Tag Archives: Healthy diet

January 13, 2017

WHAT TO EAT TO BEAT THAT COLD!

cold

Diet is the first port of call in the fight to stay healthy, and prevention is better than cure. Here are my top tips to keeping your immune system strong throughout the cold season:

  • Fill up on a rainbow of fresh fruit and veggies so you’re getting all the vitamins you need. Immune-boosting vitamin C is the star of the show here. It’s especially high in kiwis, peppers, kale and leafy greens, citrus fruits, broccoli and berries.
  • Garlic has antibacterial properties and has the antioxidant allicin, which helps counteract the effects of free radicals in the body.
  • Chilli also has antioxidant properties as well as acting like a decongestant.
  • Ginger is a good warmer as well as soothing the stomach.
  • Stay hydrated and eat foods rich in soluble fibre such as avocado, tomatoes and other fresh fruits and veggies, plus insoluble fibre like brown rice and wholegrains.
  • Zinc is another immune system booster. Fresh beef and baked beans are good sources.
March 25, 2016

WHAT’S SO GOOD ABOUT AVOCADOS?

Avocado

With a 25% rise in sales last year, what has got everyone obsessed with the humble avocado?

  • Healthy heart – rich in mono-unsaturated fatty acids that can help lower bad cholesterol and increase good cholesterol.
  • High in soluble and insoluble fibre – helping keep the blood cholesterol levels low and your digestive system healthy. Also, high potassium levels help with regulating blood pressure and heart rate.
  • Full of vitamins – a high concentration of vitamin E for healthy skin, vitamin A for a strong immune system and vitamin K for blood-healing functions.
  • An antioxidant punch – high levels of phenol essential for counteracting the effects of free radicals.
February 24, 2016

2016 FOOD TRENDS.

Coconut

Two big food trends set for this year are:

Coconut Flour
Gluten free and high in protein – 100g has 38% of your RDA – it’s ideal for vegans and veggies needing to increase their intake.

Medjool Dates
As sugar fell out of favour in 2015, naturally sweet snacking alternatives soared in popularity, including medjool dates. Sales rose by 16% at Waitrose.

January 22, 2016

‘SIRTFOODS’ – FIND OUT ABOUT THIS YEAR’S DIET TREND.

Chocolate

The newest diet trend actually allows you eat some of your favourite foods – dark chocolate included! The sirtfood plan is all about what you should include and add to your meals.

What are sirtfoods?

  • They’re foods that are high in substances called sirtuin activators. There are seven types of sirtuin in the body.
  • Sirtuins can help you shift weight because they fire up pathways in the body that help boost your metabolism.
  • These pathways help you torch fat and boost muscle. They’re normally activated by exercising and by fasting (i.e. the basis of the 5:2 diet).
  • A sirtfood diet mimics the effects of fasting or vigorous exercise. Packing your diet with sirtfoods basically tricks your body into sparking up your metabolism.

There are other health benefits to adding sirtuins to your diet, beyond just losing weight. A diet high in sirtuins reduces cell inflammation – a key cause of type 2 diabetes – heart disease and even dementia. As sirtfoods are known to help protect cells from dying, eating lots of them can also have powerful anti-ageing benefits.

What foods should I be eating?

This top 10 list shows the foods most rich in sirtuin activators:

  1. Green tea
  2. Kale
  3. Dark chocolate
  4. Red wine
  5. Turmeric
  6. Parsley
  7. Onions
  8. Olives & olive oil
  9. Pomegranate
  10. Soy beans & tofu
August 24, 2015

CONTROLLING YOUR WEIGHT – BACK TO BASICS.

Scales

The key to weight control is keeping energy intake (food) and energy output (physical activity) in balance. When you consume only as many calories as your body needs, your weight will usually remain constant. If you take in more calories than your body needs, you will put on excess fat. If you expend more energy than you take in you will burn excess fat.

Exercise plays an important role in weight control by increasing energy output, calling on stored calories for extra fuel. Recent studies show that not only does exercise increase metabolism during a workout, but it causes your metabolism to stay increased for a period of time after exercising, allowing you to burn more calories.

