Most people are familiar with the benefits of a Mediterranean diet. Its fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains and healthy fats offer a diet that is rich in antioxidants and anti-inflammatory properties, and is known to lower the risk of heart disease, high blood pressure and weight gain.

These health benefits are often attributed to olive oil, the key ingredient of this diet. As a result, this golden liquid is commonly considered the elixir of life and has become renowned for both its life and flavor enhancing qualities. Compatible with a range of flavors from sweet and salty to acidic and bitter, olive oil is a highly versatile cooking aid which can be incorporated into a number of dishes, and in a number of different ways.

In this article, we’ll explore some creative ways to unleash the potential of this Mediterranean miracle, helping you enhance your dishes as well as your culinary repertoire.

In a Marinade

Intensify the flavor of a meat, chicken or fish dish by allowing your ingredients to bathe in an olive-oil marinade. You can add garlic, lemon zest, herbs, and spices to your liquid base, allowing it to coat your ingredients and infuse them with its rich flavors and juiciness. 

Whether it’s for a few hours or overnight, allow your olive oil marinade to be fully absorbed, allowing the mixture to tenderize any meat and the flavors to penetrate your dish. If you have friends or family who love to use olive oil in their dishes, consider treating them to one of these holiday gift sets for foodies.

As a Salad Dressing

Olive oil can make a great accompaniment to a simple salad, and bring out the freshness, flavor profile and texture of your seasonal ingredients. Add a splash of vinegar or a squeeze of citrus to your oil to create a delicious vinaigrette which can be further enhanced with garlic, dijon mustard and seasoning if you so choose.  Coating your vegetables in this delicious dressing can quickly transform a plain salad into a zesty and vibrant dish.

Drizzled Over a Dish

Add the pièce de résistance to your dish with a drizzle of olive oil at the end to give it a burst of flavor, richness and an elegant finishing touch. Its smooth, velvety texture can round off a variety of dishes including hearty soups, roasted meats, grilled fish, pizzas and pastas. In addition to providing a glossy finish to these main dishes, oil oil can also be drizzled over a crusty piece of bread to enhance its flavor profile and a touch of richness to each bite.

To Sauté Vegetables

With its relatively high smoke point, olive oil is suited to cooking at high temperatures and can make an excellent substitute for butter when sautéing a medley of vegetables. Its ability to complement the flavor of your vegetables and bring out their natural sweetness without overpowering them, makes it an ideal oil for this type of cooking. It is also a healthier alternative to butter, ensuring your dish is low in saturated fats and high in monounsaturated fatty acids, which help to lower your cholesterol.

With all these suggestions to whet your appetite, why not try out some olive-oil inspired ideas in your kitchen?

The post Creative Ways to Enhance Your Meals with Olive Oil appeared first on Wellbeing Magazine.

If you’ve been contemplating switching to a ketogenic diet, here are 7 major things to know before jumping in, to ensure your transition is smooth and successful. Let’s get started.

1. Explore keto recipes

One commonly touted complaint when starting keto is feeling restricted. You’ve grocery shopped for a week’s worth of eggs, avocados, salmon, cheese, spinach and butter. But after a few days of cycling the same ingredients three times a day, you’ve got a little bored.

Prior to starting a ketogenic diet, we recommend researching tasty keto recipes, keto desserts and easy keto meals to give you some inspiration to switch up the monotony of eating the same food items day in, day out. Check out this blog post that includes the recipes for 10 easy keto desserts.

2. Prepare for keto breath

A week or so into keto you may notice that your breath doesn’t smell too great. Introducing: keto breath. One of the three ketone bodies produced in ketosis is acetone, which is excreted through your breath.

It may seem like a small price to pay for the extensive benefits, but for some, it can be unappealing enough to quit keto. We believe that preparation is key to keep you committed! Here are a few tips to avoid keto breath:

• Drink more water
• Practice top notch oral hygiene
• Get yourself some gum
• Cut your protein intake slightly

Luckily, keto breath only affects some. Even so, it is temporary, lasting up to a week until your body adjusts.

3.You can actually eat vegetables

Many who start keto really believe it’s the ‘no carb diet’, and to some extent, it is. But you are actually allowed to eat a small amount of carbs each day whilst managing to be in ketosis. The macronutrient breakdown of the Keto diet is recommended as: 70% fats, 25% protein and 5% carbs. This equates to roughly 15g of carbohydrates a day, which means you can bulk out meals with low carb veggies like zucchini.

Does that mean you should eat spaghetti bolognese? No. But it does mean you can make zucchini bolognese with some low carb veggies added.

4. Monitor your ketone level

Tracking your ketone levels is the most accurate indicator that you are making the right diet choices. The benefits of a keto diet come from being in ketosis, so it’s vital to know that you’re actually achieving that. For the people who fail to see results on keto, it’s typically because they’re not in ketosis, but they aren’t aware of this because they’re not monitoring their ketone levels.

Using a ketone analyser like Ketoscan will give you a precise ketone reading to know if you’re successfully in ketosis – and at the moment there’s a special offer for WellBeing readers, saving a massive £30 off the normal price, so well worth a look?

5.Boosted mental clarity

You often hear that someone lost weight on keto, but what’s talked about less are the profound cognitive benefits. Within a week of starting a ketogenic diet, your brain will feel clear and revitalized.

When you eat keto, you reduce your insulin levels because you’re not spiking your blood sugar. Frequent spikes of insulin are followed by dramatic lulls in energy as your blood sugar attempts to stabilize.

This is responsible for a feeling of brain fog or cognitive dysfunction. The high fat low carb ketogenic diet stabilizes your insulin levels and the associated symptoms. So if you’re consistently reaching for coffee to be able to think straight, prepare to enjoy some mental clarity.

6.You won’t be hungry

Are you used to being the type of person that thinks about lunch during breakfast? We’ve been there. But newsflash: it’s actually not normal to be constantly hungry. Typically, the reason you’re always hungry is because of blood sugar spikes and the taxing metabolism of junk food.

