Run run run for you brain

I run... a lot... my family think I'm crazy.  But, I have always maintained that I run not because I'm trying to lose weight or keep it off, but I run for psychological reasons.  It calms me down, and I can cope with stress better.  It is also great "alone" time, when I get lost in my thoughts, come up with new ideas or solutions to problems.  I also don't listen to music when I run, I listen to audio books... a bit like killing two birds with one stone, I catch up on my reading while I work out.

Lots of runners will tell you that it is addictive, and to a certain extent it is.  The addiction is usually associated with the "feel good" feelings you get when endorphins are liberated during your workout.  But I believe it is a mix of everything.  You can tune in, tune out, push yourself harder - or not... it just makes you feel good and clears your head.  And now, this has been proved - scientifically!

Scientists have revealed that 30 - 40 minutes of vigorous aerobic exercise can make you feel much better, by creating new neurons and increasing blood flow to areas of the brain involved with learning and emotion.

It has taken about 30 years of neuroscience investigation to discover and identify a robust link between aerobic exercise and subsequent cognitive clarity.  They have also disproved the theory that as humans grow older they are unable to make new neurons.

Recent studies have found that after a run, new neurons are formed in the hippocampus, the area of the brain associated with learning and memory;

"If you are exercising so that you sweat - about 30 to 40 minutes - new brain cells are being born," said Karen Postal, president American Academy of Clinical Neuropsychology. "And it happens to be in that memory area."

Other studies have noted increased blood flow to the brain's frontal lobe which is implicated in clear
thinking, planning, focus and concentration.  But the frontal lobe is also associated with the regulation of emotions.  A Harvard University study found that "acute aerobic exercise did not prevent an increase in sadness response to a subsequent stressor, results suggest that it may help people to recover."

During the study the researchers showed an extract from the film The Champ - the final scene which is famous for its emotivity, to a group of 80 volunteers.  Before watching the extract, some of the participants were asked to jog for 30 minutes and the rest performed stretching exercises, also for 30 minutes.  After watching the movie they were given a survey to judge how sad the film made them feel, in the meantime the researchers kept the participants busy for a further 15 minutes, and then asked them how they were feeling again.

The participants who had done 30 minutes of jogging were less overwhelmed by their emotions and reported less sadness at the end of the study compared to those who had just done the stretching exercises.

But there is something else too.  I have often talked about MINDFULNESS and how unaware we are of what and how much we eat.  Well, the researchers have also found that another benefit of going for a long run is MINDLESSNESS.

Getting lost in your own thoughts or daydreaming is said to be important for individual wellbeing.

Positive constructive daydreaming serves four broad adaptive functions - according to Jerome Singer from Yale University.  It assists with future planning, which is increased by a period of self-reflection, creativity for problem solving, attentional cycling that permits you to rotate through different information and streams to advance personal goals and enhancing learning through short breaks from external tasks.

So, running isn't just the sweat, it's a lot more - it's also cheap.  However, having said that, if you are going to start running it is very important to invest in a very good pair of running shoes: Saucony, Asics, or Salomon if you are trail running.  This is very important, I found out the hard way after changing from trail running to pavement, I fractured a bone in my foot and was VERY surprised to discover that all the serious runners I know, my physiotherapist and chiropodist trashed Nike for running.  I'd always used Nike now I use Salomon or Saucony depending on the surface.

Good Luck!

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

Mind and body

Obviously I spend everyday trying to find that magic "thing" that can help people lose weight and improve their health.  But for some people the mere thought of having to restrict food intake or just the mention of THAT word, means they give up before they've even started.

And I get it... I really do.

They good news is that there is more and more information arising from more and more studies that gives us an insight into how our bodies work, how food affects our bodies and how we can make changes that benefit us.  Each person is different, each person reacts in different ways to foods.  This is why I find that finding out a person's food intolerances really helps.

But it isn't just what foods you are intolerant to.  It's about making life changes, it's about understanding your body and in the case of overweight people, it's understanding how you got that way in the first place and how differently your MIND works to other leaner people.

You see, when changing your diet for any reason; intolerances, weight loss, allergies, illness, etc., your whole body is involved including your brain.  I quite often tell my patients, yes, I can help you to lose weight, but unless you change your attitude towards food, you'll just put it back on again.  If you don't make the psychological changes and see food for what it is... fuel for your body, then you probably won't get very far.

Quite often patients will complain about how much they miss a certain food that they are intolerant to and therefore not allowed to eat for a certain length of time.  This is normal, the minute you tell someone they can't eat or drink when they didn't even consume it habitually.  This is your brain saying that seeing as you aren't ALLOWED to eat then you WANT it, when you wouldn't usually.

