With Simon Rhodes, of the Lobster Pot Fishmongers in Wood Street Food Hall

So, having shopped ‘til you’ve dropped, stressed yourself silly about the right presents and cards to be sent and drank and eaten for England, now is the time to start the New Year with a healthy and positive attitude.

Obviously with us all feeling a little, shall we say, overfed, the right kind of food is important to kickstart the new you.

It was encouraging to see that many of our customers were trying something new this Christmas, such as lobster, turbot, halibut and salmon, but we as a nation have a long way to go to making fish a natural part of our healthy diet.

Eating fish at least twice a week can reduce cholesterol and improve your joints, energy levels and brain power, not to mention that it can help with weight loss.

Think also about our children, what do they eat? Believe it or not children generally love fish, but as an easy option we tend to give them foods high in sugars and salts because they are readily available and this information is cleverly hidden and cunningly advertised.

The result of years of this fast food culture is that we are the second most obese nation in the world, dentistry is a booming business, our NHS is overstretched with health issues, and more people now have special dietary needs than ever before.

It is important for us all to take the production and information on our foods more seriously. We should be able to tell easily where our food has come from, how far it has travelled and what additives have been used.

Don’t be fooled by cheap foods and remember that supermarkets only want to sell you foods with the highest profit margin.

Jamie Oliver and Jimmy Doherty’s Channel 4 Food Fight programme highlighted the fact that ugly vegetables were being rejected by the tonne by supermarkets, just because they didn’t look good.

The two guys did a survey and overwhelmingly discovered that customers were quite happy with carrots with three legs!

So why not try some of our lovely ‘ugly’ fish? Hake, for instance, has a wonderful sweet taste similar to cod.

Try hake fillets dusted with flour and gently fried in butter with fresh sage and a few capers – beautiful.