As the keto diet is high in fat, you will feel satiated for long periods of time. When fat enters the small intestine it slows digestion, increases fullness and as a result decreases appetite. A 2005 study in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition showed that a high fat and high protein diet increased satiety and decreased appetite and calorie intake, compared to a diet lower in fat and protein.

7.You’ll get obsessed with the keto diet

When you start getting results, you start getting obsessed. If you’ve tried every diet under the sun and never got results, within a few weeks of trying keto you’re guaranteed to become a keto junkie. Not only will you feel better than ever, you’ll start to look younger, healthier, fitter and more energized.

It’s why everyone with a Ketoscan is constantly checking their ketone levels and tracking, recording and annotating their progress on the Ketoscan app. They just can’t get enough of the data-driven results of the keto diet!

The post 7 things I wish I knew before starting keto appeared first on Wellbeing Magazine.

As we head into January, a time typically known for resolutions and fresh starts, a new study* has revealed the goals set by Britons which they then find hardest to achieve.

Weight loss tops the table at 32% closely followed by earning more money (30%) and saving money / investing more wisely (27%). Improving fitness (26%) and ‘looking after me’ (19%) complete the top five failed goals list.

The battle of the genders reveals slight skews. Women remain consistent with weight loss at number one, (39%) whereas 27% of men cite ‘Making more money’ as the hardest goal to achieve, just ahead of losing weight at 25%. Conversely 15% of respondents said there were no goals they set that they then found difficult to achieve!

Commissioned by The 1:1 Diet by Cambridge Weight Plan, the same survey revealed that more than three quarters of UK adults have set weight loss as a personal goal in the past and failed with 40 % per cent failing as many as five times or more. The study went on to identify the core triggers which lead people to fall off the weight-loss wagon.

From food temptations to not seeing results quick enough, the top 10 reasons dieters were most likely to fail to stick to their goal to lose weight were:

1. Being tempted by foods they love
2. Seeking comfort in food
3. Not seeing results quick enough
4. Cold winter and dark nights
5. A tiring day
6. A dislike for going to the gym
7. Others not being on the same weight loss journey
8. The diet was too difficult to follow
9. Alcohol
10. It was too expensive

As a nation, the survey indicated that Brits often set themselves up for failure, establishing unachievable goals from the start. More than 10 per cent expected to see visible results from their efforts in as little as 1-3 days, and 40 per cent said in order to be motivated to carry on, they’d have to see significant weight loss within a week.

Despite it being a traditional time for dieting, almost a quarter of UK residents are actually put off by making a fresh start in January as they felt there was too much pressure attached to the month.

Mark Gilbert, Nutritionist at The 1:1 Diet by Cambridge Weight Plan, said: “Many people will set the goal to lose weight in 2020 and the vast majority will fail. Falling off the diet wagon should not lead to the desire to lose weight being dropped as an ambition. Our research shows that January is often the most difficult month for dieting success and, without the right support, failure is inevitable for many. They may have unrealistic expectations, haven’t prepared effectively or, most commonly, chosen the wrong diet for their lifestyle or their personal metabolism – whatever the challenge it is important that Britons don’t give up so easily on their desire to lose weight and be fitter this year.”

Laila Rouass, star of Footballers’ Wives, who lost 1 stone 1lbs on The 1:1 Diet by Cambridge Weight Plan, added: “I’m an incredibly health conscious person and care about what I put into my body. I love going to the gym and have never really had a problem with my weight, but after having my daughter and with age, I found it harder to maintain my size and started to feel less confident in my own skin.

“I needed something to kickstart my weight loss journey and that’s when I discovered The 1:1 Diet by Cambridge Weight Plan. The one-to-one support provided by my amazing consultant made all the difference and the plan was so simple it fit into my busy lifestyle easily. Whilst I only wanted to lose a few pounds, achieving that has given me the confidence to start the business I always dreamt of, and I no longer want to shy away from the limelight.”

To find out more about The 1:1 Diet by Cambridge Weight Plan, please visit: www.one2onediet.com/find-a-consultant.

The post New Year SOLUTIONS – not ReSOLUTIONS appeared first on Wellbeing Magazine.

1. Stock up on protein. Before thinking about indulging on an Easter egg this year, have a meal that’s high in protein, fibre and liquid. When researchers looked at a variety of 38 different foods, those highest in protein, fibre and with high water content kept people feeling full the longest! So meat, eggs, nuts, soups and fish…surprisingly, apples, oranges and boiled potatoes also have a surprisingly good ability to ward off the munchies too, despite their low protein content!
2. Remember what motivates you. Keep a track of your achievements. Whether this be a weight-loss victory or simply a moment where you successfully resisted temptation, reminding yourself of your motivation will help to make any sweet-treat a little easier to resist!
3. Build habits. If you’re looking to lose weight, it can take a few weeks for shifting your eating pattern to become an established habit – so start thinking about this now. If you stick at it between now and Easter, you’ll reap the benefits.
4. Speak to someone who can support you. Support from another person can really help to keep you on track, whether it’s a friend, partner or a professional. The 1:1 Diet by Cambridge Weight Plan offers a personal consultant to help give you any guidance you may need. Whether you’re having a bad day, or need that extra motivation, get in touch with that person you know you can rely on.
5. Drink plenty of water. Not only does water help to keep our skin healthy, it also aids the function of the digestive system. Try to drink a glass of water when you feel a hunger pang – thirst can easily be mistaken for feeling peckish.
6. Physically walk away from the craving. Try to distract yourself when surrounded by enticement. Simply taking a shower or going for a walk can be an easy way to preoccupy your mind when the cravings hit.
7. Plan your meals for the day ahead. Being organised with your meals can help to ensure that you have something nutritious prepped for any time of day. It’ll help motivate you too knowing that everything is sorted and you don’t need to spend hours thinking about what you can and can’t eat.
8. Try to eat chocolate in moderation. We all need a little treat now and then so if you do feel that you need the taste of chocolate this Easter, eat it in moderation and be mindful of what it is. The 1:1 Diet by Cambridge Weight Plan offers delicious Choc Mint and Salted Caramel bites which you can enjoy as a snack or even a meal without breaking your plan – they’re available in specific serving sizes, to ensure your indulgence doesn’t turn into a full-on binge!
9. Try your hand at creating your own treats or hacks. Instead of feasting on chocolate eggs, why not follow a healthy recipe this Easter? It’s not only better for you but baking is also a great way to engage children over the Easter period, allowing much-needed family time. And to ensure you don’t feel left out when everyone is tucking into their eggs, you could create your own snack stash full of healthy treats to give you that boost. Check out this recipe for inspiration: http://shakeitup.cambridgeweightplan.com/mix-it-up-chocolate-mint-truffles/
10. Stay positive. Think about how far you’ve come and how many goals you have already accomplished – head into the Easter break with confidence!

