Could this be the reason you can't get up in the morning?

Lots of us wake up in the morning feeling as tired as when we went to bed the night before.  Modern life, at least as we know it, can be very stressful.  Holding down a full time job in the current economic crisis is not easy, family obligations - especially if you have small children, and the need to have fun with friends and family in the little spare time you have can take it's toll.  Or, the stress of being unemployed and trying hard to find a job or family problems all stress us far more than many would believe.  All or any one of these modern problems can lead to high stress levels and a feeling of being burnt out.

This feeling of being burnt out can be due to an illness called Adrenal Fatigue.  It is estimated that up to 80% of adults experience adrenal fatigue at some time during their lives, however it is still one of the most under-diagnosed illnesses in the United States.  Stress is the main factor in adrenal fatigue, if the stress is not treated and controlled it can, overtime, tax your adrenal glands to the point of causing other health problems such as:

• Fatigue
• Depression
• Sleep disorders
• Weight gain

So, if you are experiencing any of the above symptoms you need to read on...

Dr. Daniel Kalish has designed The Kalish Method which integrates scientific testing with natural health solutions to heal your adrenals and restore them so that they function normally again.

The Kalish Method is divided into 3 stages:

Stage 1:

Your cortisol levels are very high and you're under a lot of stress.  However, you are usually on a "high" enjoying yourself and not really aware of the toll.  Your body needs that excitement, but the key is to absorb that stress, enjoy it, reap the benefits and then dissipate it.  If you do not get enough rest to recharge your batteries, as it were, then the adrenal glands become over taxed, causing your cortisol levels to descend, which is when most people begin to notice there's a problem.

Stage 2:

This second stage means that the cortisol levels are starting to fail, which is when people begin to gain weight, stop sleeping properly and their sex drive starts to falter.  If you don't change your lifestyle, don't correct your bad eating habits, stop exercising and lack of beneficial rest you enter stage 3.

Stage 3:

Adrenal burn out and your cortisol levels are low all the time, the result is you feel chronically fatigued and are unable to recoup your energy despite resting.

Dr. Kalish illustrates the way cortisol works using units.  When you wake up in the morning you should have 20 units of energy, at the end of the day you should have around 2 units.  This would be normal, and would create the normal feeling of a day ending normally followed by restful sleep.  However many people are waking up in the morning with reduced cortisol levels, which brings on the feeling of exhaustion despite having just woken up.  Also the reverse happens, many people go to bed at night with elevated cortisol levels which makes sleep difficult as you can't shut your brain off.

The four main causes of adrenal dysfunction are:

1. Emotional stress, usually related to grief or loss
2. Poor diet, eating too many refined carbs can alter cortisol levels.
3. Chronic inflammation in the body.
4. Hypothyroidism.

Before trying any remedies on your own, if you have reason to believe that you are suffering from adrenal fatigue, you should be tested appropriately         by a specialist.

As far as dietary changes are concerned, it would be advisable to make sure you are getting the following:

• Protein, high quality animal protein is advisable, preferably lightly cooked or raw whenever possible such as: sushi, ceviche, steak tartare, eggs, legumes combined with whole grains, seeds or nuts.
• Healthy fats.  Coconut oil, palm oil, palm kernal oil, cocoa butter, butter, almond oil and olive oil.  Fats are essential especially because some fats such as butter, contain cholesterol which the adrenal glands need to produce hormones.  However, fat should not exceed  20 - 25% of total daily calories.
• Complex carbohydrates.  The body metabolizes unrefined, complex carbs in whole foods more slowly than the refined carbs in white bread, pasta or pastries - this means your energy levels last longer and the sugar crashes from refined carbs don't happen.  The best complex carbohydrates are: Spinach, chard, red peppers, yellow and butternut squash, beets, carrots, millet, brown rice, quinoa, papaya, mango, plums, pears, kiwi, apples and cherries.
• Up your intake of fermented foods to improve healthy gut bacteria.

