Quick and Easy Salad Recipe

Hi there, it's Monday recipe time again.  You might recognize the photo from my post last Thursday, but this recipe just seemed so quick and easy that I just had to try it.  It also goes with everything or you can eat it on it's own - whichever you decide I hope you enjoy it!

1 ripe avocado
2 ripe vine tomatoes
A good chunk of cucumber
1/2 a red onion

Dressing:
Juice of 1 lemon and olive oil, salt and pepper to taste.

Chop all the ingredients and place in a bowl.  Add salt and pepper and then squeeze the lemon juice over the top and add olive oil.  Taste to make sure you have enough lemon juice to give it some zing.

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

Fat to lower obesity

On the 14th April 2016 I wrote a post called "Don't Fear the Fat" which if you read it, you'll know is all about how fat isn't as dangerous as we have been told it is for the past few decades.

Today (23rd May 2016 at the time of writing), the National Obesity Forum and the Public Health Collaboration in the UK, have released a report which pretty much shows that most of what we have been told about how to eat a healthy balanced diet is basically... wrong.

The authors of the report say that the obesity epidemic is not only very real, but that it's roots lie in the belief that low fat diets are good for us.  The report states that:

"Eating a diet rich in full-fat dairy - such as cheese, milk and yoghurt - can actually lower the chance of obesity."

It goes on to say:

"The most natural and nutritious foods available - meat, fish, eggs, dairy products, nuts, seeds, olives, avocados - all contain saturated fat."

Ok, now I am NOT an advocate of dairy produce.  No other mammals need milk or milk products after weaning, so why do we?  Or the link dairy produce has with cáncer and osteoporosis... but don't get me started on this one, otherwise this post will go on for way too long.

However, low fat or even no fat products, to me are deceiving.  When you remove fat from a food, it becomes tasteless and therefore unappetizing.  So manufacturers replace the fat with sugar, salt or both.  We now know that what makes us gain the most weight is sugar and other forms of carbohydrates, so which would you prefer a yummy something with its natural fat, or a processed salt
and/or sugar ridden substance?

Anyway, getting back to the point at hand.  A summary of this (in my point of view - wonderful report) is:

1.  Processed foods labelled "low fat", "lite", "low cholesterol" or "proven to lower cholesterol" should be avoided at all costs.

2.  People with type 2 diabetes should eat a fat-rich diet rather than a carbohydrate based diet.

3.  Everyone should avoid sugar and we should stop counting calories and focus on fresh, whole foods.

4.  Exercise does not reverse the negative effects of a bad diet.  You need to change your diet and do the exercise to improve health.

5.  "An effective and safe approach for preventing weight gain and aiding weight loss" is a diet low in refined carbohydrates but high in healthy fats.

6.  "The continued demonization of omnipresent natural fat drives people away from highly nourishing, wholesome and health promoting foods."

The amount of times I have to convince my clients that it's OK to eat avocados is unbelievable.  Avocados have had such bad press for so long that most people believe they are extremely fattening, when in fact, they aren't.  They are packed full of healthy fats that our bodies need.  The same goes for nuts.  People gasp in horror when they are told to eat nuts, this is mainly because everyone thinks of nuts are the salted, roasted variety.

Raw almonds are packed full of amazingly nutritious properties, and clinical studies have proven that people who eat a handful of nuts 3-5 times a week live longer than those who don't.

Professor David Haslam, chairman of the National Obesity Forum said,

"As a clinician, treating patients all day every day, I quickly realized guidelines from on high, suggesting high carbohydrate, low fat diets were the universal panacea, were deeply flawed.

"Current efforts have failed - the proof being that obesity levels are higher than they have ever been, and show no chance of reducing despite the best efforts of the Government and scientists."

Other people such as Tim Noakes, a marathon runner, author, scientist and emeritus professor in the Division of Exercise Science and Sports Medicine at the University of Cape Town,  says that low carb, high fat diets are much better for us and for professional athletes than high carb diets.