How much exercise is needed to make a difference in your weight depends on the amount and type of activity, and on how much you eat. Aerobic exercise burns body fat. A medium-sized adult would have to walk more than 30 miles to burn up 3,500 calories, the equivalent of one pound of fat. Although that may seem like a lot, you don’t have to walk the 30 miles all at once. Walking a mile a day for 30 days will achieve the same result, providing you don’t increase your food intake to negate the effects of walking.

If you consume 100 calories a day more than your body needs, you will gain approximately 10 pounds in a year. You could take that weight off, or keep it off, by doing 30 minutes of moderate exercise daily. The combination of exercise and diet offers the most flexible and effective approach to weight control.

Since muscle tissue weighs more than fat tissue, and exercise develops muscle to a certain degree, your bathroom scale won’t necessarily tell you whether or not you are “fat.” Well-muscled individuals, with relatively little body fat, invariably are “overweight” according to standard weight charts. If you are doing a regular program of strength training, your muscles will increase in weight, and possibly your overall weight will increase. Body composition is a better indicator of your condition than body weight.

Lack of physical activity causes muscles to get soft, and if food intake is not decreased, added body weight is almost always fat. Once-active people, who continue to eat as they always have after settling into sedentary lifestyles, tend to suffer from “creeping obesity.”

March 13, 2015

FOOD FACT: DANDELION GREENS.

Dandelion

  • Dandelion is beneficial to digestion and is an antiviral.
  • It may also be useful in treating jaundice, cirrhosis, edema due to high blood pressure, gout, eczema and acne.
  • Dandelion is also used to treat and prevent breast and lung tumors and premenstrual bloating.
  • Dandelion greens are high in vitamin A in the form of antioxidant carotenoid and vitamin C.
  • They also contain calcium and potassium.
  • Dandelion root contains inulin, which lowers blood sugar in diabetics.
February 13, 2015

FOOD FACT: CHICORY.

Chicory

  • Chicory contains inulin, which helps diabetics regulate their blood sugar levels.
  • Chicory is closely related to lettuce and dandelion but is a member of the sunflower family.
  • It may be cleansing to the liver and gallbladder.
  • Chicory is beneficial for digestion, the circulatory system and the blood.
  • Chicory leaves are a good source of calcium, vitamin A and potassium.
January 15, 2015

FOOD FACT: BANANAS.

Go_Bananas

  • You don’t need to eat bananas for the potassium. Although it is present in bananas, potassium is the predominant nutrient among most all fruits and vegetables.
  • Bananas are high in sugar, so they should not be eaten if you have blood sugar problems.
  • Don’t eat bananas on an empty stomach; combining them with a bit of protein will help to normalize the insulin response caused by the sugar in the banana.
  • Green-tipped bananas are better for your health than over-ripe bananas.
October 10, 2014

WHAT EXACTLY IS ‘CLEAN EATING’?

Broccoli

Clean eating is a deceptively simple concept. Rather than revolving around the idea of ingesting more or less of specific things (for instance, fewer calories or more protein), the idea is more about being mindful of the food’s pathway between its origin and your plate.

At its simplest, clean eating is about eating whole foods, or ‘real’ foods – those that are un- or minimally processed, refined, and handled, making them as close to their natural form as possible.

However, modern food production has become so sophisticated that simply eating whole foods can be a challenging proposition these days.

Thanks to extensive research that has linked eating whole foods with good health, we do know that largely plant-based diets are healthy.

Multiple studies have shown that diets heavy on fruits and vegetables can curb or prevent certain life-threatening conditions and diseases, such as high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.

Plus, there’s research linking diets high in fruits and veggies to healthy weight management and glowing skin and hair.

Cooking does alter your food, but it isn’t necessarily a bad thing. While it’s true that some nutrients are lost during cooking, like vitamin C, other nutrients are increased when foods are cooked, like lycopene, so it’s best to eat a wide variety of foods, in both their raw and cooked forms.

When cooking food, the focus should be on maintaining the integrity of what you are consuming and avoiding high-fat cooking methods such as deep-frying or stewing in animal or vegetable fats.

When cooking, opt for flash-cook methods such as stir-frying and ones without additives like steaming. For fruits and veggies, raw is best, but steaming is a close second in terms of preserving nutritional value and keeping the food’s natural integrity.