Stay away from:

• Coffee and black tea (even decaf)
• Juice
• Sugar
• Alcohol
• Deep-fried foods
• Rancid oils, seed and nuts
• Soda - even diet soda
• Precessed meats and cheeses
• Textured vegetable protein
• Chocolate
• White flour in breads, pies, cakes, cookies and pasta
• Cow's milk
• Artificial sweeteners such as aspartame
• Fast food
• White rice

The hidden health risk

Under normal circumstances, inflammation is part of a healthy immune response, a biological automatic response to an injury sees cells and chemicals being sent to heal an infection or injury.  Which is what happens when you are, for example, bitten by a mosquito, the area around the bite becomes inflamed, red, itchy and often painful.  This swelling is actually to stop the poison from the mosquito bite circulating freely in the blood while other cells and histamines repair the area and eliminate the poison.

However, just like in many other areas of life, there is a dark side to this normally healing process.  Chronic "hidden" inflammation, that you can't necessarily feel or see can occur throughout the body when something kick-starts the immune system and turns off the shut-off button.  What sets off the alarm and kick-starts the immune systems differs in each person: repeated or prolonged infections, smoking, gum disease, obesity, etc all of which have the same end result: an endless trickle of immune cells that interferes with the body's healthy tissues, which set off genetic mutations that can lead to cancer, diabetes, depression, heart disease, stroke, Alzheimer's, and a long list of etc..

However, on the whole a person will not know they suffer from chronic inflammation until something more serious happens.  There isn't even a reliable medical test for it.  There is a test for an inflammatory marker called C-reactive protein (CRP), which is recommended for people at risk of heart disease, as high levels of CRP are associated with future heart attacks and strokes, but it is not used on a general level as researchers still don't fully understand the role CRP plays and whether it really is a sign of incremented risk of disease.  However, what has been clearly established is that people with poor health habits tend to have higher levels of inflammation.

"In recent years, we've come to accept that inflammation plays a role in many chronic diseases, but it's about an imbalance - too many pro-inflammatory chemicals and not enough anti-inflammatory ones," says Moise Desvarieux, an inflammation researcher at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health.

In a normal situation, hours after the alarm is set off kick-starting the immune system to fight and injury or infection, the body then sends out anti-inflammatory substances to restore equilibrium.  So in order to stay healthy, both systems have to be in good working order.

Lots of medications, such as Aspirin, can reduce inflammation.  However, there are healthier options to reduces inflammation other than popping pills, here are some tips:

While being overweight raises your risk of inflammation, what is more important is where your fat deposits are.  "It's where your body puts the fat, on your waist as opposed to your hips and thighs, that indicates a pro-inflammatory state," says Carol Shively, Professor of Pathology at Wake Forrest University School of Medicine who has studied fat distribution.  Fat stored around internal organs is far more dangerous than subcutaneous fat on the hips and thighs.  The fat surrounding internal organs leads to stress and the stress hormone cortisol, "appears to bind receptors on these fat cells, setting off a process that promotes the storage of fat and increases the number of fat cells," says Prof. Shively.  "These extra cells then produce more chemicals that increase inflammation."

Now this, as you are probably aware, takes us back to the apple or pear body shapes.  Having a large waist measurement (80cm or more in women and 94cm or more in men) means you are likely to have excess inflammation.  Other indicators are:

• high blood pressure (130/85 or above)
• raised glucose levels (100mg/dl after fasting)
• high triglyceride levels (150mg/dl)

According to the American Heart Association (AHA), these all point to an inflammatory condition called metabolic syndrome, a common precursor of diabetes and heart disease.

So what is the best way to reduce belly fat?

