It's the party season!

Ok, so Christmas is just around the corner, that means parties to go to, and lots and lots of food.  So how does Christmas affect our waistlines?

New research has been published from an unlikely source - Tilda Basmati Rice, that surveyed 1,000 adults in the UK about their Christmas eating habits.

The survey found that the first Friday of December is when Britons tuck into their first festive food of the season - and as early as 9.58 am on the first Friday.  This starts off the beginning of what will end up being an extra 30.000 calories consumed between now and Christmas.

Let's face it, it's very easy to overeat at this time of year with all the delicious treats on offer every time you go anywhere near a food department.

According to the survey, the biggest over eaters are young adults between 16-24 years of age.  Probably due to the number of parties they'll be attending, or students back from university.  But all age groups will be joining in the overeating and less healthy foods; men are less likely to treat themselves than women, just 28% of men stated they never indulge in festive treats versus 23% of women who claimed the same.

Lots admitted to comfort eating (28%) and others that the cold weather led them to stay at home and indulge (24%) and others said that the Christmas over indulgence was a "reward" for all the hard work during the year (21%).

However, there is a way to have your cake and eat it too!

My advice is to plan ahead.  If you know you have a party to go to on a Saturday, then be really strict with yourself all week prior to the party.  Don't mix your carbs and your proteins and stay as active as possible.  Reduce your carb intake to just twice a week.  If the party you are going to is a cocktail type with only "finger foods" available, I suggest you eat something healthy before going.  Nibbles are usually all carb based with lots of mayonnaise and protein mixed in.  A sure way of piling on the pounds!  If you eat beforehand you won't be so hungry and it will be easy to avoid the fattening foods.

If you have a dinner or a lunch to go to then do the same, be strict with yourself during the days leading up to the event and then enjoy.

In both cases, be strict again from the next day onwards, to counteract the "damage" that may have been done.

Drink lots of water before and after drinking heavily.  Think before you eat, ask yourself if you are really hungry first or if you are going to regret eating that afterwards.  If you do decided to indulge then ENJOY it!  Don't feel guilty about doing it.

After all, Christmas is for having fun too!

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 invisible reason we're all a different weight

I think we are all far more body conscious today than ever before.  Obesity is a global epidemic... you have to be a size 0 to be successful, loved, liked... It's actually quite a sorry state of affairs.

I, as a nutritionist, have always maintained that it's about health - not dress size.  But, even though we are making great headway in weight related issues, there are still some fairly basic questions that as yet, haven't been answered.  The major one being:

Why do some people get fatter than others when eating the same amount of calories and doing the same amount of exercise?

Why do I have to carefully watch my weight because I tend to put on weight easily when another person can eat anything they want and not put on a gram?

Tim Spector, Professor of Clinical Epidemiology at Kings College, London and author of The Diet Myth, believes he has the answer.

The digestive system is very important to the human body.  It also contains a very complex mix of gut microbes that account for the most part of the 100 trillion cells in our bodies and they interact with our genes to aid digestion, aid the production of certain vitamins, affect our immunity and even influence our mood, metabolism and weight.

The balance of these gut microbes is the key to good health and also to staying a healthy weight.  Tim Spector says:

"It's rather like fingerprints - we may look similar on the outside, but we're all different inside."

Which is why a low-fat diet works for some people, and a high fat diet works brilliantly for others, why some people can eat carbs to their heart's content, and others put on weight just by looking at a doughnut.

For years we have been told that a calorie is a calorie and that calories in vs calories out is what makes us lose or gain weight.  But, if you are a follower of this blog, you should know by now that that isn't the case.  It depends on how our bodies deal with the calories they receive and that is down to the interaction between gut microbes and genes.

We know there are a number of genes that influence appetite and weight.  Gut microbes do not have the power to alter your genes, however they can modify the gene activity and you can affect the microbes depending on what you eat - for better or for worse.

So what it boils down to is that you have to eat to make sure your gut microbes flourish.

Variety is the key.  Our ancestors typically ate 150 different ingredients a week, nowadays most of us eat less than 20 separate food items including a lot less fiber.  The more varied your diet the more varied your gut microbes - but keep it real and unprocessed.

You all know I am against processed foods - anything good that they may have contained at one point has been removed and replaced with high amounts of sugar and salt.  So, stick to REAL FOOD - cook from scratch and keep it as raw as possible.

Plant foods are great gut food, providing a multitude of gut-healthy benefits.  Some plants such as garlic, leeks, jerusalem artichokes, nuts and bananas, and fermented foods such as tofu, kimchi and sauerkraut, provide prebiotics that promote gut health.

Eat cheese and yogurts.  However, avoid the processed orange cheese slices they typically put on your burger and also avoid the low fat, fruit flavored yogurts that have had most of the goodness removed and sugar added to make up for the loss of flavor.

Coffee is great, it's packed full of plant chemicals called polyphenols and is also thought to protect against type 2 diabetes, Alzheimer's and heart disease.  Just forget the sugar or sweeteners.

High sugar diets are bad for gut microbes - and everything else.  Artificial sweeteners aren't much better either.  Can you honestly say that a chemically produced "stuff" is good for the human body? (Not taking medicines into account). Also rats fed human doses of sweeteners for 12 weeks showed a significant reduction in healthy gut microbes.

A little bit - just a square, of dark chocolate every day - preferably 70% cocoa solids.  Microbes love chocolate which they break down into anti-inflammatory substances.

And, of course, exercise.  Movement promotes gut health by stimulating the production of butyrate, a chemical produced by the gut microbes that has a beneficial effect on the immune system.

So, are you going to look after your gut?

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