A new study has shown that it seems that people who are overweight react differently to real food and inedible images of foods when shown on a computer screen.  The researchers tested lean people's decisions to food choices in the form of images, and found them to be very similar to those of overweight people.  However, the results changed considerably when instead of being offered limited choices, they were confronted with an all-you-can-eat buffet of REAL FOOD which included both healthy and not so healthy dishes.

While both lean and overweight volunteers were equally attracted to "tasty" foods, the overweight participants were more likely to eat the unhealthy, fattening dishes.

The lead researcher from Cambridge University, Dr Nenad Medic said,

"There's a clear difference between hypothetical food choices that overweight people make and the food they actually eat."

Although overweight people KNOW which foods are less healthy than others and admit that they wouldn't necessarily pick them, when the food is in front of them, they will choose the less healthy option.

"This is an important insight for health campaigners as it suggests that just trying to educate people about the healthiness of food choices is not enough.  The presence of unhealthy food options is likely to override people's decisions.

"In this respect, food choice does not appear to be a rational decision - it can be divorced from what the person knows and values."

This is actually really important information.

I remember back in 2008 when I had my own food intolerances analyzed.  I had just had my son a few months previously and had put on quite a bit of weight after having him.  I followed the diet to the letter and lost all the weight in 2 months.  But, I remember saying to the doctor treating me, "I miss chocolate soooooo much, I wish I didn't crave sweet things.  It would be so much easier!"  He smiled at me and said that those craving would pass - in a year or two!

I remember almost feeling defeated at that moment.  Was there a point to trying for so long?  Isn't life too short?

Well, even though I have reintroduced most of my intolerant foods (except soy), I still, to this day, do not mix my carbs and my proteins.  The weight I lost has stayed off and almost 8 years later I can honestly say... I don't have chocolate cravings.  Yes, I have cravings for other sweet foods, but I don't have chocolate cravings - part of the battle is won.

However, researchers in Denmark have discovered that if you stick to a diet or a new way of eating such as kicking your junk food habit, eating clean, or not mixing carbs and proteins, going vegan... which ever it is that works for you, for at least a year then you can CHANGE your appetite governing chemicals.

Our bodies were developed for famine and in the western world at least, there is food on offer constantly 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  When we "diet" or restrict our food intake, then quite often our body's response is to store what little it does get, then when you eat "normally" the body continues to store just in case you decide to restrict it again.  This is the boomerang effect of dieting and then putting the weight back on after and then some.

In the Danish study, obese people who shed an eighth of their weight in an intensive diet, and hold it off for a year saw dramatic changes in the chemicals governing their appetite.  Signe Sorensen Torekov, associate professor of biomedical sciences at the University of Copenhagen where the study was carried out said;

"It is very difficult to fight the hunger, it's like a drug you're fighting against.  This would have been an excellent mechanism 50 years ago, but the problem now is that we have so much food available that we can eat all the time.  We were able to show that you shouldn't give up.  If you're able to keep your weight down for a year, then it shifts and it becomes easier."

I stuck to not mixing carbs and proteins because I found that I felt better for it, even after reaching my goal weight.  I found that digesting large meals isn't a problem and whereas in the past, I would often prefer sweet foods over healthy foods, my relationship to food has changed.  Now I think before eating or preparing food.  I think about how food nourishes the body, helps to heal it and how it gives it energy.  Think about what you have chosen to eat and what it can do for you... a sugar laden piece of cake isn't going to do much for you in the long run.

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

Don't fear the fat

For decades we have been told that a low fat high carb diet is the best for the human body.  That saturated fat kills... it causes heart disease...  Senator McGovern said so back in the 1970s - so it must be true, right?

WRONG!

Fat is necessary for the body, there are many vitamins and minerales that can only be assimilated by the body in the presence to dietary fat.  What's more if you go back to the fact that our digestive systems haven't changed in 10,000 years and way back then, our ancestors were hunter-gatherers and ate predominantly meat if they could catch it and what they could gather; fruits and vegetables.  Refined flour and sugar just didn't exist.

Since the seventies, governments would have us all following their wonderful food pyramids or plates that advocate eating predominantly carbohydrates and very little fat.  As I mentioned last week, the McGovern Report said that saturated fat was responsible for heart disease and we should all eat vegetable fats such as corn oil, sunflower oil and vegetable margarines packed full with Trans Fats.  In 1970 Ancel Keys, an American Nutritionist published his "Seven Countries" study which concluded that dietary fat was responsible for high serum cholesterol  and therefore heart attacks - this is a flawed study which was originally (if I remember correctly) done on 22 countries but Keys only used the data from 7 to prove his point.  If you factor in the data from the other 15 countries it tells you a completely different story.

