Broccoli with Parmesan and Garlic works just as well as mashed Potato, in many dishes; and in fact, pured Cauliflower is almost indistinguishable from mashed Potato , even if you use it in something like Cottage Pie....

- Eschew bread in any form whatsoever. No exceptions.

- Replace Shortcrust or Puff pastry with Phyllo, which has only negligible flour content. (in fact, a few days ago, in making a Quince & Pear tart for dessert, I used Pte Sable, unusually, and found the result incongruously heavy; I've got too used to the crisp lightness of Phyllo tart shells in comparison....)

- Only serve pasta and risotto rarely (it's a bit of a challenge that one, but they're both carb-heavy; so neither of them more than once a fortnight, say)

- Avoid rice in general, and try not to use flour in any significant quantities (often, in desserts, you'll find that flour can be substituted with ground almonds, which are much more dietarily sound)

- Nothing deep-fried. And in general, use a light touch when cooking with Oil in any form.

- Temper the intake of alcohol; at the start of this year, we moved from a routine where drinks pre-, post and during dinner had been the norm to a routine where consumption of alcohol became something one positively chose to do on occasion, rather than the general default mode (it was surprisingly easy to do, and had a phenomenal effect! I'm now on the last hole on the belt in my jeans....)

And the end result of all of the above has been so successful, that it allows things like pasta, risotto, ice-cream, sorbet, biscuits and cake to make a welcome reappearance on the menu - as long as it's only irregularly, and doesn't become the thoughtless norm.

Having said all of which, I'm off to get on with Tonight's Dinner:

Individual Haddock Souffls.

Boeuf Stroganoff.

Passion Fruit Tarts.

Learn more about this author, 'Pomiane'.
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