The diet rules you DON'T need.

It seems that everyone has an opinion on dieting and what you SHOULD do.  Well, I have seen a lot during my years as a Nutritionist.  I have read loads of books on new diet fads that claim they will change your life as well as your body.  Most of them are very restrictive, cutting out whole foods groups and eliminating the enjoyment we all get from food.

All you really need to do is keep a level head and think about what your body actually needs: lots of fruit and vegetables, a little protein, and a few whole grains.  That is what our digestive system can cope with.  If you listen to your body, it will tell you when it is hungry, when it is thirsty and when it is full.

Here are the "rules" you need not obey:

1. Eat protein in every meal.  Protein is an essential building block for everything that grows and needs repair.  However, protein is not just found in animal meat, it is also in vegetables.  So, if you want to bulk up on muscle mass, go to the gym and eat your greens!
2. Milk is good for you.  You all know my opinion on milk - we don't need it!  We are told to drink milk for strong bones, whereas in reality, milk causes the body to become acidic and therefore leeches calcium from the bones to reduce the acidity.  Calcium can be found in many natural sources which are far more bioavailable such as raw almonds and green leafy vegetables and broccoli.
3. You need to eat 5 meals a day.  Not many of us have time to sit down to 5 meals a day.  Stick to breakfast, lunch and dinner and a healthy snack of fruit or a handful of nuts.  Lots of people I know can't eat first thing in the morning, don't worry, just make sure you have something to eat a couple of hours before lunch or you will overeat at lunchtime!
4. If you are trying to lose weight eat smaller portions.  Well this could well be a good idea if
   
   you are the "super size me" type.  But it all boils down to WHAT you are eating.  If you are eating fruit for breakfast - eat as much as you want!  Bulk up your meals with lots of healthy salads and vegetables - raw is better.  Vegetables provide large amounts of fibre which will fill you up for longer.  Also, eat mindfully and slowly, it takes about 20 minutes for your stomach to send a message to your brain that you are full, so eat slowly and give your body time to send the correct messages otherwise you will overeat.
5. Watch your calories.  Well as I have said in a previous post NOT all calories are the same and this is so true.  It all depends on what your calories are made up of - refined carbs and sugar are the biggest weight gainers by far just because of the way the body reacts to them, if not used immediately they are stored as fat.  Animal protein and animal fat are actually not as dangerous as assumed.  Healthy fats do not make you put on weight when included in a balanced diet and are also essential for the body.  So, animal protein a few times a week and healthy fats in nuts and butter actually do you good!
6. Healthy = vegan.  This depends on the vegan... good vegans that eat fresh foods such as fruit and vegetables, nuts and legumes are on to a good thing.  A plant based diet is beneficial to everyone and should be the base of everyone's diet.  However, there is no harm in adding in a little animal protein if you like it - personally, I love a steak every now and again.  Also, things like Oreos are vegan - yes - you hadn't thought of that one had you?  But they are packed full of sugar and additives and according to a recent report, are as addictive as cocaine!  So, if you want to be vegan go ahead... but do it properly.
7. Avocados and coconuts are fattening.  There is nothing fattening about these foods when eaten
   
   correctly.  They are packed full of healthy fats and fibre and make your skin and hair glow.  As you may have read in my post a couple of weeks back "Coconut Oil is good for EVERYTHING", and it really is, it is much better for cooking as it does not go rancid at high temperatures and you can even use it as moisturizer for skin and hair, deodorant and a whole host of other things - it's cheap too!
8. You must drink 8 glasses of water a day.  Water is essential for the body, it's also great for your skin, but really?  8 glasses a day?  Not 7 or 9?  Drink small amounts of water throughout the day and more if your body is telling you you are thirsty.  If you drink too much in one go the body can not take full advantage of it so sip continuously.
9. Cholesterol free labels must mean it's good for you.  Cholesterol - that problem number on your annual check-up.  Actually our bodies make cholesterol so I can't believe that something our own bodies produce is out to kill us!  Of course you have to differentiate between good and bad cholesterol.  Cholesterol is also obtained from animal fats - so if a packet of bread or a bottle of juice has "cholesterol free" stamped on it, it's pretty much a marketing ploy, these products shouldn't have animal fat in them to start of with.