The post Top 10 tips for staying on plan this Easter appeared first on Wellbeing Magazine.

There are many things that can affect our weight, for example lack of sleep means the hormones that control hunger can become unbalanced, with those lacking sufficient good quality sleep producing more of the hunger hormone ghrelin and less of the appetite supressing hormone leptin. There is also some evidence that eating a diet rich in whole grains or rich in protein supresses ghrelin as opposed to a high fat diet.

Digestive problems can also adversely affect weight. If motility is slow, we may absorb more calories, so eating foods rich in fibre will encourage faster movement of food through the digestive system. It is also important to chew our food thoroughly, as digestion begins in the mouth and unchewed food arriving in the stomach will not be broken down properly. Therefore, we may not absorb the nutrients efficiently, leaving us hungry.

Stress is often a major factor in weight gain and can make eating a healthy diet a challenge. When we are stressed, we are more likely to make unwise food choices, possibly reaching for sugary carbohydrates for comfort. The problem with this is that it spikes our blood sugar levels which temporarily make us feel happier. However, blood sugar that has risen due to refined sugar and carbohydrates quickly falls, often resulting in us feeling down again and guilty for our indiscretion and thus begins a vicious circle. If this continues for many years, it can lead to insulin resistance, which can lead to type 2 diabetes.

Good nutrition is vital if we are to lose weight in a healthy way. Starving our body of nutrients is likely to make us crave unhealthy food and will negatively affect our health; not a route to sustainable weight loss. Vitamins and minerals all play vital roles in the body and without them, the body cannot function properly, and we will become ill.

Portion sizes are probably one of the biggest issues with many of us. Consider that a portion of a plate sized pizza is one quarter! How many of us eat the whole thing? The truth is that we have got used to larger and larger portions over the last few years and they have now become the norm for many people.

Exercising our body is necessary to keep bones strong and joints healthy and it is also good for our mental health. This does not have to amount to hours spent in the gym, just simply moving around, going for a walk, taking the stairs instead of the lift, walking instead of taking the car when possible or going for a swim are all ways that even the busiest people can exercise.

So, what can we do to give ourselves the best chance of losing weight?

Ensure that we get seven to eight hours of good quality sleep each night, avoiding the use of mobiles and tablets for at least an hour before bedtime. Looking at bright screens reduces the sleep hormone, melatonin, meaning that we will be more awake when we should be going to sleep. Getting plenty of daylight, especially early morning light helps to establish a good pattern for sleep.

Take steps to ensure that we give our digestive system the best chance of working optimally. Chewing food well, sitting at a table to eat so that we are upright and not slouching. Foods such as live yoghurt and sauerkraut are good for establishing good bacteria in the gut, which can be helpful for weight loss, along with the avoidance of sugar and refined carbohydrates, as this can encourage yeast overgrowth, the cause of many digestive problems.

There are many ways of relieving stress and anxiety. Sometimes simply spending time doing something we enjoy is enough, but if not, we could try swimming, exercise, meditation, massage, hypnotherapy or the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT). Seeking the help of a reputable therapist may be helpful if symptoms are severe.

Avoiding any diets that deprive us of vital food groups will help to ensure we have a balanced diet. We need protein, fat, carbohydrate, vitamins and minerals. Protein should be sourced from lean meat, fish, poultry, beans, lentils, soya and tofu and nuts (not peanuts).

Carbohydrate should be found from foods such as: wholegrain bread, brown rice, brown pasta, boiled potatos with skins on and oats.

Fat is necessary for a healthy body, but it is important to concentrate on good fats such as: omega 3 fats from oily fish, avocado and olive oil. Even good fats are high in calories, so it is important to be mindful of this when planning meals.

Vitamins and minerals are abundant in fruit and vegetables, although they are also present in wholegrain foods. The phrase ‘eat the rainbow’ could not be more appropriate to ensure that we are getting a balanced mix of these.

Fibre is also vital and can be found in wholegrains, beans, pulses, nuts, fruit and vegetables.

Ensuring that we eat breakfast is vital for weight loss. Missing out on nutrition at this stage of the day will mean we are more likely to snack later as the body attempts to catch up on lost calories. Breakfast should consist of complex carbohydrate and good quality protein.

Along with good nutrition, observe portion sizes. There is much information available online regarding portion size for a variety of everyday foods.

Exercise whenever the opportunity arises. This is especially important if we work in an office and have a sedentary lifestyle.

As we can see, weight loss is much more complex than simply cutting calories, which is perhaps why many diets fail, because if we do not address the connected issues, we are only fulfilling one part of the puzzle.

The book, The Weight Loss Puzzle by Jacqueline Rayment looks at this in more detail and is full of advice and tips on how to achieve sustainable weight loss. There is also a section with quick, healthy recipes.

The post Why do I find it difficult to lose weight? appeared first on Wellbeing Magazine.