One of the main problems I feel that exists when contemplating a low carb, high fat diet is that when you say the word "fat" to people, they instantly think of fry-ups; processed bacon, fried eggs, fish and chips, greasy burgers... and that isn't what a high fat diet consists of.

The real deal on fats:

Omega-3 fatty acids are basically super fats for the heart and brain.  Omega-3s are a type of polyunsaturated fat which play a vital role in cognitive function (memory, problem-solving, etc.) as well as emotional wellbeing.  Omega-3s have been shown to prevent and reduce the symptoms of depression, ADHD, bipolar disorder.  They can protect against memory loss and dementia, reduce the risk of heart disease, stroke and cancer.  They can erase arthritis, joint pain and inflammatory skin conditions.

Good fats include: Avocados, olives, nuts (almonds, peanuts, macadamia nuts, hazelnuts, pecans, cashews), natural peanut butter with no added oils or sugars, just some salt.  This is actually really easy to make, you just need organic peanuts some salt and a high powered blender.  Just blend away.  Walnuts, sunflower, sesame and pumpkin seeds, flaxseeds, salmon, tuna, mackerel, herring, trout and
sardines, Brussels Sprouts, kale, spinach, parsley and olive oil.

If you feel you would benefit from and Omega-3 supplement then I prefer krill oil as it is a fish oil that is soluble in water so better assimilated by the human body.

Fats gone bad:

A good fat can become damaged by light, heat or oxygen.  Oils that are high in polyunsaturated fats (such as flaxseed oil) must be refrigerated and kept in an opaque container.  Throw out all oils, seeds or nuts once they begin to smell or taste rancid or bitter.  Heating oil to high temperatures damages their quality and beneficial properties.  Coconut oil is a great oil to cook with as it can withstand high temperatures.  Olive oil becomes damaged quickly at cooking temperatures, so be careful and never reuse oil.

So, what we are really looking at is a healthy diet of whole, natural and unprocessed foods - just like our parents or grandparents used to make for us.  A source of protein, with lots of vegetables - this is what the human body needs.  Carbohydrates?  Few and whole, no refined carbs.

For example, my lunch today was a large salad made from one whole avocado, 1 diced tomato, a large chunk of cucumber and some red onion, dressed with olive oil and lime juice.  I also had a handful of raw almonds that I heated first to release their natural oils.


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

Tom Hanks is a "total idiot"

At least those are his words.  Tom Hanks at the age of 59 has said he was "a total idiot" for the way he ate when he was younger.  Hanks was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in 2013;

"I'm part of the lazy American generation that has blindly kept dancing through the party and now finds ourselves with a malady".

And how right he is.  So many of Hanks' generation have lived through evolutionary times when history was made, the sexual revolution happened, doctors advertised cigarettes, drugs happened, AIDS happened, saturated fat was condemned, cancer statistics went up and up along with heart disease statistics... They were wild times when people were free from the restrictions of what was seen to be appropriate and living and loving life to the fullest, but most of all they were times when everyone thought,

"It won't happen to me."

The "devil may care" attitude of many from that generation has meant that they are now having to face up to the hard truth of serious diseases.

Unfortunately though, it isn't just that generation.

Most people believe "that won't happen to me"... that they can tempt fate and get away with it and some will, but most won't.

Today, we know so much more about how food, alcohol and drugs affect our bodies and, if we don't look after them, we will pay the price.

Looking after your health is so easy - if you want to.

Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure and some cancers are associated with diet and sedentary lifestyles.  We know this for a fact.  We also know for a fact that the human body needs constant movement for good health.

However, there is so much conflicting information in the press and on the Internet, that I am not surprised that many are confused.  Just this week I have read one article based on 60 clinical studies that prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that exercise does not make you lose weight.  And another one today that says that "exercise not diet is the key to weight loss".  And that's just this week.

