She embarked on a lifestyle overhaul eight years ago, after her mother died, and went from a size 16 to a size 8 in the process.
And recovering alcoholic Davinia Taylor, 43, credited her three stone weight loss to ‘biohacking,’ during an appearance on Friday’s instalment of This Morning, and insisted: ‘You don’t count calories you’ve gotta count chemicals!’
The former Hollyoaks actress – who played Jude Cunningham in the Channel 4 soap – also claimed that vegetable oil makes you depressed, while on the show promoting her new book: ‘It’s Not A Diet.’
Biohacking! Davinia Taylor, 43, credited her three stone weight loss to ‘biohacking,’ during an appearance on Friday’s instalment of This Morning
Explaining to hosts Dermot O’Leary and Alison Hammond what her diet entails, Davinia said: ‘You don’t count calories, you’ve gotta count chemicals. What I’ve done over the years is… because I eat on depression…
‘When I’m upset or stressed I reach for carbohydrates, and that’s a form of biohacking. But basically, you’re trying to hack into your hormones to boost your mood.
‘And I was doing that after my mum diet, constantly, because I gave up drinking 13 years ago, so I knew I couldn’t go to that. So I turned to carbohydrates and sugars and pizza and everything… And I couldn’t stop.
‘But what I didn’t realise was, the ingredients in there – a few of them – were really triggering me to be even more depressed.
Before and after: Davinia often shares pictures of her progress on Instagram while encouraging fans to look at their own diet and fitness habits
Chemicals? Explaining to hosts Dermot O’Leary and Alison Hammond what her diet entails, Davinia insisted: ‘You don’t count calories you’ve gotta count chemicals!’
What? The actress – who played Jude Cunningham in Hollyoaks – also claimed that vegetable oil makes you depressed, while on the show to promote her new book: ‘It’s Not A Diet’
‘And the one I found out – more than sugar would you believe – is that vegetable oil and seed oil actually makes you depressed. It’s not meant to be in our diet but it’s everywhere.
‘And when I cut that out, my body started functioning better. And I could metabolise the food I was storing and get rid of it… And then improve my mood and start exercising.’
Davinia explained that her new lifestyle began when she went to see doctors who told her that she was ‘borderline obese’ and needed to moderate her diet.
‘Me, as a former alcoholic, was like “yeah okay”,’ laughed the actress at the suggestion of moderating her intake, before revealing that she can’t have just ‘one pringle’ but will end up having the entire packet.
Visible change: She embarked on a lifestyle overhaul eight years ago, after her mother died, and went from a size 16 to a size 8 in the process (Pictured left in 2004)
She continued, speaking about crisps: ‘They’ve actually been designed by mathematicians not dietitians, and they have an equation called the bliss point, which triggers chemicals in your brain so you have to eat more.
‘They’re owned by about five major companies worldwide and they make these products – they’re not food – and basically it makes us all into complete lunatics around these products. You just can’t stop eating.’
Divinia explained that she’s changed her ‘gut microbiome’ and has now become ‘metabolically flexible,’ which means she’s now able to have just one slice of pizza, whereas before she would have ‘eaten pizza out of the bin’.
Asked how people watching can start biohacking, the soap star suggested: ‘You can do little things like cold showers that change your hormones. My mantra is: “feed the brain and the body will follow”.
Throwback: The actress is best known for playing Jude Cunningham in Channel 4 soap Hollyoaks (Pictured in 1998)
‘I get up every morning and I feed my brain with fat, not sugar, because sugar triggers me. I put coconut oil in my coffee. It’s called MCT oil – it’s a medium change hyglicoride. It shoots up to your brain and it will power your brain with fat.
‘Your brain is 70 percent fat, and fat is its preferred fuel – not sugar. It sustains it longer, so you don’t get a peak and trough.’
Davinia also revealed that if she has toast or croissants in the morning, she craves more food quickly. Instead, the actress has bacon and eggs every day but won’t have granola, because it’s not an ‘ancient food.’
Works for her! Divinia explained that she’s changed her ‘gut microbiome’ and has now become ‘metabolically flexible’ so she’s now able to have just one slice of pizza (Pictured right in 2004)
What? ‘And the one I found out, more than sugar, would you believe, is vegetable oil and seed oil actually makes you depressed’ said Davinia
She elaborated: ‘Sunflower oil – or rapeseed oil as we call it here – was actually manufactured in the 50s to clean farmyard machinery, and in the USA they decided it should become sold for money to make a secondary income for farmers.
‘As soon as I have it, I’m so in tune with my body, that I feel a dip. I always cook in butter. Never get spreadable butter – it’s got sunflower oil in. This stuff penetrates your cells it causes cellular damage.
Asked to explain biohacking, Davinia said: ‘If you can, in the morning go outside without your sunglasses on.
‘Take your sunglasses off. The natural sunlight – the blue light in the morning will hit your retina so your body knows when to start pumping out the sleep hormones.’
Ancient food problems: The actress has bacon and eggs every day but won’t have granola, because it’s not an ‘ancient food’