What does the word diet really mean? For most people it conjures up thoughts of the measures people take to lose weight. It is also a term used by food manufacturers to indicate that something is ‘supposedly’ healthy or has less of some seemingly undesirable ingredient. But the word diet itself simply refers to what we eat. We hear people say they’re “going on” a diet, but your diet is what you eat day-to-day.

So why does trying to lose the weight fail? There are seven reasons:

1. Physiologically we are different. We have different needs and requirements. One diet may work wonders for your neighbour but might not be the right plan for you.
2. Diets are hard to do. Most diets involve a significant change in a person’s normal eating habits over an extended period of time. But habits die hard; we cling to them because they fit in with our lifestyle and the people around us
3. Dieting relies on will power to keep us on the right track. Willpower is often very strong at the start of a diet when we are desperate to change but it can ebb and flow with the state of our health and the pressures and triggers of day-to-day life
4. Diets make you feel hungry and deprived. Research shows that no matter what your size, diets make you hungry and create powerful cravings for the very foods you are trying to avoid, e.g. sugar and fat. On top of these cravings, dieters also have to manage feelings of deprivation: ‘Everybody is eating what I’m not allowed to. They can have it – why can’t I?’ This kind of thinking is likely to lead to rebellious overeating. Diets can promote an unhealthy relationship with food and create a sense of deprivation.
5. Diets are not sustainable. People perceive diets as something you go on when you want to drop weight. A diet only works for as long as you are on it. Most people get bored with rigid eating plans and go off the rails from time to time. The trouble is that for many people a lapse is a sign of failure.
6. Some diets are gross and not even real food! Highly processed, refined and void of nutrients and above all unappetizing. How can you maintain this regime after you have finished the plan?
7. Diets fail to address the emotional aspect of overeating. People often eat to help deal with emotional problems, rather than because they’re hungry. This is normal, but some people gain weight because they turn to food for emotional comfort or to cope with negative feelings like anger or loss – for example, after a bad day at work, after a row with a loved one or as an end to a long week. Dieting doesn’t solve the problem of emotional eating. If anything, it makes people more depressed because it becomes one of the issues that cause overeating. And losing weight can make things worse, because people have to cope with the pressures and expectations of their new body shape.

Then why do we keep ‘going on a diet’? Because it brings us in a state of euphoria and gives us a sense of achievement; we have done well. If we fail we will be even more driven as it must be possible again. The success of the diet industry is based on our feeling of being in control and trying to get that feeling again and again. Have you ever wondered why there are so many diets around and why new ones appear all the time? Because they don’t work!

The first step towards permanent healthy weight loss is somewhat ironically to lose the diet and the diet mind-set. Instead think about a Healthy Eating Plan that you could live with and enjoy for life. The best answer to dieting is: A lifelong plan of everyday healthy, pleasurable eating coupled with regular exercise. To help you on your way here are 4 tips:

1 Eat Well

• Avoid eating processed convenience foods as they are high in sugar, fat and salt
• Have 6 eating moments a day to avoid a rise in your blood sugar level
• Never skip breakfast
• Eat at least 5 (preferably 8-10) vegetables and fruits a day in a variety of colours
• Increase the consumption of good fats found in fatty fish, nuts, seeds, flaxseed, chia seeds, olive oil, coconut oil and avocados
• Drink no packed fruit juices and little alcohol as they are high in sugar
• Cook from scratch with the best ingredients you can afford, preferably organic
• Eat lean protein with every eating moment to curb cravings; e.g. chicken, lean mince, fish, low fat natural yoghurt or cottage cheese, beef, soya milk/yoghurt etc. but NO PORK.
• Choose wholemeal bread, crackers, rice, pasta, barley or quinoa to increase fibre
• Divide your plate into 3 sections. 1/3 protein, 1/3 vegetables and 1/3 carbohydrates (potatoes, pasta, rice) preferably more vegetables than carbohydrates.

2 Water

Drink plenty of pure water or herbal tea every day.
Our body consists for 70% out of water and it is important to keep it hydrated as it helps to improve your skin and bones, removes toxins, aids digestion, improves concentration to mention just a few of the benefits.

3 Exercise

Build exercise into your life every day to keep you healthy.
A minimum of 30 minutes brisk walking a day would be ideal. Get gardening, clean your house, run up the stairs a few times, take your bike out, go for a swim or join a fitness club.

4 Sleep

Do not take your worries to bed!
Aim to be in bed by 10pm; the hours before 12 midnight give you the best quality of rest. Avoid all screens at least one hour before bedtime and sleep in the dark.

Lose the diet, Lose the weight; 4 simple steps was written by Leonie Wright m: 07752 420005 e: leonie @ eatwright.co.uk website: www.eatwright.co.uk

This month nutrition coach, speaker and author Leonie Wright has introduced an exciting new, Dutch healthy eating plan into the UK.

The EatWright Plan is designed to transform lives and the results in Holland have been spectacular: with an average weight loss of 10 pounds, some people on the diet were able to reverse type 2 diabetes, reduce high blood pressure and reduce their biological age by 15 years.

The plan was also shown to benefit cholesterol levels, the heart and arteries, digestion, sleep and snoring, symptoms of the menopause and self-confidence.

With The EatWright Plan you will cleanse the body in a short period of time, getting rid of stored fat and bringing your body back into balance.

Typically, you can expect to lose 5 to 8kg (11 to 18 lbs) during the course of the plan and you will gain valuable insights into the way you eat, drink and exercise.

The post Lose the diet, Lose the weight; 4 simple steps appeared first on Wellbeing Magazine.

Excuse my cynicism but having done my job for the best part of eighteen years, I’ve read this just as many times. Most of these articles have no scientific basis and are at best ludicrous and worst dangerous.