Now the good news is that belly fat is a lot easier to get rid of than the subcutaneous kind on hips and thighs.  So basically all you really need to do is to eat less and move more.  Adopting a mediterranean diet which is rich in fruit, vegetables, fish, nuts, seeds and olive oil has been proven to protect the heart, probably because it lowers the level of pro-inflammatory chemicals.  Another benefit of this type of diet is that it may protect against depression by raising levels of Omega-3 fatty acids and antioxidants used by the body to manufacture anti-inflammatory chemicals that increase blood flow to the brain.

Don't over do the exercise to start off with.  Exercise has been proven to produce less inflammation as it protects against metabolic syndrome.  1 hour, 5 times a week is enough.  Just walking at a fast pace which makes conversation difficult is adequate.  If you want to run but never have, start slowly little by little.  Intersperse fast walking with bits of jogging and build up gradually.  There is a brilliant podcast called From Couch to 5K - free on the NHS website (Couch to 5K), is a great way to learn to run if you never have.

Surprising recent data shows that flossing and brushing your teeth twice a day reduces the risk of heart disease.  There is a well established link between gum disease and heart disease, researchers believe that the same bacteria that cause inflammation and swelling in the gums appear to be a source of inflammation and thickening of the arteries.

The top 10 ANTI-INFLAMMATORY foods you should include in your diet:

1. Wild Salmon
2. Kelp
3. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
4. Cruciferous Vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, kale, and brussel sprouts
5. Blueberries
6. Turmeric
7. Ginger
8. Garlic
9. Green tea
10. Sweet potato

The top 5 INFLAMMATORY foods to avoid:

1. Sugars: sodas, fruit drinks, sweets, etc..
2. Common cooking oils: grape seed, cottonseed, sunflower, corn and safflower oils
3. Trans fats: deep fried foods, fast foods, commercially baked products, margarine, etc..
4. Dairy produce.
5. Factory farm animals.  Stick to grass fed animal produce.

So the key is to:

• Eat less
• Get Active
• Floss and brush twice a day.

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

Just what is your body trying to tell you?

Not enough of us actually listen to our bodies.  Sometimes we experiment cravings for certain foods such as cheese or red meat.  Our bodies are far wiser than we are.  We, after all, are conditioned from the amount of advertising we see on a daily basis to crave sugar, fast food, etc..  But sometimes we suddenly get a craving for a specific food like cheese.  Cheese is high in an essential amino acid called tryptophan which is a precursor to Serotonin, also known as the happy hormone.  If you aren't getting enough tryptophan you may have a problem producing enough Serotonin.

However, there are other little "everyday" minor health problems that annoy us which could simply be our bodies trying to make us aware that there is a nutritional deficit which is not being met and could be easily remedied.

For example:

Swollen ankles.  This could be a sign that you are not getting enough potassium in your diet.  Potassium helps regulate the body's water balance and a low potassium count can contribute to water retention that, in turn, causes blood pressure to rise - this happens especially when combined with too much dietary salt.

The Dallas Heart Study in the U.S. examined data from 3,300 people which showed that the amount of potassium in urine samples, and therefore reflecting dietary intake, was strongly related to blood pressure readings.  Almost a quarter of all women and teenagers and 16% of people over 65 years of age have low intakes of potassium as a result of their diet, as found by the National Diet and Nutrition Survey data.

The recommended daily allowance of Potassium is 3,500mg.  Bananas are naturally high in potassium, and if you are getting your 5 a day of fruit and vegetables should stop you being deficient.

Those annoying and painful cracks at the side of the mouth could be attributed to a lack of vitamin B2, this also goes for fissures and sores around the mouth.  Vitamin B2 is essential for cell production and growth, without it, the body cannot renew skin and mucosal cells around the lips.  Vitamin B2 is also necessary for converting food into energy, so if you also suffer from fatigue and migraines it may well be a B2 deficiency that is provoking them.

The recommended daily allowance of Vitamin B2 is 1.3mg for men and 1.1mg for women.  Although I am not an advocate for milk and/ or milk produce, a daily glass of 250ml of milk should solve a deficiency.  I, personally, would take a supplement.

