Chelsea Winter hasn’t done a major media interview in a year and that’s been a conscious choice for the best-selling cookbook author, who won the hearts of New Zealanders when she won Masterchef in 2012.
Two years ago, Winter, 37, became mum to her son Sky. That was a catalyst for some big lifestyle changes for both herself and her partner Douglas Renall, including the adoption of a plant-based diet and taking time out for her family and mental health.
Today, Winter is positively radiant with wellbeing and admits she’s never felt better – mentally, spiritually and physically.
Her journey to wellness began before Sky was conceived, when she was diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome and told there wasn’t a cure.
“I went on the pill as a teenager because of my skin and I was basically too scared to come off it, and I regret that now,” Winter says. “I came off it after 15 years when I felt ready to have a baby but I didn’t really have a period for a couple of years.
“I tried acupuncture and herbs. I went to naturopaths. I got told to eat more eggs and put on weight. And after a while I thought ‘how can there be no cure for this?’”
She began doing her own research and read that the female reproduction system runs off the sugars in fruit. So she ramped up her fruit uptake and stopped eating eggs (the last animal product to go before cheese). “Five years ago, I didn’t eat any fruit. All I ate was meat, cheese and dairy. I’m just telling the truth. In my weekly shop, there was no fruit, maybe some bananas,” she admits.
“So, I ate all this fruit and honestly, within a few months, probably six months, I had a bang on 28 day cycle with a full healthy flow. And for me that’s all the evidence I need that you can heal yourself from a lot of things. I’ve gone on to have a child, a very healthy pregnancy and a really quick home birth and honestly I really think my diet has a huge part to play in all that.”
Becoming plant-based
Living the good life in the Bay of Plenty, Winter and Renall have embraced plant-based eating and reduced their alcohol intake to practically nil.
Since the switch Winter says she feels better on a holistic level. And that inspired her to produce her seventh cookbook, Supergood, which is also her first plant-based cookbook.
While one might wager that the queen of comfort food is just jumping on the plant-based bandwagon, the complete opposite is true.
Winter’s conversion to