Raw, detox, cleanse, alkaline, juice. These words whispered their way round the health farms and spas of the 1980‘s, now they have crept their way into our daily food phrases as something to aspire to on a weekly basis. Added to this the notion that we now have to be sponsored to give up alcohol for a month! I’m sorry but we may have all got slightly mad! The whole point of health in my mind, and how I work with my clients is to set them on a path that they can continue for the rest of their lives. Now, don’t misunderstand me, I have very fine athlete friends who will Nutri bullet (I believe that’s a verb now!) I’m sure for the rest of the their lives quite happily, but for the 90% of us that’s left it’s not going to happen. We dip into these fads for a few weeks, kid ourselves we have done our bodies good and back we go to where we were before, possibly full of failure and self loathing.

Let’s start with DETOX. A very powerful word. Ironically the most healthy people I see whose diet is great feel they need a detox. Why? What are they are detoxing from – a plate of alfalfa sprouts and mashed yeast (thanks to Woody Allen for that one). I have seen people “detoxing” from a diet of primarily herbal tea, no alcohol and no processed food.

Detox worshippers will tell you that detoxing will rid your body of toxins that have accumulated and are leading to all sorts of health problems from fatigue to weight gain etc. However the liver has evolved to process a stack of toxins and excrete these through sweat, urine and stool quite well. The liver is incredibly efficient and hard working. So unless you have serious liver issues, green liquids and potions will do little to enhance its action. If you “detox” you tend to drink more liquid and eat less, so you may very well lose weight and feel a bit perkier, but the whole aspect of this is sold on quacky science.

A few years ago we had detox socks – do you remember those? it’s laughable. If you want to detox, let’s change the wording slightly. Your body needs consistency not shock treatment. Removing sugar for one month, alcohol for one month, whilst I salute you, is just trying to prove to yourself that you can actually survive without it. You know I’m right really! Anything you can’t stick to long term I wouldn’t even attempt to start in the first place. Essentially we have become bad at balance.

If you wish to cut down your alcohol from seven bottles a week to a more manageable one or two glasses a night, remove processed foods from your diet and drink enough liquid until your urine is pale, that’s great, just don’t call it a detox. Many of my patients who are eating really well take milk thistle – “Why?” I ask them, “because it’s good for my liver”, they say. “But you’re not doing anything to harm your liver”, I reply.

I know by writing this some of you will say “but Kate I feel fabulous and I juice and live on smoothies”. Well that’s great but I’m telling you unless you are an athlete or have no health issues at all at best this will be a very quick fix. A lovely lady recently came to see me and she was carrying four huge pots, (they were like beer barrels they were so large) of super greens. Her diet was better than mine. We get sold into concepts and lifestyles that often we need to ignore.
Ok let’s get onto to RAW diets. I feel I may start losing some readers here, but onwards I must. The theory behind this is that heating and cooking food depletes nutrient levels and can lessen their potency. This is nonsense and not even scientifically correct. Cooking saved man from extinction, and changes the nature of some proteins to make them edible and kills bacteria that quite frankly might kill us. If you are interested in this subject more I would suggest reading Michael Pollen’s great book Cooked. Look at Chinese cuisine – food cooked on extreme heats for seconds – and you are telling me they are unhealthy? What we are not talking about here is cooking sprouts for hours until yes there is little nutrient value left, but we don’t do that anymore, we’ve learned now that al dente is better when it comes to cooking vegetables. In freezing temperatures it is crazy to eat raw food, the body needs to be warmed. I have a client who has “cured” herself of ulcerative colitis by eating only raw foods and it’s fantastic, and I have another client who did the same who ended up in hospital as it made them very ill.

‘If you look at the true health leaders and inspirers, they do not use these faddy terms. Sadly, in the last ten years, no matter how pretty and lovely, and how clever the food photography, there are a host of so called health gurus with no qualifications who are teaching us how to eat raw carob balls in coconut! As delicious as these are, and that the books sell well, and are often linked with celebrities, I am still concerned that deep down the unwell patient does not really know what they are doing. Not everyone can eat the same foods and get away with it – everyone is so different.’I’m not saying the occasional smoothie, juice or raw food is bad for you – far from it, what I’m saying is buying into faddy terms needs to be taken with a pinch of salt! Raw foods in summer – gorgeous lovely salads fantastic, but do you want them now in freezing temperatures, possibly not? Methinks time for root vegetables, roasts and casseroles. Oh darling lets go out for a five mile ramble with the dogs and come back to a raw salad. Most people want to come back to soup, roast chicken, foods that for want of a better expression feed the soul.

I’ve noticed that all the new health gurus, (mostly very young pretty women by the way) have similar books, almost using the same photographer and format. Jamie Oliver does not come into this category, nor does Hugh Fernley Whittingstall or Michael Pollen or lets go back a bit to Keith Floyd. This may well be a wave of young pretty things seducing potentially unhealthy young girls to get a bit cultish in their food choices.

I may have to reintroduce my pet hate phrase ‘moderation in all things’. I shudder as I type this – a term which I find so annoying as you cannot calculate one persons moderation, and in my mind some foods should not be eaten at all. Being mindful about what you eat is so important, and a good food diary really is an eye opener and there are many apps that will calculate your intake to the last calorie.

If you want to “detox” I would start with awareness; ten coffees a day, perhaps cut down to two, not drinking enough water, try a bit harder, read labels to try and reduce your added sugar intake, drinking a bottle of wine a night, try for 1-2 glasses. That might not be a detox to you, but its more manageable longer term, rather than engaging in a shock tactic month of deprivation. The long term goal is what we want, think of yourself as a marathon runner not a sprinter. So when you next see a celebrity usually a woman, usually in Hollywood and usually leaving their yoga/gym class drinking their liquidised Kermit coloured juice, they are hardly doing this because they are short in greens, they have nutritionists and trainers and chefs on hand to teach them and cook for them. It’s a trend, and next year there will be new one like the iphone 7 or is it iphone 8 I forget?

