Why you need avocados in your life - even the stone!

Hmmmmmm, deliciously creamy, totally yummy avocados!  I love them!  But let's face it, avocados have been on the danger list for decades.  Apparently avocados are fattening.

Well I have some good news... this wonderful fruit (yes, it is a fruit!) is not fattening.  They are however powerhouses of goodness packed full of nutrients:

-  Protein = 3g for 1 cup
-  Carbohydrates = 12.8g for 1 cup (but good carbs that aren't refined)
-  Fat: monounsaturated heart healthy fat - just like olive oil
-  Dietary fiber: making you feel fuller for longer
-  Vitamins: Water soluble; B-complex and vitamin C
                    Fat soluble vitamins A, D, E and K
-  16 minerals such as: Calcium, Iron, Magnesium, Potassium, Selenium, Sodium and Zinc
-  Fatty Acids: Omega 3, Omega 6, Mono and Polyunsaturated fatty acids, low levels of saturated          fatty acids
-  18 individual amino acids, including the 9 that are essential for human health: Histidine, Isoleucine,    Leucine, Lysine, Methionine, Phenylalanine, Threonine, Tryptophan, Valine

And that's just for starters!  So don't be afraid of avocados anymore.  You can eat the to your heart's content.

However, what you probably don't know either is that the stone (pit or seed) is even better for you than the flesh.

And here are a good few reasons as to why:

1. The seed or stone is packed full of soluble fibers beating most other foods on this planet in fiber content.
2. The avocado seed contains flavonol, a cancer fighting powerful antioxidant that helps to prevent or reduce tumor growth.
3. 70% of the antioxidants are found in the seed.  The antioxidants neutralize free radicals which are linked to obesity and many other diseases.  Avocado seeds contain polyphenols similar to those found in green tea.
4. The seeds aid digestive problems; avocado seeds are used for easing dysentery, diarrhea, and preventing and relieving constipation.
5. They are heart healthy!  Avocado seeds are high in dietary fiber that lowers cholesterol, in fact it actually binds cholesterol BEFORE it is absorbed in the blood.
6. They also help lower blood glucose and therefore help to maintain a healthy weight.
7. Avocado seeds help strengthen the immune system and keeping free radicals under control.
8. Anti-ageing properties.  Again it's antioxidants help slow the ageing process and the formation of wrinkles.  They also have the ability to rebuild collagen which keeps your skin young and firm.

So the big question is: how do you eat avocado seed?  Well you have to grind it up.  So you can either cut it up or smash it into chunks and then put it in a blender and grind to a powder.  You can add it to smoothies, sauces and dressings.  However, it has a fairly bitter taste so you may need to check for taste and add raw honey or stevia if necessary.

I can help you improve your health.  If you would like to make an appointment with me either in person or via Skype, just send me an email to lucycarr@socialnutrition.com

My Philosophy

You all know me by now, Lucy Carr aka Social Nutrition.  I try and find interesting subjects to talk about every week which I hope will help you make healthy choices in your life, and/or help you to understand how food affects our bodies.

I have to say, it isn't easy to come up with an article every Thursday, so today I decided to talk to you about me.  What I believe is the way to achieve health and an ideal weight.

My philosophy:

It's all about health NOT about being skinny.  My job is to make you healthy, and if that means you need to lose weight in the process to achieve that goal, then I will make sure that you do.  But I will not take you from a size 2 to a size 0, just because you want to.

You HAVE TO EAT.  To me a diet is not about grilled chicken and lettuce.  To me a diet is about eating healthily for YOUR body and lifestyle and eating as deliciously as possible.

Any PROCESSED "food" is not, in my opinion... Food.  You have to think natural... our digestive tracts have not changed in over 10,000 years what makes you think your body knows what to do with vast amounts of salt and sugar?  This also means NO REFINED CARBOHYDRATES.  The refining process removes all the nutrients from natural foods, you must eat whole foods. So forget the junk food, processed foods and anything with a label - especially if the "ingredients" have a lot of E numbers and names you can't pronounce - that's not food.  Food is meat, fish, poultry, vegetables, legumes, fruit, nuts and seeds.

EXERCISE is a must.  What ever your goal in life is you need to include exercise.  Exercise alone will not help you lose weight, but the winning combination of diet and exercise will.  Also, if you don't need to lose weight you still need exercise.  Exercise is good for the body AND the mind so find a sport you like - even if it's just a brisk walk, and include it into your daily schedule.

Don't count calories... it doesn't help at all.  The body processes calories from different sources in
different ways.  Protein is used for building (growth) and repair, carbs for INSTANT energy, etc...  So depending on what your calorie source is, it will be used in different ways by your body.  The calories from carbs will be stored as glucose in your muscles so that you have energy ready for when you need to... say... run for a bus.  The problem is, not many of us are running for buses lately.  Our sedentary lifestyles and the high content of carbs in our diets means we aren't using up that energy source and so the body stores it as fat... you know, just in case it's needed further down the line.  Now this would be ok if we:

A)  Used up our glucose stores by moving around all the time.