Thing is, it's the mix of everything, now this may sound very daunting but what we DO know is that eating processed junk food, sitting at a desk all day and not taking regular exercise lead to all of the aforementioned diseases and then some.

Our grandparents and great grandparents had much more active lives.  Not everyone had a car, not everyone had a washing machine or dryer.  Many had to make their own bread, wash their own clothes, sweep floors, and got to work.  This constant moving is the healthiest form of exercise that exists.

Exercise alone does not do much to help you lose weight - yes, I know, it's frustrating.  You've probably been punishing yourself at the gym trying to get your beach body for this year and it just isn't happening.  Well now you know why.

It is the COMBINATION of eating less AND exercise that is the secret to success.

The problem is, if you workout you usually tend to compensate for the calories you think you've burned and give yourself a treat or eat more probably without even realizing it.

On the other hand, calorie restriction alone - as in eating less and not exercising can be slow, painfully hungry and down right boring.

But if you actually sit down and analyze how much you eat and how much you SHOULD be eating you will find you are eating a lot more than you actually need and probably the wrong types of foods.

Switching to a fresh food diet instead of a fast food processed diet means that you will eat less, feel more satisfied, improve your health and you will lose weight if necessary.  Eating whole foods that are fresh and prepared at home will help you in all aspects of your health - even your brain will function better.

So take the challenge:

Over the course of a week, write down every single thing you eat and drink when you consume it - don't wait until the end of the day as you won't remember everything - trust me, it's a human trait.  Also write down how many times you get up during your work day, if you go to the gym, etc...

Once the week is up - and I mean all 7 days, sit down and analyze exactly what you have eaten over that period of time, and see where you can make changes to make your diet healthier and add more movement.

Type 2 diabetes is a lifestyle acquired disease.  This means you get it because your lifestyle is
unhealthy.  It also means that you can reverse it by changing your lifestyle to a healthier one - although the pharmaceutical companies would prefer you believe that once you get it you're stuck with it for life, that way they have YET ANOTHER life-long client buying their pills.

Tom Hanks has admitted it was his fault he got type 2 diabetes and it could have been avoided had he eaten better, so what are you going to do?

If anyone needs any help with tweaking their lifestyle, just drop me a line at lucycarr@socialnutrition.com, good luck, and I'd love to hear from 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

What are you hungry for?

Apparently we make over 200 decisions about food every day.  I spend all day talking about food - or cooking it!  But listening to my patients means I have a great understanding of how hungry they are.

When you change your eating habits or your diet, you may find that you are more hungry than you used to be.  Or are you really?  

Lots of people say they are constantly hungry and are forever rummaging through the kitchen cupboards for something - anything, to munch on.

This means that there is something wrong with our diet or you mindset about food.  Humans are complex machines made up of many things including hormones... yes, those things that play havoc with your mood, your skin, your hair and yes, how hungry you are.

Ghrelin, a hormone made in the stomach, increases appetite and is high before you eat telling your brain you are hungry and need to eat.  Once you have eaten the level of Ghrelin decreases.

Leptin, another hormone, but this time made by fat cells, decreases appetite telling your brain you don't need any more food and you can stop eating.

However, studies have shown that in people with weight problems and obesity, this brain signaling mechanism doesn't work properly and they have become resistant to the leptin signal and so don't know when to stop eating.  Leptin resistance perpetuates a vicious cycle as the more you eat the more weight you put on and the hungrier you become and so you continue to eat.

But all is not lost.  You can eat properly to stop this happening by analyzing why you are hungry to start with.

Eating too many carbohydrates.  

The governing bodies of many countries would have us all eating huge amounts of carbohydrates, they are after all, the base of the government approved food pyramid.  But what most people consider carbs are actually refined carbs; pasta, bread, rice - all white.  This means they have been stripped of all nutritional properties and are basically just another form of sugar. 

