When Dominique Ludwig thinks back to her early and mid-20s, she winces when she recalls the frozen pizza, Diet Coke and orange squash that would routinely form part of her diet. She may have taken a degree in home economics, followed by a master’s degree in nutrition at King’s College London, but that didn’t make her immune to the lure of junk food.
At the time she was on a low student income, so loading her fridge with lots of cheap and filling foods seemed the obvious way to get by. “On my course we were studying deficiency diseases in the developing world, cardiovascular disease and cancer, but nothing about the major health issues of our time in our own society like obesity, inflammation and type 2 diabetes,” she says. “We were taught that carbohydrates were good, but there was no differentiation between good and bad carbs. And fats were viewed as universally bad – again no differentiation between different types of fat. Drinking diet drinks with zero calories seemed like a smart move – it was a ‘free’ treat – and there was an awful lot of white toast going on.”
Ludwig, now 55, says that she did eat vegetables, too, and was sporty, training for triathlons, but looking back she sees the clear link between what she was putting in her body and the fact that a lot of the time she felt under par, lacking in energy and suffering from coughs, colds and sore throats. “I definitely wasn’t thriving,” she says.
She began to take her diet seriously and read more about nutrition when she became pregnant at 28. After her second child, in her early 30s, she studied for a further three and a half years for a nutritional diploma. “I realised the connections between biochemical reactions in the body, how they’re affected by what we eat, and the progression of certain diseases. That was a life-changing moment for me, like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle falling into place,” she says.
Helping thousands to turn their diet around
In the 20 years since then, Ludwig estimates she has helped more than a thousand clients through her private clinic – Oscar winners and captains of industry among them, although Ludwig is far too discreet to name them (“It’s like being a doctor: totally confidential”). That’s not to mention the thousands more on Renew Reset Recharge – her 28-day dietary overhaul programme – whom she supports on group Zoom calls.
Ludwig aims to turn complex nutrition into simple, actionable advice for her clients
Then there are the 758,000 who follow the advice she shares on Instagram. “I think what people like about my advice is that I make it simple and practical. I translate complex nutrition, not only into something everyone understands, but into something they can go away and do,” says Ludwig. “There are little things I suggest that can change people’s lives quickly. This morning I posted on Instagram about how you can put olive oil in the fridge and then spread it like butter. That’s been seen by 90,000 people, and it’s only 11am. Hundreds of people are commenting they’re blown away by what an easy change that is to make.”
Those visiting Ludwig for one-to-one appointments in her clinic often present with multiple and complex health issues, including gut and autoimmune conditions, and she describes it as “being like Sherlock” working out the root of their problems and how to help them. Others, meanwhile, like most of those signing up for the group programme and following her on Instagram, want to understand how to lose weight and keep it off.
“I’d say 90 per cent of my clients and 90 per cent of people who follow me are female,” says Ludwig. “They are often tired and feeling like they can’t lose the extra weight they’re carrying. Their life is driven by food, cravings, and guilt about food. They’ve often got bad digestion, their sleep’s not good, their hormones are out of whack. They know what they’re meant to be doing and are trying hard – they’re not eating doughnuts all day – but there’s a great deal of confusion.” It was seeing this confusion that sparked her to write her new book, No-Nonsense Nutrition.
The triple 30 principle
The book is based on Ludwig’s key principle, which she calls the triple 30. “This is something I came up with about two years ago. It’s based on eating 30 grams of protein per meal, 30 grams of fibre a day, and 30 or more different plants a week. If you can do that, you’ve tick-boxed all your body’s needs.”
Ludwig’s recipes are built around delivering the triple 30, though the biggest takeaway she hopes readers will glean from the book and her social media is simpler still: the importance of consuming three proper meals a day and ditching snacks. “Most people eat about 500 calories a day of snacks, most of which are not particularly good quality and often full of sugar,” she says. “Eating three balanced meals a day and stopping snacking is the most powerful nutrition tool that I can teach people. If you do that, you’ll never feel hungry, your body will be nourished and you’ll feel amazing.”
She explains that satiety receptors in the body respond best to natural whole foods that are high in protein and fibre and that take longer to digest than, say, a croissant and hot chocolate “that aren’t difficult to digest, whizzing through the stomach and leaving you hungry a couple of hours later”.
‘Get it right most of the time’
Understanding that “nobody likes a militant nutritionist”, Ludwig emphasises getting it right most of the time rather than banning any foods altogether. “Some people say to me, ‘You’re so lucky to be in good shape.’ But it isn’t luck. If I go out for dinner, I might choose soup to start, then fish with vegetables and new potatoes, and I won’t have pudding. Someone else might opt for baked Camembert, followed by steak pie, and then sticky toffee pudding. So, it’s about making different choices. Yes, sometimes I’ll choose the calamari rings because I really want them, but if you get it right most of the time, you can get away with that.”
Ludwig says that ‘getting it right most of the time’ can still have a transformative effect on our health – John Lawrence
And the reward for getting it right most of the time could be life-changing, says Ludwig. Common benefits mentioned by those completing her Renew Reset Recharge programme, she says, include reduced cravings, increased energy, better sleep, better digestion and improved mood. “We also regularly see a reduction in pain and inflammation,” she adds.
In some cases, Ludwig has witnessed incredible transformations with clients in only a few weeks of coming to see her. “I had one man who had costochondritis” – inflammation of the cartilage in his chest – “and he just wrote me a long letter saying it’s completely gone, as has his chronic pain – he’s sleeping better, his brain fog’s gone and he’s even taken up triathlon.”
Similarly, a teacher who had debilitating fibromyalgia and turned to Ludwig for help has experienced dramatic improvements. “She was in so much pain that she was going to bed at 5pm every day exhausted. I changed her diet, cutting out sugar and ultra-processed food and introducing three balanced meals a day. After two weeks she came flying through the door saying the pain was completely gone, she’d lost weight and was full of energy.”
Feeling healthy is a reward
With such dramatic results possible, Ludwig wishes many needing to shed a few stone would consider following her guidance rather than opting for fat jabs. “There are people who have struggled with obesity all their lives and who have type 2 diabetes for whom GLP-1s are a lifeline,” she says. “However, there are a lot of people who are seeing these medications as a quick fix, and they’re not. You have to go on them with nutrition in mind and making lifestyle adjustments. I would say, if you’ve got two to three stone to lose, please try a diet approach first.”
As for Ludwig herself, she’s now in far better health than she was in her 20s. She sailed through the menopause compared with her friends and hasn’t had a cold in years: “I take what I eat seriously and that’s the reward.”
No-Nonsense Nutrition, £26, published by Bluebird, is out now
Dominique Ludwig’s 3 things you can do today to start eating better
