The ultimate anti-cellulite food combination: oily fish, vegetables, black rice and green tea

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• What is the best anti-cellulite meal?

• The best cellulite fighting foods for your thighs and entire body

• The best anti-cellulite food groups

• The ultimate anti-cellulite meal

• Poached wild alaskan salmon • Wakame seaweed • Lime juice, pickled ginger, coriander and pink pepper sauce • Decaf sencha green tea • Black rice • And bilberries for dessert

• Substitutes and variations

• Check our professional consultancy in radiofrequency, ultrasound cavitation, cellulite and skin tightening

What is the best anti-cellulite meal?

• The perfect anti-cellulite food combo should be one that provides plenty of anti-cellulite nutrients (omega-3 fatty acids, lean protein, polyphenols, carotenoids, fibre, minerals and vitamins), reduced calories - and cooked at relatively low temperatures

• An ideal meal could be wild salmon, seaweed, herbal sauce, black rice and green tea - with bilberries as dessert

Full analysis follows below.

The best cellulite fighting foods for your thighs and entire body

These are two common questions at the clinic:

• What are the best anti-cellulite foods?

• What is an example of the perfect anti-cellulite meal?

Which are the best anti-cellulite food groups

To answer the first question, I would say that the following foods groups are ideal to keep your thighs smooth and firm - and your entire body healthy:

• Oily fish, rich in omega-3 and protein: we all need more omega-3 (especially HUFA omega-3 coming from oily fish or vegan alternatives) and much less omega-6

• All lean, high-protein foods: skin is protein, without protein in your diet, you will inevitably lose skin

• All vegetables are rich in fibre, vitamins, minerals and polyphenols and carotenoids (what people call “antioxidants”): skin and blood vessels need polyphenols and carotenoids and your gut needs fibre

• Most herbs and spices: rich in polyphenols and carotenoids

• Drinks, such as green tea, decaf coffee and cocoa: rich in polyphenols

• All colourful complex carbs that contain not just starch but also fibre and high amounts of polyphenols

• All berry fruits: very rich in polyphenols, fibre, minerals and vitamins

• Less fat, especially saturated / omega-6 oils / fried / hydrogenated oils

• Less starches

• Less alcohol

• No sugar

(More on the ideal anti-cellulite diet here.)

An example of the ultimate anti-cellulite meal

To answer the second question, I would have to put in the meal as many elements on the above list as possible, i.e. vegetables, protein, oily fish, herbs/spices, antioxidant-rich carbs and berries for dessert.

Here are is an idealised example of the ultimate anti-cellulite meal, according to the above principles, with suggestions of how to vary it.

Poached wild alaskan salmon • Wakame seaweed • Lime juice, pickled ginger, coriander and pink pepper sauce • Decaf sencha green tea • Black rice • And bilberries for dessert

In this idealised, leg-friendly, cellulite-fighting meal:

• Poached wild alaskan salmon will provide a high amount of omega-3 HUFA (highly unsaturated fatty acids), namely EPA and DHA, with very little omega-6 PUFA

• Wakame seaweed will provide carotenoids (such as fucoxanthin), iodine and lots of fibre

• A sauce made with lime juice, pickled ginger, coriander and pink pepper will provide further polyphenols, carotenoids and vitamins - and lots of taste!

• Decaf sencha green tea will provide a very high amount of EGCG, the active ingredient in green tea, without the caffeine which can cause problems in some people

• Black rice will provide some carbs, fibre and a very, very high concentration of polyphenols

• Bilberries (fresh or dried) as a dessert, rich in polyphenols

Substitutes and variations

Now this meal sounds - and is - too expensive and exotic. But then again, anything “ultimate” is expensive and sometimes exotic.

However, you can always substitute more difficult to find or expensive ingredients with other, easily sourced ones:

• Instead of wild alaskan salmon you can use fresh (not tinned): sardines, anchovies, normal salmon (less HUFAs than normal salmon and more omega-6s), halibut or mackerel. You may even use tuna, sea bass or any other fish (you will get very little omega-3 from those fish, though).

  • Instead of poaching you can grill or cook in the oven for a few minutes. But please don’t fry / char the fish or any other component of the meal (charring and frying are not very leg / heart friendly)

  • And don’t even thing of horrible ‘sous vide’, which contaminates food with ghastly microplastics

• Instead of wakame use any other seaweed or vegetables, such as broccoli, red cabbage, green beans, lettuce or any other fresh veg/salad

• Instead of lime juice you can use lemon juice or apple/wine/rice vinegar (but not balsamic vinegar, obviously)

• Instead of pickled ginger, coriander and pink pepper you can use parsley, basil, dill, fennel, any other herb, chilli peppers etc

• Instead of decaf sencha green tea, you can use the caffeinated equivalent, i.e. normal sencha green tea, matcha tea, any other green tea (or even red/white/black tea but you will get less polyphenols). You may also have a normal or decaf coffee at the end of the meal. Or just plain water - sparkling or still (no, sparkling water doesn’t cause cellulite). Also, you may have a gotu kola tea, which is even better than decaf sencha tea - although it may be a bit too herbal for some people or difficult to source.

• Instead of black rice, you can have black quinoa, red quinoa or red rice (or even brown rice, but you will get no polyphenols). You may also have black or red beans, which are also high in polyphenols and contain extra protein too.

• Instead of bilberries (which contain twice as much polyphenols as blueberries), you can always have blueberries, blackberries, raspberries etc (or even other non-sweet fruit, but you will get less polyphenols).

Below are pics of three examples of some of the food components mentioned above, rich in omega-3, polyphenols, carotenoids, vitamins, fibre and/or protein.

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