One final point, another lady came to see me recently with her new fancy blender, and she was fainting mid morning. I asked her to take her blood sugar just before she felt wobbly and it was 3.0 mg/dl. She had low blood sugar on blending grapes, bananas, maple syrup and goji berries. Now I know that most of you aren’t doing that; you’ll spin up some avocado and kale, but you get the point I’m sure. Now on scrambled eggs on toast, she is back to normal, blender firmly in the back of the cupboard.

If you want to overhaul your diet and lifestyle Kate offers a two hour consultation that reviews every part of your health. Perfect for those with multiple symptoms like headaches, fatigue, bowel issues etc. Kate will work closely with your GP and may suggest further tests if necessary. Markers like homocysteine, salivary cortisol, female hormone panels as well as stool testing can also be used. For more information regarding this please call 01323 737814/310532 www.katearnoldnutrition.co.uk

The post Faddy trends including detox appeared first on Wellbeing Magazine.

DIET VARIETY
The second component of the problem is more complex. Patients visiting their doctors often enquire whether their diet has anything to do with their illness. They are usually reassured that if they eat a little meat, fish, cereals, fruit and veg, in other words a ‘good mixed diet’ they’ll have nothing to worry about. What though, is a good mixed diet? It is possible that early hunter-gatherer man ate a very varied diet; if it flew, swam, ran or grew then you could eat it! They ate perhaps as many as two thousand different food items including berries, roots, insects, animals, fishes, grasses, nuts, fungi, shellfish and more. With the rise of civilisations and more intensive farming, then the food industry revolution of modern times, the variety of foods we eat has diminished for most people.

Twenty years ago I began a study to look into this matter and came to the conclusion that there are many people who think they eat well though in fact have a very low variety in their diet. I developed a simple questionnaire that takes about five minutes to complete which measures a person’s ‘Diet Variety Index’ that can be compared with the population average to assess just how good their diet variety is in these terms.

WHY DOES IT MATTER?
Today many foods are grown on depleted soil, many animals graze on mineral deficient pastures, and many foods are denatured by processing or through storage. This leads to vitamin and mineral deficiencies in the foods we buy, and if we restrict ourselves to a small number of foods grown in a limited region the problem can be very serious. If however our range of fruit, grains and vegetables is wide and comes from many different sources the chances of serious deficiency in all of them is lessened. Some people, because of inherited digestive problems may find certain foods difficult to digest; lactose and gluten intolerance are widely known; these people will probably have more serious health prob- lems if their diet variety is low and includes the offending foods, simply because these foods will represent a large proportion of their dietary intake. Such people would suffer far less if they had a much more varied diet, when the occasional offending food would represent a very small proportion of their diet. The same argument would apply to the growing problem of food allergies. Although once sensitised to a particular food even a small quantity can produce a severe reaction, the early development of over-sensitivity may have been associated with repeated large intakes of the food ‘undiluted by many other foods’.

A SIMPLE SOLUTION TO A BIG PROBLEM
Is it possible that by simply increasing our diet variety of food from good soil, which is processed as little as possible, that we could eliminate or at least minimise the effect of so many food-induced diseases? I honestly believe it could be that simple.

READERS FREE OFFER
If you send me an email requesting your free ‘Diet Variety Index’ assessment to diet @totalhealthmatters.co.uk I will send you a dietary questionnaire for your completion. Once you have returned it to me completed I will assess your ‘Diet Variety Index’ and email you back with your result compared with a National Scale. Most people find by simply by doing this exercise it has helped them improve their diet, as it makes them more aware of foods they could add to their diet and others that they eat very rarely that could be eaten more often.

OPEN DAY
We are organising an Open Day at TotalHealthMatters! on Saturday 28th March, from 10am to 5pm. A great opportunity to learn more about Osteopathy, Buteyko Breathing Method, Hypnotherapy, NLP, Cranio-Sacral Therapy, and Life Coaching.
Michael Lingard BSc. DO. BBEC
Total Health Matters
St Bridgets
Rye Road
Hawkhurst Kent TN18 5DA
freephone 0800 781 2534

The post Do you eat a good mixed diet? appeared first on Wellbeing Magazine.

I was shocked as I was not obese and was I thought following a healthy diet. With readings like that, not surprisingly I was advised to take Metformin. I was told I would have this for life; it was in the family etc.

I was also advised to go on statins as I would be 5 times more likely to have heart problems now that I had been diagnosed with diabetes.

This umbrella of potential health problems concerned me and I wanted to avoid being on medication long term, particularly statins with the side effects that they have. However, I did not buy into this fear based approach to my health. My belief was that this was what my body was doing right now and that could change. I actually visualised myself writing about my return to health!

Thankfully, my friend David Hamilton sent me information about research at Newcastle University around low carb diets and Diabetes.

I took responsibility for my health and found a brilliant Nutritionist in Fleur Brown to help me address my problem with nutritional therapy.

She recommended that I follow a low carb diet and take some supplements to help balance myblood sugar levels.   Having followed that for 3 months, I am pleased to say that I have lost 1 stone ~ it was all around my middle ~ 3 inches off the waist !!!

• I now weigh in at 8 stone
• Have a BMI that is under 20
• Blood Glucose 5.5
• HBA1C 39

This week I was taken off Metformin and both my Doctor and Diabetes Nurse have acknowledged that my lifestyle changes have played a huge part, I would not have achieved this with drugs alone.

I am the first patient that the diabetic nurse has ever been able to do this with.

WELL DONE BEVERLEY !

From a nutritional therapist’s point of view, Beverley is the exemplary client.  I am impressed by her total dedication to trying to improve her health in a natural and holistic way and by her continued commitment to keeping on plan.

Her HbA1C (long term storage of glucose in the cells) and blood glucose levels were shockingly high.  Many medics would call this syndrome “syrup in the blood”.  Something had to be done……

It was evident from looking at Beverley’s 3 day Food Diary that she brought to her first consultation that her current diet was high in carbohydrates that contribute to glucose dysregulation.  These were jacket potatoes granola, bananas, malt loaf, and biscuits (foods recommended to diabetics routinely, but which play havoc with blood sugar levels).