The one golden rule to follow:

Eat fresh and natural and steer clear of processed and refined foods.

I wish you all happy holidays and an amazing and healthful New Year.  I will be back on the 9th of January with a new post.

Social Nutrition:

You can make an appointment to improve your health with Social Nutrition either in person (Madrid) or online (Skype).  Just send an email to lucycarr@socialnutrition.com

How to survive the holiday season, be healthy and still have fun...

Lots of people both love and hate the holiday season.  It's that time of year when invitations to parties are rife, alcohol flows, your mother spends all the time in the kitchen cooking decadent dishes and exercise is limited due to all the social obligations.  Lots of my patients look upon this time of year with terror, after several months or even a year of making dietary changes and losing weight or getting their digestive systems in tip top working order I get comments like:

"You have no idea how much food my mother produces!"

"I have loads of business functions to attend and it's all buffets and canapés - there's no way I am going to be able to resist!"

"I can't not drink!  My mates won't understand!"

These are just three of the many I get, but you understand.  So here are a few tips for surviving the buffet table, over eating, alcohol and the dreaded hang over!  I'm afraid that I don't have much of an answer for your mother's cooking!

1. Don't shop too far in advance.  Lots of shops have special offers on at this time of year, especially, it seems on chocolate and biscuits.  Don't think your being clever buying them in advance, if they're in the cupboard, you will eat them and then you'll have to buy them all over again for when your family and/or guests arrive.  Leave that to the last minute, in the meantime fill your kitchen with healthy snacks.  If you look after yourself in the run up to the holidays, any "damage" you do will be less.
2. Change your mind set.  Think positively and remember that at any other time of year, if you had a party to attend you would cut back and be strict with your diet for a day or two before the party and then a day or two afterwards.  Do the same here, be good to yourself in the run up, eat lots of fruit and raw vegetables, a little bit of fish or meat and hold the dessert.  Then remember that lunch on the 25th is basically turkey with vegetables.  If you really want to look after yourself
   
   follow this basic rule:
• Don't mix your carbs and proteins.  By all means eat the turkey and the vegetables but don't have the potatoes or bread sauce!  After a protein meal, let at least 2 hours go by before you eat carbs - so you can always have your dessert a couple of hours later.  Believe me, with all the friends and family around and present opening, those two hours will fly by!  
3. Be intelligent about left overs and gifts of food.  Quite often people will bring you food as presents when you invite them to your house.  More chocolate biscuits, mince pies, stollen, etc.. This means that you will have even more food left over.  So what to do with the leftovers?  Keep the meat and vegetable leftovers, give away the rest.  You are sure to be invited to someone else's house so take things with you too!  Or you can donate them to charity to help cheer up someone else's holiday season.
4. Buffet strategy.  A buffet table is everyone who is trying to look after themselves' nightmare.  All that delicious looking food begging to be eaten!  So, how to get through the buffet and not eat too much?  Use a dessert plate, not a large dinner plate, fill it once and then sit away from the buffet table so you aren't tempted to go back for more!  Also avoid beige food.  Beige food tends to be fried, covered in breadcrumbs or pastry and therefore a very unhealthy choice.  Go for the more colorful foods which are more likely to be fruit or vegetable based.
5. Are you going to a party where there will be lots of alcohol?  There is nothing wrong with a few drinks every now and again and obviously the holiday season is rife with alcohol; eggnog, hot wine, champagne, wine with every meal, party cocktails... so here is what you can do to make sure you navigate the party circuit in the best possible way:

• Never drink on an empty stomach - plain yogurt with a banana is an excellent stomach liner prior to going out partying.
• Limit fizzy alcoholic drinks - it's true they really do go straight to your head.  The bubbles speed up your absorption of alcohol, so limit the number of glasses of sparkling wine, fizzy cocktails and champagne.
• Avoid a nightcap - darker drinks, especially spirits like brandy or whisky have higher levels of compounds called congeners, these are formed during the fermentation and distilling process.  It is thought that these compounds make your hangover worse - so if you really can't avoid that nightcap, try a white spirit instead.
• Drink plenty of water - hangovers are mainly a hydration problem, so drink lots of water before going to bed.
6. The next day... if you are hungover, the best way to recover is:
• DO NOT succumb to the old belief of "hair of the dog", more alcohol is really not the answer!
• Drink coconut water; it's great hydrating properties will work wonders - or you can make your own hydrating drink; just mix a tablespoon of sugar and a teaspoon of salt in a pint of water and sip throughout the morning.
• Limit your caffeine intake.  Too much caffeine will only aggravate your already flagging hydration levels - so just have one cup of coffee until your are feeling normal again.
• Eat!  Have a nice simple breakfast; brown toast with a poached egg, grilled tomatoes and
  
  mushrooms and a glass of orange juice will have you back on track in no time!
• Avoid painkillers such as aspirin and ibuprofen.  They may take your headache away but they will irritate your upset stomach.
• Resist your cravings - quite often your body cries out for fast food, doughnuts and sugar, sugar, sugar!  Don't give in!  Sugary drinks and foods will only add to your already unbalanced blood sugar levels.  Eat fresh fruit instead or have a smoothie made from fruit and yogurt.
7. Exercise.  Go for a brisk walk after lunch, it will help with digestion.

I wish you all a happy and healthy holiday season!

Social Nutrition:

You can make an appointment to improve your health with Social Nutrition either in person (Madrid) or online (Skype).  Just send an email to lucycarr@socialnutrition.com

Going nuts could save your life!

Nuts have had a slightly negative press for years as they are considered fattening.  They are fairly high in calories but have so many other benefits to offer that they should be an important part of your diet.

A recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine highlights the health benefits of nuts.  The good thing about this investigation into the benefits to nuts is that it followed 100.000 men and women over several decades, so not just a quick look on a small scale.  It concluded that eating nuts helped the participants to lead healthier lives, pushing back the inevitable conclusion we all face eventually in life... death.  Seven or more servings of nuts per week cut the risk of dying by A THIRD (one serving was defined as one ounce, which is about a handful of almonds).

Specifically it was found that the participants who ate nuts five or more times a week had a 29% reduction in death from heart disease; an 11% reduction in death from stroke; a 23% reduction in death from infection; a 24% reduction in death from respiratory diseases; a 29% reduction in death from kidney disease; and an 11% reduction in death from cancer.

Need I say more?

A famous study of Seventh-Day Adventists ( a religious movement in the United States) who consume a low-fat, plant-based diet, compared nut eaters with non nut eaters, anticipating that the nuts which are high in calories and fat, might just raise their risk of heart disease.  However, even though this group is on a heart healthy diet which is mostly vegetarian, those Adventists that ate nuts at least five times a week had a 48% lower risk of death from coronary heart disease and a 51% lower risk of non fatal heart attack compared to those who consumed nuts less than once a week.

The FDA isn't happy about nut manufacturers toting the health benefits of nuts to consumers.
 Recently, the FDA sent a letter to Diamond Food Inc., a producer of walnuts, ordering them to "cease and desist" from making medical claims about their products.  The FDA even threatened to confiscate the "misbranded" nuts as illegal contraband.

So why are nuts so good for us?