Physiologically, carbs make you more hungry than full.  Yes, they may fill you up longer than other foods, but what actually happens internally means you are hungry again quickly.  When you eat refined carbs, your blood sugar spikes, and the pancreas releases insulin to return your blood sugar level to normal.  This means your brain says "Hey I liked that sugar spike!  Give me more!" and creates a sensation of false hunger so that you will eat more of whatever it was that gave you the sugar spike to start off with.  So, in the end you are eating more than you probably realize.

Whole grains release the sugar over a longer and more sustained period of time which means you don't get the sugar spike, even so, keeping carbs to a minimum is the best option.

None of us eat enough fiber.

Fiber is so important, you really need to get your fiber fix every day - several times!  There are two types of fiber; insoluble fiber, which bulks up your stools and ensures a healthy elimination of waste product, and soluble fiber which dissolves into a gel-like consistency and makes you feel fuller for longer.

Your main source of fiber is vegetables... eat as many as you like and make sure they are what make up most of the food you eat on a daily basis.  Raw vegetables are easy to snack on between meals too making snacking healthy and gut happy.

Also high in fiber are raw nuts and obviously fruit, but you should choose low sugar content fruits.  Apples are an excellent choice as their skin contains pectin which controls blood sugar spikes.

Legumes are also very high in fiber so add some chickpeas to a salad or indulge in a lentil dahl with other veggies.

Chia seeds are a great source of fiber, protein and Omega-3 fats, but they also absorb 10-12 times their weight in water, this means they swell in the stomach and make you feel full.  Add some to your breakfast oatmeal or greek yogurt.

You need more fat.

Everyone is so scared of fat.  It doesn't surprise me, we have been told for years that saturated fat is bad for us and we should keep all fat intake to a minimum.  But this has been disproved.  Fat is a very necessary part of our diet and we need to bring it back for good health.

Fat, like protein, is a very complex nutrient.  It takes longer to break down in your digestive system so it makes you feel fuller for longer, but it can also be used as fuel for the body, so if you lower your carbs and up your fat you'll have enough energy.

Avocados are my personal favorite.  Full of healthy fats you can basically do anything you like with them.  Mash them up on wholegrain toast for breakfast, add them to a salad... you can even make chocolate mousse out of them!

The protein question.

Lots of health personnel say you should eat protein at every meal.  This is where we all think of bacon and eggs at breakfast, chicken and chips for lunch and fish for dinner.   Whereas animal protein is a great source of amino acids which are the building blocks for our bodies, there are other vegetable forms of protein that you can also rely on.  Raw nuts, greek yogurt (not greek STYLE), legumes such as lentils, chickpeas, beans, etc...

So yes, by all means eat protein at every meal, but mix and match.

Take it easy on the fruit.

As I said before, fruit is a good source of fiber, but some fruits are very high in sugar so take it easy on the fruit and if you don't eat fruit every day then don't worry.  Aim for 1-2 pieces per day if you can.

Drink more water.

One of the first symptoms of dehydration is feeling hungry.  So, if you feel hungry at an odd time of day, drink a glass of water before raiding the cookie jar, it might just save you a few extra pounds.

Sleep.

Having a good sleep habit is also important.  Studies have shown that people who work night shifts are often more overweight than those with day jobs.  Being over tired means your brain craves sugar to keep going and you end up eating junk food and sweets.

Obsession.

You might be obsessing over food.  People who change the way they eat for a medical issue or just because they would like to eat more healthily, often become obsessed with what they can and can't eat or how much.  Think 3 meals a day is a good place to start, some people are ok on that, others need 2 snacks a day.  Just make sure what ever you are eating is healthy and nutritious and most of all - ENJOY IT!

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

Why do we so often regain weight we've lost?

There is a LOT of confusion and too much information (if that's even possible), about diets, dieting, losing weight, yo-yo effect, putting it back on and then some... etc, etc, etc..

Yes, lots of people go on a severe, calorie restrictive diet and lose a load of weight, reach their goal, stop the diet and put it all back on again.  How many times have you heard this?