Are you constantly in a bad mood?  Grumpy all the time?  Then you could have an iron deficiency.  The usual symptoms of iron deficiency are pale skin, spoon-shaped nails and light-headedness, however, feeling grumpy together with tiredness and poor concentration, is an early warning sign for lack of iron due to reduced levels of oxygen reaching the brain - as stated by the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

Iron is an important component of red blood cells which allows them to collect oxygen and transport it around the body.  As much as 30% of teenage girls and 17% of women suffer from low iron counts, and the risk is even higher in women who have heavy periods.

The recommended daily allowance for iron is 8.7mg in men and 14.8mg in women.  Red meat, nuts and greens are packed with iron, the easiest to absorb come from animal sources such as beef, eggs and sardines.  However nuts, pulses, green leafy vegetables are also a good source, however you must accompany them with a source of Vitamin C such as fresh tomato with the skin left on or natural orange.  For a more severe deficiency supplements will be needed but you should see your doctor before taking supplements.

Has food become bland and unappetizing?  It might not just be your cooking (or your Mum's!).
Inadequate levels of zinc in the body can affect our sense of taste.  The University of Ulster  conducted a study on 387 participants and found that those participants with lower levels of zinc in their blood cells were less able to detect salty tastes.

Zinc is required for the production of salivary enzymes and development and maintenance of tastebuds which may point to the relationship between the lack of zinc and debilitated taste - although this is still unclear.

But a low zinc level does not just affect your tastebuds, other signs of zinc deficiency include more frequent infections such as colds and flu, wounds that take a long time to heal - this is due to the zinc's vital role in immune system function and the repair and renewal of cells.

Teenagers are most at risk, nearly one fifth of girls and a tenth of boys have been found to have unacceptable levels of zinc due to their diets.

The recommended daily allowance of zinc is 5.5 - 9.5 mg for men and 4-7mg for women.  Red meat - beef and lamb are among the best sources of zinc, so try to eat at least one to two portions a week.  Other sources include nuts, especially Cashews and Peanuts and other whole grains.

Those general aches and pains may not just be down to getting older!  Vitamin D is such an important part of a healthy body.  Weak bones are known symptoms of a long term Vitamin D deficiency but general aches, weakness and tiredness can also indicate a lesser deficiency.

Low Vitamin D levels occur across all age groups, this vitamin helps regulate calcium and phosphorous, minerales that are vital for developing and maintaining bone and muscle.  It is also thought that Vitamin D is important to the immune system and may boost cancer protection.

The recommended daily allowance is 5mcg (micro grams)  However it can be easier than that, 20 minutes of sunshine a day with no sunscreen on will keep your Vitamin D levels topped up, also you can eat two portions of oily fish such as salmon or sardines per week to prevent deficiency.

So, take a good look at your body, what is it trying to tell you?  Do you have any of the symptoms I've described?

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

Why you shouldn't trust Food Pyramids

Food pyramids have been around for decades.  The first pyramid was published in Sweden in 1974.  However, the most widely known food pyramid was introduced by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) in 1992 (pictured on the left), was updated in 2005 and then replaced in 2011 by "my plate", which is only a slightly bettered version of the food pyramid.

Many nutritional experts, such as Harvard nutritionist Dr. Walter Willett, believe the 1992 pyramid does not reflect the latest research in dietetics.  Technically the pyramid allowed dietary choices that have been linked to heart disease:  three cups of whole milk and one 230g hamburger daily - for example.

The fats group as a whole have been put at the tip of the pyramid with a warning to eat as little as possible, which is problematic in itself.  If you take the pyramid at face value you would believe that you should avoid the fats group as much as possible - this could lead to the health problems.  Fat is essential to maintain optimum health.  Research has found that unsaturated fats aid in weight loss, reduce heart disease risk, lower blood sugar and even lower cholesterol.  This type of fat can be found in olive oil, nuts, seafood, and avocados.  Also, they keep you feeling satisfied for longer, and help keep blood sugar at steady levels and help brain function.