In 1972 John Yudkin published his book Pure, White and Deadly in which he blames sugar, especially fructose, for cavities, obesity, liver disease, heart disease and some forms of cancer.  Yudkin also said that dietary fat and saturated fat were harmless to health.  Keys counter attacked and ultimately won, however, the human race lost.  Numbers of deaths due to heart disease have increased since we tried to eliminate saturated fat from our diets.  Obesity has risen.  Dental problems have increased.  Cancer has increased.  Shall I go on?

I could go on, but I try to keep my articles to a reasonable length.  So I'll try and get to the point.  Yesterday I watched two amazing documentaries; Cereal Killers and Running on Fat (Cereal Killers 2).  I have had many life changing moments from reading clinical evidence or watching amazing documentaries such as Forks over Knives, these two were another one of those life changing moments.

Cereal Killers is the story of Donal O'Neill and Irish athlete and son of a famous Irish football player who went to South Africa to talk to Tim Noakes MD (marathon runner), and to go on a LOW CARB and HIGH FAT diet for a month to see what would happen.

Running on Fat is the second part of Cereal Killers where they have tested the high fat diet on endurance athletes to see what would happen.

In both documentaries and supported by scientific evidence... blood tests, metabolic testing, endurance testing, etc... they found that:

1.  Donal's weight decreased slightly and he had LESS fat in his body after 28 days on a high fat low carb diet.  His kidneys were functioning perfectly and his body was in healthier than previously.  The only "red flag" on his analysis was that his LDL (bad) cholesterol had increased.  So, they did another test to discern the size of the LDL particles.  Size is very important when it comes to cholesterol as the large particles are not a problem, the small size LDL particles are the dangerous ones that get stuck in arteries and cause inflammation.  His particle size was large - all of them.  Donal's inflammation markers had also decreased.  His metabolic rate increased.

2.  Endurance athletes; think Iron Man, Triathlons, etc... perform better on a high fat diet than on a high carb diet.  Marathon runners have been told to "carb load" before a race for decades.  How many times have you seen athletes collapsing at the finish line of a marathon?  Fat burning athletes... don't.

Otto Thaning is the oldest man to have swam the English Channel at the age of 73.  He did it on fat and he did it in 12 hours.  The amazing thing was that after swimming in cold water for 12 hours he looked as if he'd done nothing - there was no exhaustion, he was able to talk to his family on the phone as if it was just any other normal day.

The Australian national Cricket Team runs on fat, and they all say they are better for it.

Lots of marathon runners, athletes and other people who do sports for health and not competitively have found that with age they gain weight.  The reaction to this of any one of these people is to train MORE.  However, they soon discover that training more doesn't mean they lose weight.  However, many have found that changing to a high fat diet means they lose weight and can train LESS and still notice improvements in their performance.

In fact lots of sports personalities have been diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes; Sir Steve Redgrave was diagnosed 2 years after winning his 5th Olympic rowing medal, Donal's own father had a heart attack although he hadn't put on any weight after retiring from professional football.

Many have been trying to get this message out to the public, Tim Noakes and Stephen Phinney are the ones who really got this going.

Now, the body takes a while to adapt to the change.  Changing to a low carb high fat diet can leave you feeling pretty weak for the first few days even a week or two.  But once your body makes the switch then you can reap the benefits.

Now I don't think anyone should make drastic changes without medical support, but you will probably find that most general practitioners will not understand what you are trying to accomplish.  However, if you can get them to do a blood test to check that you have no underlying problems, then you shouldn't have a problem with switching to a low carb high fat diet.

Low Carb foods you can eat as much of as you like:

• Meat - including pork, bacon (as unprocessed as possible), beef, as well as chicken, turkey, etc..
• Fish and shellfish
• Eggs
• Natural fat/High fat: butter, cream, coconut oil, olive oil, greek yogurt, high fat cheeses, sour cream, full fat milk (if you must).
• Vegetables that grow above ground such as: cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, brussels sprouts, asparagus, courgettes, egg plant, olives, spinach, mushrooms, cucumber, lettuce, avocado, peppers, tomatoes. etc
• Nuts: Pecan, Brazil, Macadamia, hazelnut, walnut, peanut, pinenuts, almonds, pistachios, cashew.
• Berries: In moderation, Raspberry, Blackberry, Strawberry and Blueberry

The only rule:  NO CEREAL/NO SUGAR and that means no high carb foods: pasta, bread, pizza, rice, potatoes, carrots, high sugar fruits.