To reduce the sugar in her blood, I recommended a very low carbohydrate diet avoiding all sugar and artificial sweeteners, high G.I. grains and fruits and starchy vegetables.  These were out and low GI fruits/vegetables, good amount of protein and full fat was in!  I asked Beverley to get her Vitamin D tested by her GP as low levels of this vitamin is linked to an increased propensity for blood sugar dysregulation.  The result was a very low level of 30 nmol/L.

On her new eating plan,  Beverley started with a breakfast of full fat Greek Yoghurt, berries, nuts and a ½ tsp of cinnamon (fantastic for glucose regulation), sometimes with a small amount of toasted organic oats or alternatively a breakfast of eggs, or goat/sheep’s cheese with organic rye bread and butter.  Lunch would be salad and good amounts of protein and dinner again protein with lots of vegetables, steamed or stir-fried.  Not a baked potato in sight!

This regime was supported with  supplements to help balance blood sugar levels and Vitamin D.

The weight started dropping off as well as fat around her middle, and her flexibility to do her yoga was improving too.  Within one month Beverley had lost ½ stone.

This approach flies in the face of the conventional approach of a high carb, low fat regime.  Most people following this sort of regime have to resort to a lifetime of poor blood sugar control and drugs.

With the more proven approach that nutritional therapist take to help clients with diabetes, the outcome of the programme speaks for itself – as Beverley states above.

Beverley Hamilton – Holistic Life Coach www.reikitherapist.co.uk 07946 473844

Fleur Brown Nutrition, Tunbridge Wells, Kent 01892 616621 www.fleurbrownnutrition.co.uk

The post Kicked diabetes into touch appeared first on Wellbeing Magazine.

Calorie counting and low fat diets only seem to work for a short space of time, and we now know low fat diets are not good for long term health. Calorie counting as well is not a justified way to lose weight long term – if all I had to do was stick within 1,500 calories a day, I’d save it all up and eat éclairs, wouldn’t you?! What calorie counting fails to do is to educate people in a way that they can eat great food for the rest of their lives. It also gets consumers fixated on the front of packaging forgetting to look at whats actually in the food they are buying. We tend to think of dieting as a modern phenomenon but in actual fact, we can go way back to the ancient Greeks and find a generation of people fascinated by food and diet. Throughout the centuries, there have been some extraordinary, weird and wacky ways of keeping off the pounds. Let’s travel back a bit in time and look at what was happening to our ancestors and conclude with the most recent craze the 5:2 intermittent fasting diet.

The Fruit and Vegetable Diet – around 500 BC

The ancient Greek mathematician Pythagoras and his followers, practised one of the first recorded diets, known as vegetarianism. Although ancient Greeks did have a penchant for the athletic look, Pythagoras’ abstinence from the heartier foods in life had little to do with becoming a perfect size ten. Vegetarianism was, in fact, the only way to ensure you were not eating your grandmother or another relative, whose soul could have transmigrated to your neighbour’s pig! (reincarnation was a popular belief in the Ancient world). The great mathematician was so passionate about his diet that he is said to have met his death defending a bean field.

The Jesus Diet  – 1 AD to 2000 AD
One of the oldest diets in history is the Jesus diet according to their website www.jesusdiet.com. The followers of this eating regime claim that almost all diseases and pains can be healed by fasting and prayer. You are only allowed to eat raw food (excluding meat) and eat twice a day at the most. These two meals have to be restricted to one or two pounds – although I can’t find anywhere in the Bible where it tells you this. Also they recommend a one day a week fast.

Bulimia or Ox-Hunger – The Middle Ages
Some say bulimia, curiously called Ox-Hunger long ago, first began in the Middle Ages. People at celebrations gorged on food and then induced purging through vomiting. Like the Romans, this early form of bulimia was not motivated by a desire to be slim for fashion’s sake. Instead, eating a lot is believed to have been a sign of wealth and status, and in certain countries even today, being thin or underweight is a sign of poverty not wealth.

Feverless consumption or hysteria – 1800s
This was thought to be a Victorian form of anorexia ‘hysteria’ sweeping through the middle classes and the aristocracy of Western Europe and North America during the second half of the 19th Century. Literally starving oneself was believed to be the fastest way to embody the Victorian fad of frailty, which was associated with spiritual purity and femininity. At that time, the aristocracy romanticised people who had tuberculosis, or consumption.

Cheyne’s lettuce diet
Medical doctor George Cheyne, little known today, was among the most quoted men in 18th Century Britain. A 450lb (that’s about 32 stone) obese man known for his Falstaffian appetite, he nevertheless advocated moderation to his neurotic clientele. This inventor of the all-lettuce diet was also a fellow sufferer who struggled with obesity and depression (so perhaps the lack of protein might have been an issue!). It’s amazing how lettuce is the first food we talk about when it comes to dieting!

20th Century Diets

The Mega-Bite Diet – 1910
Horace Fletcher, an american art dealer, earned his title ‘The Great Masticator’ – a reference to animals that ‘chew the cud’ – through his publication of a best-selling diet book. In it, he recommended chewing each mouthful at least 32 times until it became a thin, liquid paste, and that any food that couldn’t be broken down to a gruel consistency, had to be spat out. Fletcher claimed to lose 65 of his 217lbs through this remarkable method. The diet had a motto: “nature will castigate those who don’t masticate”. Although chewing and tasting food is important for digestion and would slow down mealtimes- this seems quite arduous to me and certainly not everyones taste!

The Hollywood 18-day Diet or Grapefruit Diet – 1920s to 2000s
The 1920s saw the emergence of glamorous flappers as the feminine ideal. In an effort to achieve this slim, hipless, flat-chested look, women tried the Hollywood 18-day, or Grapefruit Diet (which is still around today). The premise is to consume only 800 calories a day through eating barrels of ‘fat-burning’ grapefruits, so as to kick-start your metabolism. The only plus: You can have as much black coffee as you like. Please don’t try this!