However, one of the most worrying parts of the food pyramid released by the USDA is the widest section at the bottom suggests that what we should eat the most of is grains, pasta and breads despite the evidence showing that grains break down into sugar in your body and therefore promote fat accumulation and drives insulin resistance and related diseases including diabetes, heart disease and cancer.

So why grains?  They are cheap and easy to grow and they are also cheap and easy to buy, you can feed more people cheaply with grains than growing vegetables or raising cattle.

Saturated fat has always had a bad name too, but there is also mounting evidence that saturated fat is actually an incredibly healthy, nourishing, and all-natural fat that we humans have been thriving on for generations.  Saturated fats when included in the diet, give lots of energy and leave you feeling satisfied for longer therefore preventing you from eating too much.  They are also necessary for the absorption of fat soluble vitamins such as vitamins A, D, E and K and are also needed for mineral absorption and many biological precesses.  (For more information on this type of fats you can see my post The Truth About Saturated Fats).

Dr. Mercola has designed a food pyramid based on Nutritional Science - which would promote optimal

health.  He believes, and I am inclined to agree with him, that the USDA pyramid is based on agricultural subsidies and industry lobbying efforts.  His pyramid is almost like turning the USDA pyramid upside down.  He features healthful fats and vegetables on the bottom - the base for what we should all be eating.  50% of our daily calorie intake should come from healthful fats and vegetables such as, avocados, coconut oil, nuts and raw butter.  Vegetables should represent the main bulk of your daily intake, they are low in calories but high in a huge number of critical nutrients.

He then goes on to suggest high quality proteins, followed by a moderate amount of fruits.  Why so few fruits?  Well according to Mercola, lots of fruits are very high in fructose, the natural sugar found in fruit, and Mercola would really prefer we stay as far away from fructose as possible.  Here I am in two minds... yes, if you eat lots of fruits with a high fructose content it is possible that you will have to deal with health problems, however, Mercola's main problem seems to be with High Fructose Corn Syrup which has been highly processed and is completely different from the natural Fructose found in fruits.  The human body has ways of digesting the natural fruit fructose, as with everything - just don't over do it!  There are plenty of tables on the Internet which show the content of fructose in different fruits.  My advice would be to keep the high fructose fruits to a minimun and in the mornings to give you an energy boost through the day, and lower fructose fruits in the afternoon evening when you don't need so much energy.

Finally at the very top of Mercola's pyramid you'll find grains and sugars.  This top part could be eliminated entirely from your diet and he assures your health will benefit greatly is you chose to do so.

Apart from the fructose question, I totally agree with Mercola's pyramid.  I highly recommend you read his article in full, you can follow this link to read it: Dr Mercola's article.

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

Past brings health to the present...

We all know that our diets have changed beyond recognition over the years.  The incredible amounts of processed foods that find their way to our table is now, unfortunately, not even considered a worry.  It is something that has become "normal".  However, lots of us now feed our children things that we never had as children - now I say "things" because most of them can't be considered foods at all.  Processed meats in the form of hamburgers, sausages, chicken nuggets even ham - considered a health food by many dieters, cooked packaged ham in convenient slices often comes full of sugar, milk protein, potato starch... and so the ingredient list on a packet of ham goes on and on...

So maybe we really should dig back into history where cancer, obesity, type 2 diabetes, depression, and childhood obesity were rare and certainly didn't have the scarily fast rising rate all these health problems have nowadays.  Quite often, getting back to basics for health is the way to go.

So here are 6 ancient superfoods that will give your modern lifestyle a health kick:

1.  I have often written about the need for Omega 3 fatty acids found in fish such as Salmon to improve

brain function among other things.  Used in ancient Rome and Scandinavian cultures, Fermented Cod Liver Oil (FCLO) has been used for thousands of years, these fats are rich in essential fatty acids DHA and EPA and are essential for healthy weight management and for brain nerve health.  FCLO is also a good source of Vitamins A and D which are fat soluble vitamins and the fermentation process maintains these nutrients intact and vital.  If you can't find Fermented Col Liver Oil near you, try Krill Oil.  Krill Oil is water soluble making it far easier for the body to absorb the vitamins and essential fatty acids contained in it.