Well there is a "kind of explanation", that gives a lot of insight into why this happens but doesn't actually give a solution to the problem.  Take the Biggest Loser as an example.  Reality show from USA, and probably exported to several other countries along with Keeping Up With The Kardashians (America, you could have kept that one to yourselves).  I, personally, have never seen a single episode of The Biggest Loser (or Keeping Up With The Kardashians for that matter), I'm not a reality show type of person.  The Biggest Loser is a good example of failed weight loss and has been used by Dr. Kevin Hall for his study of failed weight loss over a 6 year period.

All 14 contestants from season 8 of the show, were monitored by Dr. Kevin Hall, a metabolism expert at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.

In the six years since season 8 of the show aired, almost all of the contestants including the winner, Danny Cahill who managed to lose an incredible 108,4kg on the show, have put the weight they lost back on, and in some cases even more than they had started out with.

What Dr. Hall found is that the human body will fight to get back every gram of weight lost in restrictive diets, even over the course of long periods of time, as much as years.  He says this is due to long-lasting changes to how the body processes calories.

Each and every one of us has a "resting metabolic rate" which shows how many calories we burn while at rest.  Prior to participating in the show, the contestants had normal metabolic rates for their size - albeit dangerously overweight.  What he discovered was that after the 13 weeks of intense exercise the participants were subjected to during the program, their metabolisms had SLOWED dramatically.  This means that even though they were all considerably thinner, they were burning hundreds of calories LESS than someone of that size would be expected to burn.

The doctors who were looking after the participants had anticipated that this would happen, however what they hadn't expected was that their metabolisms would still be slower six years later, and were getting progressively slower with time.

This slowed metabolism makes it a lot easier to put the weight back on.  After the show, the contestants also had near zero levels of Leptin - the satiety hormone which signals the brain that we are full and can stop eating.

So, the combination of a slow metabolism and low leptin levels basically amounts to hunger cravings that are extremely difficult to resist.

Also, The New York Times reported (although I would prefer a scientific quote on this), that the human body appears to have an "ideal weight" pre-programmed in - one it is easy to maintain - and will fight to restore that weight, even when the person diets like crazy.

This is in part true.  I do not believe that the body has an "ideal weight" pre-programed into it and that some people's pre-programed weight is to be obese.

What I DO believe is that the human body was made to resist famine.  Our ancestors lived in tough times where food was scarce.  If our hunter-gatherer ancestors were "lucky" enough to kill some form of protein they would have to eat all of it as quickly as possible as there was no way of storing it.  Also the human body 10,000 years ago didn't have an abundance of food available, so it held on to everything it could get "just in case" it had to go without for a while.

This is like animals fattening themselves for winter when food is more difficult to find.

However, our human bodies have not evolved in 10,000 years, they are still programmed for famine when we live in times of abundance - at least in the Western World.  But our bodies still hold on to everything "just in case" we have to go without.

Therefore, people who overtime become overweight or obese and then go on a massive crash diet with high calorie restriction and intense exercise programs, throw their bodies into a crisis of believing the famine is here and they need to hold on to everything they can get and if possible those bodies will do everything in their power to return to the pre-diet weight to avoid the famine.

This could be the reason why the contestants' metabolisms were still affected 6 years later and they were gradually piling the weight back on.  It is a very frustrating scenario for anyone who has made the huge effort to lose vast amounts of weight.

This is why I am all for the marathon and not the sprint.  Losing weight gradually, over a longer
period of time which gives the body AND THE BRAIN time to change too.  Please understand that any weight loss program also involves a change in mental attitude.  It should also be a lifestyle change and not just a temporary change.

If you try and make too many drastic changes too quickly your body will probably think it is being attacked and go into panic mode.  This will stop effective weight loss and will also produce stress and inflammation in the body - neither of which you will want to happen.

So, take it slow, love yourself and start by treating yourself well, eating healthy nutritious foods and taking regular exercise that you can gradually build up and turn into a habit.  Your body will love you right back and will respond in kind.

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