Like all the best spiritual leaders, this diet theologian will leave you trembling

Eat. Nourish. Glow., the healthy eating book currently number one in at least three Amazon categories, came to my attention recently while I was in a stew of self-loathing over an out-of-control cake habit. Realising the time was ripe for a new regime, the feature in The Times spoke to me instantly. One Amelia Freer, pictured smiling and trim-wasted amid strawberries, was advocating a new approach to eating.

I had thought, as an armchair nutritionist and sometime dieter since my early teens, that I’d seen every new way of eating under the sun. Especially in recent years, as the mantra of ‘good fats’ has come to drown out all others (apart, of course, from fat-shunning, fruit-courting Weight Watchers, which still enjoys market domination). Could this blue smocked, fresh-faced Freer be offering new hope, even to those of us who know full well the peril of sugar and carbs but have still managed to fall foul of diets composed of avocados and macadamias? I instantly downloaded the e-book onto my ipad.