2.  Unfortunately for us humans, the majority of the meat we eat has been tortured instead of raised.  No, I'm not a vegetarian, I love a juicy steak every now and again but it really should be organic - as in grass-fed, roaming round green pastures and enjoying life before it ends up on my plate!  Most beef produced in the US (and most other countries too) have been dragged up on factory farms and packed full of hormones antibiotics and vaccines against disease.  It is far more difficult to find a healthy piece of meat nowadays.  Throughout history cows were allowed to roam free grazing on grass, this type of beef is naturally leaner than factory farmed animals and the fat it does have has great benefits for us humans: a standard 100g serving contains 35mg of those beneficial Omega 3 fatty acids I was talking about before, compared with only 10mg in factory produced meat.  Happy grass-fed animals also have twice the conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) per serving.  Higher CLA levels have been associated with a reduced risk of heart disease and cancer and easier weight loss.

3.  The ancient Chinese called this brew the "Immortal Health Elixir", Kombucha is a fermented tea
that has been around for over 2000 years.  This drink is very high in B Vitamins which help to increase energy levels and decrease inflammation in the body.  This fermented tea is packed full of probiotic cultures with help digestion and increase immunity.  Recent studies have shown that glucaric acid - found in high quantities in Kombucha - helps prevent cancer.  This is available in health food stores or you can make your own at home.

4.  There's nothing more appetizing than a heartwarming soup (at least it is in winter).  Stock, the base of all soups and many other dishes, has been considered and essential healing food by ancient populations on every continent.  The boiling of organic beef or chicken bones from 6 to 40 hours produces a stock packed full of minerales, antioxidants and vitamins, all of which are released from the bones during the boiling process and then easily absorbed by the body when ingested.  This is a great superfood and aids in weight loss resistance, small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, Leaky Gut Syndrome, and autoimmune responses.

5.  Traditionally part of the Central American diet for thousands of years, the sweet potato eventually

made it's way to Europe thanks to Christopher Columbus on his return.  The sweet potato is extremely high in Vitamin A which is essential for healthy skin and eyes.  But it's benefits do not stop there, this vegetable are packed full of vitamin C, manganese, Vitamin B6, potassium, copper and very high in fiber.

6.  The ancient Koreans ate Kimchi in vast quantities and they considered it to have healing properties.  Kimchi is a blend of fermented vegetables and spices which has been associated with lowering of blood pressure and weight loss.  Studies have also shown Kimchi to have anti-cancer properties and a decrease in atherosclerosis and autoimmune responses.  You can make this at home or buy in a shop, but if you do buy it a a shop, be careful with the sugar and salt content used to prolong it's shelf 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

Grow your own... wherever you live...

It is consistently more and more difficult to find organic vegetables and fruits, readily available and at an affordable price, at least it is in some countries.  Other lucky people like the Americans have Farmer's Markets in most cities, something that should be promoted in all major cities all over the developed world.  Why only the developed world?  Because that is where our diet and our health is suffering in favor of accessibility to all vegetables and fruits all year round instead of just seasonal ones, and mass production to meet demand which means that most of our vegetables and fruits are picked before they are ripe and kept in cold storage until they reach the consumer.  They are treated with unhealthy levels of pesticides so that as much of the crop as possible is viable - all of which enter our bodies when we eat them.  And don't even get me started on GMO produce and the lack of labeling.

Let's face it, nowadays we know very little about what we are putting in our bodies and the potential effects that food can have on our health.  Our busy lifestyles mean that we want convenience above health.

