Glen Matlock 

What’s in your basket?

The former Sex Pistol is a big fan of couscous and steak. But even hardened rock 'n'rollers need their veggies, says Dr John Briffa.
  
  


I make a mean couscous. Or steak and Guinness pie, properly from scratch. I do wish, though, that at the top of the recipe, they would write, 'First do the washing up.' I always find that I haven't got anything to cook in halfway through.

When I'm touring cooking goes right out the window and I have to make do with what I find, which often ends up being chips, chips, and more chips. I do try to shop at organic places that I find on the road. I'm not 100 per cent organic, but I try - especially when I'm cooking for my two boys. That said, my eldest, who is 11, has just decided that he doesn't like vegetables, so my wife has taken to pureeing them and secreting them in soups. They're little rock and rollers my boys.

I don't go in for breakfast, so it's just cigarettes and coffee until 11 when I go out and get a baguette, usually mozzarella and tomato. If the family are all about, I might do a 'grill-up' for brunch with organic sausages and eggs. In the evening we have couscous and chops, or my special pasta. I make an excellent sauce with organic onions, black olives, tomatoes, garlic and Parma ham, and I finish it off with fresh grated parmesan. I get organic stuff from Dave Hill, who used to manage the Pretenders and has an organic shop nearby. I've got quite varied taste these days, but it was really Malcolm McLaren who educated us all about food at the beginning of the Sex Pistols.

I've spent a lot of time in Japan over the years. I do like Kobe beef when they serve it sliced and raw and you cook it for yourself at the table in a cauldron. I like all kinds of sashimi but I did have one ridiculous meal after a gig in Japan when they gave us a sunfish head, butterflied, with two eyes staring up at us. Hotel food is always disappointing, too. The posher the place, the worse the food. I hate it when hotels make club sandwiches and because they use three slices of bread they reckon they can charge four times as much. So I like it when I can come home and get haddock and chips from the Seashell in Lisson Grove, London - I saw Tony Blackburn there last week. Very rock and roll.

Organic eggs and sausages

It's not the fat in sausages that concerns me, but the high levels of salt, along with the possible presence of the preservative sodium nitrite, which has links with stomach cancer. Organic eggs are essentially free of such substances, so in the long term I reckon Glen would be better off having more egg and less sausage.

Steak and Guinness pie

Not a bad dish but, like the couscous and chops, one that might benefit from being accompanied by some veggies. Glen might be interested to know that when it comes to getting kids to eat healthily, the research suggests it helps to lead by example.

Sashimi

Of all the fish and seafood you can eat, probably the most healthy are those rich in the so-called omega-3 fats which help to keep heart disease, depression and dementia at bay. Tuna is commonly used in sashimi, but its omega-3 content is quite low compared to fish such as salmon, trout, mackerel and sardine. Also, tuna is one of the species of fish that tends to be most contaminated with the heavy metal mercury.

Club sandwiches

Bread's starchy carbs tend to cause disruptions in the body's chemistry which have been linked with a variety of health issues. Sandwiches are not particularly healthy - less bread and a side-salad would be a healthier option for Glen.

Kobe beef

The eating of animal foods rich in fat like this is often said to be a risk factor for heart disease. However, in the most comprehensive study to date on the risk factors for heart attack (the Interheart study published this year in the Lancet), animal fat wasn't even mentioned. I have no beef with Glen's love of this sort of food.

Coffee

Caffeine has addictive potential, and habitual users can be prone to withdrawal symptoms, including fatigue, headaches and mood change. Recent research suggests that as little as one cup a day can set up the potential for this. There's a good chance that Glen's caffeine-fuelled mornings reflect his body's need for a fix.

Haddock and chips

While the fish in this meal is relatively healthy, the batter that surrounds it and the mound of chips that it will come with are not. For the best health, fish and chip suppers are definitely worth limiting to occasional treats for Glen and his family.

Mozzarella and tomato baguette

By having nothing other than liquid first thing in the morning, Glen feels the need to fill up on this starchy load once the hunger bites. He'd be better off snacking on fresh or dried fruit and raw nuts throughout the morning to help keep the desire for bread at bay.

Pasta and sauce

Quite low in nutritional value, pasta tends to give rise to the biochemical imbalance that predisposes to problems such as weight gain, diabetes and heart disease. Wholewheat pasta gives a more tempered release of sugar into the system.

Couscous and chops

Couscous has a nutritional profile similar to that of pasta. Although the high-protein chops will help balance the biochemical destabilising effects of the couscous, I do think this meal could do with the addition of some fresh vegetables.

 

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