B)  Didn't continue to pour in carbs upon carbs augmenting the already existent stores of glucose.

If you have never learned to cook, learn now.  The best thing you can do for yourself and your family is to cook.  Learn how to feed yourself properly and you can have an amazing time doing just that.  Get the kids in the kitchen and teach them too.  That way, not only will they learn to cook, but they will learn what a healthy diet is, where meals come from, etc..  This is precious knowledge that will keep them healthy on all levels all their lives.

YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT.  Most people groan when they hear this, but it is so true it's frightening.  Food affects every process in the body.  The digestive tract is the only other organ in the body that produces neurotransmitters, so your brain and your stomach are closely connected.  Treat them both well by feeding them what they need.  Nowadays, we are lucky to have more and more information about the affects of food on our bodies.  We know how Alzheimer's and Dementia can be affected by the lack of certain foods or their components or how Coconut Oil can HELP Alzheimer's patients.  More importantly we know that a healthy diet and exercise can prevent the onset of Alzheimer's or Dementia and how those two things can help people suffering from depression.

I think I have said in almost every post I have ever written that obesity causes; metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, heart disease and some cancers to name but a few serious diseases caused by being overweight.  It isn't just about what size you are, it goes way beyond that and once your health is affected then things are more difficult to correct - not impossible, just more difficult.

Now, I treat each person as an individual.  No two people are the same, not even from the same family.  This why I believe so much in food intolerances.  It is easier to help someone and quicker to see the results if the diet is tailor made for that person.  Yes, you can suggest a weight loss program without doing an intolerance test, and if the person does it properly they will lose weight.  But with food intolerance testing we can speed up that process and better that person's health in the process as well as helping them to lose weight.  

Some of my patients don't even need to lose weight and come to me for help with digestive problems, migraines or other health problems.  

Finding out what YOUR body can't process and therefore can't benefit from is very important and by changing your diet, even slightly, we can improve your health on all levels.  Removing the foods that your body can't assimilate leaves a clear pathway for the foods you can, meaning more nutrients are assimilated by the body.

So, what are you waiting for?  It's up to you!

I can help you improve your health.  If you would like to make an appointment with me either in person or via Skype, just send me an email to lucycarr@socialnutrition.com

It's not in the calories...

How many times have I said this?  No seriously, how many?  There is no need to count calories, weigh your food, or register how many calories you have eaten and how many you have burned.  A balanced diet with natural, unprocessed foods is what you need - that and exercise.

A balanced diet with healthy foods does a lot more for you than just losing weight - if necessary.  Our guts are full of bacteria - they are essential for health - but not all of them are good bacteria.  Professor Tim Spector, a genetics expert at King's College London, believes that our gut bacteria is responsible for weight gain - and loss.  He has found that the type and variety of gut bacteria have an amazing influence on many health aspects:

"Microbes are not only essential to how we digest food, they also control the calories we absorb and provide vital enzymes and vitamins, as well as keeping out immune systems healthy," he says.

He believes that the right diet and exercise regimen allows us to change out individual mix of gut bacteria and turn it into one that benefits us keeping us healthy, happy and at an ideal weight.

We are all unique right down to our gut bacteria.  Even identical twins that are genetically identical do not have the same reaction to diet and food, meaning their gut environments are different.  Prof. Spector has studied 11,000 sets of identical twins over 2 decades.  If he put twins on the same high fat, high calorie diet, they didn't necessarily gain weight in the same way; after 6 weeks some will have gained anything up to 13kg and others as little as 4kg.

His main concern is that the modern diet is affecting the bacteria in our guts, compared to our ancestors, we only have a fraction of the diversity of microbial species living in our guts.  15,000 years ago, our ancestors regularly ate around 150 ingredients in a week.  Nowadays, most people consume less than 20 separate food items, and a lot of these come from processed foods.

Prof. Spector decided to test the effect a junk food diet has on our gut bacteria.  To do this, he got his son to help.  Tom Spector, a 22 year old student, volunteered to eat only McDonald's and Coke for 10 days.  By day 6 he said he felt bloated and sluggish and by day 8 he started to sweat after eating.

Prof. Spector said:

"Tom found that his assignments took even longer than usual. Friends remarked that his skin seemed to have a yellow tinge and he looked unwell."

By the end of the experiment, Tom had put on 4lb (1.8kg).  But what was even more astonishing were the test results on his gut bacteria.  The results showed that by as little as day 3, 40% of his gut bacteria had died.  What's more, the bacteria that were still alive were mainly the dangerous kind and levels of health-promoting bacteria had taken a nose dive.

For example; Tom's level of firmicutes - which create chemicals that fuel our cells with sugars, fatty acids, proteins and vitamins and therefore enabling the body's systems to communicate with one another correctly - had halved.

