Diet Diary: Sophia Myles
Is the 28 year-old British ACTRESS’s diet more healthy now she lives in LA? ELLE asks a nutritionist for her OPINION on Sophia’s weekly food intake
MONDAY I started thinking more about what I put into my body when I moved to LA last year. For hreaktast, I have wholegrain and sesame-seed cereal with skimmed milk – and a peppermint tea. Lunch is a grilled chicken salad with water. I’m a size eight, but when I gave up smoking three months ago I started eating more and put on a stone. I hired a personal trainer and try to eat more healthily now. Dinner is seared tuna, crispy onion and steamed spinach with miso soup.
TUESDAY I go to a juice bar that Anna Friel introduced me to for a wheatgrass shot with cayenne pepper and ginger, plus an egg-white omelette with tomato. Lunch is a banana and pear with no-fat yoghurt. I’m in-between jobs, so I can have a light lunch – when I’m working I need to keep my energy up. For my role in US vampire TV show Moonlight, I worked through the night – a challenge for my body and my eating patterns. Dinner is blackened cod teriyaki, brown rice and steamed vegetables.
WEDNESDAY Breakfast is porridge with a banana and maple syrup, plus tea with skimmed milk. For lunch I eat a large green salad with grilled vegetables. On my personal trainer’s advice, I snack on fruit and nuts between meals to maintain my blood sugar levels. Dinner is grilled chicken, broccoli and mushrooms sautéed with garlic, olive oil and chilli. I gave up drinking alcohol to be healthier when I moved to LA.
THURSDAY For breakfast I have a pear with eight almonds and a peppermint tea. I don’t crave sugar with it, which is great as I’m trying to reduce my sugar intake. When I was younger I never watched what I ate and still looked like a twig. Now, I’m more conscious of my body and what I eat. Lunch is smoked salmon, egg white and broccoli scramble; dinner is a grilled prawn salad.
FRIDAY I have a smoothie with banana, orange, strawberries, blueberries and no-fact yoghurt for breakfast. For lunch I have a spinach salad with feta and pine nuts. Dinner is steak and chips. My agent once called me ‘the carbohydrate queen’. I miss British chips, but I adore the fries here, too.
SATURDAY Breakfast is All-Bran with skimmed milk and a water as I’m trying to cut out caffeine. Lunch is vegetable soup, dinner is grilled tuna steak with salad. I enjoy eating healthily, but I have no desire to be a size zero. The weight issues surrounding actresses are ridiculous.
SUNDAY For breakfast I have a banana with no-fat yoghurt and a peppermint tea. Lunch is a mozzarella, tomato and avocado sandwich on wholewheat bread. Tonight I eat out and have yellowtail sashimi with prawns, miso soup and a green salad. LA restaurants are great, but the portions are so big, which was a shock when I moved here.
NUTRITIONIST JANINE FAHRI’S VERDICT
Sophia should try not to eliminate carbohydrates completely from her diet because she needs them to sustain her energy. For each meal, her plate should have protein (such as red meat or an oily fish mackerel) the size of a deck of cards and carbohydrates the size of a tennis ball, filling the rest of the plate with vegetables. If Sophia loves eating chips then she can have them occasionally, avoiding deep-fat fried ones. A healthier chip can be made by cutting potatoes into wedges and then oven-baking them with the skin on, which locks in the vitamin C and fibre. She should substitute egg whites, which have little nutritional value, for the yolk, which is packed with iron and fat-soluble vitamins. Drinking water is great for someone who has given up smoking; it will assist toxin elimination and help reduce cravings. Drinking peppermint tea is another plus because it aids digestion.
SOPHIA’S RESPONSE
I was unaware the egg whites had little nutritional value, so I’ll take Janine’s advice on board. I’ll keep drinking the peppermint tea because I have noticed a positive difference. I already eat tuna, but I’ll try to increase my oily fish intake. I’m glad Janine doesn’t advise depriving myself of chips completely.