The Tapeworm Diet – 1920s to date
Advertisements for tapeworm pills first emerged in the 1920s. Since then, a number of famous women are alleged to have tried this revolting eating plan. The tiny parasite lives in the intestine of the host, helping to consume the food. The result: You are hungry all the time but are still able to remain rail thin, however much you eat. One urban myth that circulated during the early 1980s claimed that a woman taking a ‘miracle diet pill’ lost such an alarming amount of weight in just a few weeks, her doctors decided to find out what was causing it; and when they opened the mysterious pills to investigate the contents, were greeted by the head of a tapeworm!

The Bland Diet – 1930s
This plan was advocated by American Presbyterian minister, Sylvester Graham, who was nicknamed ‘Dr Sawdust’. Bland foods such as crackers and dry bread were favoured over meat, spices and stimulants because, it was argued, that the spirit would grow strong only through denial of the flesh. He felt that resisting these luxurious foods would eventually encourage restraint in people’s sexual and social behaviour. Graham developed a band of supporters across the US but his diet soon lost popularity when devotees became too weak and ill. However, it’s interesting as we use the phrase ‘eat a bland diet’ if someone is recuperating after an operation or has just had a stomach bug.

Breatharian Diet – 1980s to 2000s
The Bretharian Institute of America  explains their philosophy in this statement:
“When humans reach the purest sense of harmony with the surrounding world, as well as a complete undersanding of each individual’s role as a function of God to create the universe, they will have reached a vibrational frequency on this material plane, where they no longer require food, water or sleep”
Ellen Greve, an Australian who practices this particular brand of madness, has 5000 disciples and charges more than £1000 per ticket for her seminars, where she attempts to liberate people from the “drudgery of food and drink”. As a food lover and devotee of good food, I will pass on this!

The Atkins Diet – 1970s to date
A whole host of celebrities, from Nigella Lawson to Renee Zellweger, have embraced this carb-shunning, protein-heavy diet, as did the public. The Atkins Diet Books hit the top spot in bestseller lists everywhere, although the diet suffered a minor blip when Dr Robert Atkins died after slipping on an icy pavement in New York in 2003. It remains popular, although the GI (Glycaemic Index) Diet seems to have now claimed the top spot.
When I did some research on how many diets there are today, I stopped when it reached over a hundred – but here are some of the most popular.

• Rosemary Conley
• South Beach Diet
• East Right for your Blood Type Diet
• Cambridge Diet
• GI/GL Diet
• The Grapefruit Diet
• The Atkins Diet
• The F Plan Diet
• Jenny Craig
• The Dukan Diet
• The Hay Diet
• Macrobiotic Diet
• The Scarsdale Diet
• 7lbs in 7 days etc
• Weightwatchers
• Cabbage soup Diet
• Lighterlife
• Surelim
• Slimfast

The 5:2 diet: what is it and how does it work?

Bringing us right up to date is this new way of eating, which has started a new craze of trying to prevent ageing and also lose weight at the same time.

With the 5:2 diet, you can eat whatever you like five days a week – so-called feeding days. On the two “fasting days” you eat 500 calories if you are a woman, or 600 calories if you are a man. It doesn’t matter which days are spent “feeding” and which “fasting”, as long as the fasting days are non-consecutive and you stick to the 5:2 ratio.
On fasting days you can consume your calories in one go, or spread them through the day – there is no medical research into whether filling up at breakfast or snacking throughout the day is more effective for weight loss.
A typical fasting-day breakfast of 300 calories might consist of two scrambled eggs with ham (good sources of protein), plenty of water, green tea or black coffee. For a typical 300-calorie lunch or dinner, try grilled fish or meat with vegetables.
On feeding days you can eat whatever you like. Most dieters, rather than feeling a need to gorge, found that they were happy to consume around 2,000 calories – the recommended daily intake for women (2,600 for men) – and did not crave high-fat foods.

Contrary to popular opinion, fasting can be a healthy way to lose weight. It can reduce levels of IGF-1 (insulin-like growth factor 1, which leads to accelerated ageing), switches on DNA repair genes and reduces blood pressure, cholesterol and glucose levels.

According to current medical opinion, the benefits of fasting are unproven. As a diet, it is not recommended for pregnant women or diabetics on medication. Anyone considering a diet that involves fasting is advised to consult their GP first, and to do it under medical supervision.

So my thoughts on this. Well my father was all over this 5:2 diet immediately he turned on to the Dr Michael Mosley Horizon documentary. In five weeks he and his partner had limited success. He initially lost some weight but put it on as soon as he starting eating normally. His blood pressure and cholesterol stayed the same. His partner lost overall only five pounds. What they missed was the social aspect of eating together and a glass of wine at the weekends. What we don’t know of course is Michael Mosley’s glucose, BP, cholesterol levels and IGF-1 markers. They may have been so high that this way of eating would have helped anyway.

So how do you lose weight?

Eat less and exercise more? Oh, if it were only that simple. You need to find a way of eating that you can continue for the rest of your life, and therefore can’t be labelled a ‘diet’. And it’s mostly about carbs not fat!! A tailor-made programme for your own personal needs is the way to go and not a diet in sight – as we know diets don’t work. As soon as you stop, you put the weight back on and this is why today’s diet industry is worth $40-$100 billion in the US (yes, it’s big business) and over £2 billion in the UK. Remember 95% of slimmers regain the weight. All to often I see the devastating impact losing ten stone with diet programmes can have, once the weight is regained. The feeling of failure is palpable in people. Unless you need to lose weight fast for example bariatric surgery this is not the road to take.

If you would like a sensible no nonsense approach to long term weight loss please contact me for more details about my Weight Loss Package. You will have individualised advice and support over four months.
Tel: 01323 737814. www.katearnoldnutrition.co.uk

The post Diets through the ages appeared first on Wellbeing Magazine.