Meanwhile, Tom showed higher levels of bacteria associated with inflammation, which is linked to heart disease, cancer and damage to the immune system.  Prof. Spector also found that certain rare bacteria species flourished on the diet, including Lautropia - which is usually only found in immune-deficient patients.

Tom's gut bacteria slowly returned to normal after he began eating healthily again - but it took a while.

So, how do you improve your gut bacteria?

A natural, varied and balanced diet with no processed foods, for starters.

Exercise is also very important.  Nutritionists at University College Cork, Ireland, found that athletes on the national Irish rugby team had much more diverse gut bacteria than normal and lower levels of inflammation.  Prof. Spector also found from his studies on twins that the amount of exercise they took was the strongest factor in promoting the richness of gut bacteria.

Avoid Artificial Sweeteners.  Anything that is categorized as "food" but made entirely in a lab  can't be good for anyone!

Rats fed with artificial sweeteners at the recommended human doses for 3 months were found to have significantly lower levels and diversity of gut bacteria.  Israeli researchers discovered that artificial sweeteners can alter the balance of gut bacteria in mice, so that the bugs, in turn, release chemicals that RAISE blood sugar levels, and therefore increase the risk of weight gain and diabetes.

The good news is that dark chocolate is GOOD for your gut.  Participants in a study at Reading University, UK, were given cocoa extracts for 4 weeks, researchers found that their levels of beneficial gut bacteria had risen significantly, and their levels of potentially harmful bacteria and inflammation had fallen.

Just remember it has to be dark chocolate.

I can help you improve your health.  If you would like to make an appointment with me either in person or via Skype, just send me an email to lucycarr@socialnutrition.com

The hunger neurons

To be honest, in my opinion the worst thing about dieting is psychologically induced.  Let's face it, the minute someone (like me) tells you you can't eat bread even though you probably didn't eat it often, you suddenly start craving bread.  This is just an example.  It could be bread, biscuits or anything else you fancy.  There are also the pesky hunger pangs which also tend to be more psychological than physical.  You may feel hungry but you probably aren't really.  It's the simple fact that your brain is telling you that you should feel hungry because you are on a diet.  Oh, and let's not forget that irritability... brave be the person who dares ask you a question!!!!!

My simple answer to this is to not sit around and dwell on it.  Do something positive, get up and move, clean something, go for a walk, play with your kids... the list is endless.

However, there are worse cases than a normal diet to lose a few pounds for the summer.  There are people who are morbidly obese, obese, obese children and people who are generally overweight.  All of these cases are at a higher risk of developing insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, heart disease and cancer.  We also know that treating obesity is cheaper than treating any of the aforementioned diseases that are also potentially life threatening.

Luckily a new scientific discovery has emerged.  This new discovery centers on a tiny group of brain cells known as PVH MC4R neurons.  This group accounts for only a few hundred of the billions of cells in the brain - but don't underestimate this little bunch, they are highly powerful.  Scientists have discovered that switching the PCH MC4R neurons OFF causes a fierce spike in hunger and turning them ON stops hunger in it's tracks.

So far, the only experiments carried out have been on mice, but they seem promising.  In one experiment, mice that went to sleep on full stomachs became "ravenous" when the cells were switched off.

Alastair Garfield, a researcher at Edinburgh University said that the effect was similar to someone who had finished their dinner at 9pm waking up at midnight and being so hungry they ate their breakfast.

However, scientists found that the opposite is also true.  Stimulating this group of cells that they have nicknamed "the hunger hub", meant that the animals' appetites were diminished to the extent that mice that hadn't been fed for a while, barely ate anything at all.

The scientists are trying to understand what feelings the PCH MC4R neurons produce to stop the mice from eating.  The placed hungry mice in a clear box with two rooms, one of which was being blasted with a laser light designed to activate the hunger hub.  The hungry mice were drawn to this side of the box which suggests that they liked the effect it was having on their brains.  The mice that had been fed before entering the box divided their time between both rooms.

The scientists believe that the hunger hub does not cut appetite by creating unpleasant feelings of nausea, but release a good feeling that banishes hunger pangs and irritability.

Bradford Lowell, a researcher at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston said:

"Turning on the PVH MC4R had the same effect as dieting.

"But because it directly reduced hunger drive, it did not cause the gnawing feelings of discomfort that often come with dieting."

Dr. Garfield said:

"If you could design a magic bullet, something that could fly through the brain and hit just these cells and turn them on, then I think we would see the same effects in humans as in mice.

"The problem is that it is very difficult to design a drug that is so specific to one area of the brain."

With obesity on a seemingly uncontrollable rise with the World Health Organization predicting horrendous levels of obesity for 2030, let's hope they manage to design the magic pill that will activate the hunger hub and help tens of thousands of obese people to take back control and lose weight, get their lives back and drop their associated health risks.

 I can help you improve your health.  If you would like to make an appointment with me either in person or via Skype, just send me an email to lucycarr@socialnutrition.com