My Life: Elizabeth Peyton-Jones

It was while living and working in Russia that Elizabeth Peyton-Jones first got interested in the power of food on our health.

“I had been in Russia a couple of years working as an archivist and I became really quite ill,” recalls Peyton-Jones who now splits her time between London and her husband Sir Robert McAlpine’s Yorkshire mansion.

“I rang a Russian friend of mine and told her I needed some antibiotics, she appeared with two bags of shopping and a bottle of vodka. I told her I wasn’t in any mood for a party but I didn’t have the energy to argue.”

Rather than a party, her friend brewed up a number of herbal concoctions which she made Peyton-Jones imbibe, including gargling with turmeric and salt for her sore throat. The vodka was to bring down her temperature.

“I woke up the next day and felt so much better. I couldn’t quite believe what had gone on. I couldn’t understand how food was making me feel better.”

When she returned to the UK a few years later she studied to be a naturopath, becoming a master herbalist.

“I also started to realise that the brain is very important in recovery. If you are angry or have deep held beliefs that are negative they are all against you health-wise. I started doing spiritual development and it all became part of my process.”

Following an article in a national newspaper, she couldn’t believe the response.

“People had always regarded me as somewhat strange,” she recalls.

“But after the article appeared the response was phenomenal. I got 2,000 emails and the telephone line just couldn’t cope with the amount of calls and crashed. It was overwhelming, I had my diary filled for more than a year.”

Elizabeth realised there was no way she could treat everybody and so she set about writing a book.

Eat Yourself Young was a massive success and its author was suddenly much in demand.

“We have lost touch with what our bodies are telling us,” she explains. “It you get daily migraines your body is trying to tell you you are filling it with something that isn’t suiting it. We shouldn’t ignore what we are being told. Eating the wrong things is what ages us on the inside and the outside.”

After the huge success of the book Peyton-Jones was approached by Channel 4 to appear on How to Eat Yourself Young. The response was again phenomenal.

“I believe the faddy diet is over. People’s attitudes to food and health is changing. What I provide for people is a life-long plan. It doesn’t take much, but you do need to get your head around it. But the benefits are so enormous that people get hooked.”

The main idea is to keep the body in balance between acid and alkaline. And she definitely has some no-nos.

“Sugar,” she says with feeling. “I avoid all processed sugar. I do a lot of juicing and have my own range of health bars which contain natural fruit sugars, but there is nothing worse than man-made sugar. Why would you want to fill your body with chemicals? It is addictive as well.”

As well as running clinics and cooking courses in London and Yorkshire,and developing her own food brand, Peyton-Jones gives lectures and is appearing at Malton Food Lovers Market on Saturday.

Twitter@ypcscott

Elizabeth’s advice at food market

Elizabeth Peyton-Jones has featured in the highly successful TV programme How Not to Get Old. A fully-qualified naturopath and herbalist, Elizabeth’s London clinic boasts a clutch of celebrity clients, including actress Thandie Newton. She will be at Malton Food Lovers Market on Saturday sharing her advice and expertise, demonstrating how to prepare simple and nutritious foods and signing copies of her book, Eat Yourself Young.