Reckless refinement gives way to inner fulfilment

Anita Cheung Shuk-kwan is a hyper-health-conscious woman, as one would expect from the founder and director of i-Detox, a holistic health care centre in Central. Born and raised in Hong Kong, Cheung is evangelistic about everyone eating organic produce, incorporating more raw foods in their diet and leading a happy, fulfilling life.

She believes that mental health influences physical health and claims to have learned this from personal experience. Cheung was once the antithesis of a health fanatic: a fashionista who loved to smoke, drink and overeat. After a decade in the clothing industry, her mental and physical health prompted a life change. She started travelling, and in New York she enrolled at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. In 2005, she was certified a holistic health coach.

After several years as a wellness coach, she was convinced that Hongkongers wanted more than just coaching. To that end, in 2008 she established i-Detox, which integrated health consulting with a health products shop.

You were a senior executive in the fashion industry for more than a decade. So how did you make the transition to holistic and healthy living?

Towards my final years in the fashion industry, my health began to deteriorate. I was struggling to get out of bed of a morning, I had asthma and a nagging cough and wasn't sleeping very well. Looking back, I think I had a mild case of depression. So, I quit my job and travelled to Europe and New York to visit friends and to just relax and enjoy myself. Professionally, however, I wasn't sure what I wanted. Then one day in New York, I went into a health food shop and found a brochure on the Institute for Integrated Nutrition. That moment changed my life. It was there and then that I decided to listen to the voice in my heart and to enrol in one of the institute's programmes to become a health coach.

Exactly what are superfoods, and why are they so super?

Superfoods offer more value for money for the amount of calories and nutrition they contain. They are high in micro-nutrients versus macro-nutrients such as protein, fat and carbohydrates. Raw cacao is a superfood: for 100 grams, it has 95,500 orac [Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity units], 40 times more than blueberries, which have 2,400 orac. Orac is the measure for antioxidants, which neutralise free radicals, benefiting our health and preventing cancer.