1. Nuts are a perfect VEGAN food.  The current fashion for plan based diets means that nuts provide essential protein and oils that balance a vegetarian diet that might otherwise be too carb-rich and lacking in beneficial fats and certain vitamins and minerals.
2. Nuts are PALEO.  This means that with the exception of peanuts, which are actually legumes.  Tree nuts and seeds are ancient staples of the human diet to which millions of years of evolution have made suitable for our human bodies.
3. Nuts are LOW-CARB and therefore low GI.  The Glycemic Index or GI, tells us how quickly the sugars in foods are digested, absorbed, and released into the blood stream.  High GI foods tend to overwhelm the body's sugar handling capacity, which leads to metabolic syndrome and diabetes.  Nuts are relatively low-carb to begin with, and the carbs they contain are released slowly after a meal so they don't cause a spike in blood glucose which causes the body to release insulin to normalize the blood glucose level.  They are also a great way of quashing a sugar-craving or hypoglycemia.
4. Nuts make you feel full.  Eating nuts promotes a feeling of being full, even though they are high in calories.  They actually stop your cravings for sugar laden, high-fat foods.  Some studies suggest that incorporating nuts into your diet will actually help you to lose weight - not put it on.
5. Nuts are high fiber.  Nuts are high in soluble fiber, the best kind of fiber for slashing your risk of cancer and heart disease.
6. Nuts are a great source of PHYTOSTEROLS.  These are plant sterols which are thought to bind to cholesterol and help to eliminate it from the body; the American Heart Association recognizes phytosterols as a natural form of reducing the risk of heart disease.
7. Nuts contain healthy fats and oils.  Nuts are rich in essential fatty acids such as linoleic acid and alpha linolenic acids.  Essential means that we need to get these from our foods as our bodies can not make it by themselves.  A lack of essential fatty acids can cause dry skin, inflammation, infertility, mood and memory problems and promote heart disease.
8. Nuts, as I have said before, are a great source of Vitamin E.  Vitamin E is a vital anti-aging vitamin and nuts are the best natural source of this critical antioxidant.
9. Nuts are high in B vitamins.  B vitamins are essential for a healthy mind and body, they ease stress, treat anxiety and depression, aid memory, relieve PMS and reduce heart disease risk, they can even help with migraines.  Nuts provide many vital B vitamins such as riboflavin, niacin, thiamin, pantothenic acid, vitamin B6 and folates.
10. Nuts are a great source of POLYPHENOLS.  These great antioxidants derived from plants protect the body against free radicals.  Nuts contain a wide range of polyphenols, including resveratrol (anti-aging), lutein, cryptoxanthin and many others.  Flaxseeds and sesame seeds are high in lignans, a specific subtype of polyphenols that may protect against reproductive cancers.
11. Nuts are rich in ZINC.  I love zinc, it is a great immune system booster and aids in reproductive function.  Some very strict vegetarians don't get enough of this mineral.  Zinc also helps in its immune capacity to ward of colds and flu.
12. Nuts are high in MAGNESIUM.  Magnesium is another critical mineral which aids in over 300 enzyme systems that regulate diverse biochemical reactions in the body including; protein synthesis, muscle and nerve function, blood glucose control, and blood pressure regulation.  Lack of Magnesium often manifests itself as fatigue or irritability and can cause and increase in risk of heart problems, diabetes and high blood pressure.
13. Nuts deliver COPPER.  This mineral is essential for brain development and maintenance, efficient communication between nerve cells, healthy skin and connective tissue, healing, structural integrity and function of heart and blood vessels, growth of new blood vessels, proper structure and function of circulating blood cells, formation of white blood cells (immune system), maintenance of a healthy and effective immune response, generation and storage of energy in cells and mitochondria.
14. Nuts deliver SELENIUM.  Selenium is a major immune booster and just three Brazil Nuts per day can provide all the selenium you need, especially if you are a vegan or vegetarian.
15. Nuts are user friendly.  If you spend a lot of time out of the house, and need to take food with you, a small packet of nuts is easy to carry, won't spill or make a mess.  It's much better to eat a handful of nuts than to snack on doughnuts or other sweets at work.

So, got nuts for nuts... they really will save your life!

Social Nutrition:

You can make an appointment to improve your health with Social Nutrition either in person (Madrid) or online (Skype).  Just send an email to lucycarr@socialnutrition.com