DON'T FEAR THE FAT (Donal O'Neill)

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 BIG gluten problem

Gluten-free diets are a major fad at the moment, but is it just that... a fad, or is there some truth to it all?

What is Gluten?

Gluten is a mixture of proteins found in wheat and other grains including; barley, rye, oat, spelt, kamut and triticale.  Gluten gives elasticity to dough, helping it to rise and maintain its shape and sometimes gives the final product a chewy texture.

Let's start with celiac disease.  This is a very serious illness where the immune system reacts to gluten, damaging the gut and preventing vital nutrients such as calcium being absorbed.  People who suffer from celiac disease have to follow a gluten-free diet for life in order to prevent long-term health problems such as osteoporosis and a small increased risk of gastrointestinal cancers.  Symptoms can include; bloating, pain, diarrhea, constipation, brain fog, frequent mouth ulcers, feeling sluggish after eating gluten, and even a rash called dermatitis herpetiformis.  Now, this does not mean that you will suffer all of these symptoms if you are celiac, you may just suffer from a few.

In celiac disease, gluten stimulates the production of T-cells in the immune system, which in turn, stimulates attack cells which damage the villi, the finger-like projections that line the small bowel, this causes them to flatten.  The immune cells also create antibodies that remember how to attack gluten in the future, and this is how our bodies defend themselves against diseases.  Patients with gluten intolerance do not have this response to eating gluten; instead they have a different reaction through a different part of the immune system called the innate immune system.  Unlike the memory causing T-cell process, there is no memory created after the event.  However, it does cause inflammation, which explains the symptoms that gluten sensitive people suffer.

Your brain under attack:

It has also been shown that undiagnosed celiac disease can lead to neurological problems such as headaches and "brain fog", this has generally been thought of as a side effect of nutritional deficiencies caused by damage to the gut.

However, a seminal paper by Professor Marios Hadjivassiliou in 1996, showed that up to 54% of neurology patients had antibodies to gluten in their blood compared to just 12% of the healthy population.  Biopsies of the gut later revealed that 16% of neurology patients had celiac disease.  A lot of these patients had unexplained problems with balance, walking and coordination of the arms and legs (ataxia).  This happens when part of the brain called the cerebellum is damaged.  The connection between celiac disease and ataxia led Professor Hadjivassiliou to create the term "gluten ataxia", and has since been able to show that a gluten-free diet in celiac and non-celiac patients improves ataxia.

My specialty is Food Intolerances, many in the medical and scientific professions refuse to recognize food intolerances saying that there is no scientific base for them.  However, I see on a daily basis the improvements my patients make when they remove foods that they are intolerant too.

Only last year, 2015, gluten intolerance or gluten sensitivity with out being celiac, was recognized as real by the medical profession - they still refuse to recognize any other intolerances.  But the truth is, many people have a problem with gluten.

Lots of people who are diagnosed with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) improve drastically when they remove gluten from their diets.

Investigators at the University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein in Germany, carried out a study where they recruited 36 patients with IBS and who had suspected food intolerances.  The investigators administered diluted samples of problem foods directly on to the bowel lining.  Within just 5 minutes of contact, they saw a significant increase in immune system attack cells.  This happened in 61% of the people in the study and the food that gave the most common response was wheat.  Which means that gluten seems to have a direct part in attacking the small bowel - and not just in people with celiac disease.

People being diagnosed with celiac disease has grown considerably.  Celiac disease affects about 1 in every 100 people in the United Kingdom, but in 1950 it was just one in every 8,000.  A study from Finland in 2000 found that the percentage of people with celiac disease had grown from 1% to 2% in just two decades.

We are now more exposed than ever to foods containing gluten.  Even cultures like China and India which usually have a rice based diet and didn't have a problem with celiac disease are now reporting that celiac disease is a significant problem.

The Western diet is expanding, people are eating more pizza, pasta and bread all over the world than

before.  There is also concern that wheat nowadays has more gluten than before and new industrial processes may mean a higher gluten content in bread and other products.  Gluten is now in a whole host of foods, not just the obvious ones such as bread and pasta.  It is also in instant soups, breakfast cereals, stock cubes, gravy granules, soya sauce, ready meals, meat substitutes, energy drinks and even Mars bars!  Even some medication has gluten in it.

If you think you have a problem with gluten, then you should go and see your doctor about it.  But even if you don't think you have a problem, you should try and keep your gluten intake to a minimum, we really don't need to be eating as much pasta, bread and pizza as we do.

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