Prices for organic foods are still a lot higher in comparison to the mass produced foods and people are now beginning to try to grow their own.  I have had a vegetable patch for the past 6 years, as an inexperienced gardener I tend to stick to the summer months for growing as I am scared of trying during the winter months for lack of a green house and the fact that where we live, temperatures do go way below freezing in winter.  But this year I have promised myself I am at least going to try and carry on after the summer bonanza of wonderful home grown produce.  I grow: potatoes, lettuces, tomatoes, runner beans, peppers, onions, egg plant, leeks, courgettes (squash), pumpkins, cucumbers, and I am still trying to grow strawberries although the birds usually get to them before I do!

My husband was skeptical the frist year I said I was going to plant a vegetable patch.  He's is not a great

vegetable eater and prefers salads as his main source of vegetables, and will only really eat fruit if it is already cleaned, peeled and cut into bite sizes chunks in a dish and put in front of him.  So, I almost jumped for joy the first time I gave him produce from our garden and he readily admitted that he'd never tasted anything like it.  I made the Spanish version of ratatouille (Pisto), made with courgettes, onions, tomatoes and peppers - he will now eat it happily and can't wait for the vegetables from our garden to be ready to eat - he has even taken on watering the garden in the evenings and is all for starting a project for a green house to extend our own veggie growing all year round.  Now if he can be convinced maybe you can too.

Now, I admit, we are lucky, we have a garden with enough space for a veggie patch and the kids still have loads of space to play without destroying the tomatoes - now if I could just get the dog to stay away... yes, it seems my veggies are so good that even the dog eats them!

Lots of people don't have a garden, and lots of city dwellers don't even have a balcony or terrace that they could use to grow their own veggies - or so they think.  However, you really don't need that much space to have your own little area to grow vegetables.  You would be surprised as to how much produce you can get from a small number of plants.  Quite often I have so much produce that I end up giving it away to friends and neighbors and turning it into tomato sauce and preserving it for the year to come.

One of the major requirements for your vegetables to flourish is sunlight, so as long as you have a sunny room, terrace or balcony you can put them on your are ready to go.  However, in hot countries such as Spain, be careful with the summer heat if your plants are on a cement terrace or balcony it can get too hot for them, so best to have them somewhere you can move them with ease to the shade.  A good idea for this is to put them on a base that has wheels and you can move them easily.  You will need containers of at least 10 inches wide and 12 inches deep - the bigger the pot the better as they need space to grow.  Make sure the containers you use have drainage wholes in the bottom to stop the roots from rotting.  You can also get very creative and make the containers into decorations too.


Tomatoes are ideal for home growing, especially the baby or cherry variety as your will get lots from just a couple of plants, peppers are also good and lettuces just keep producing as long as you cut them
and eat them leaving the roots in the soil.  Courgettes need a lot of space as the plants can grow to be quite big and I wouldn't recommend pumpkins or cucumbers unless you have space to let them crawl... you can train them to grow up and over a trellis and go vertical instead of horizontal to save space.  Lots of people are using hanging baskets to grow vegetables nowadays and therefore economizing on space, believe it or not some can even be grown upside down.  Another way of economizing space is to use walls!  Yes there are even ways to grow veggies on walls - but I would recommend them being outside walls!

So who is going to give it a try?  I'd love to hear about your experience.

Useful Links:

Grow Food not Lawns
Gardening Know How

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

Wear your conscience on your wrist.

Have you ever wondered how many calories you burn per day?  How much you move or how well you sleep?

If you have read any of my previous posts, and I hope you have, you will know that 3 things are essential for optimal health:

1. Exercise/ perpetual movement
2. Diet
3. Sleep

These are the 3 golden rules.  Exercise and perpetual motion are key to combating our sedentary lifestyles, diet is key to nourishing the body and sleep is essential for mental and physical well being.

There are several gadgets available to help you monitor the 3 golden rules and, as it turns out, they tend to motivate you into taking action.

This is something I have witnessed close at hand.  I gave my husband a Jawbone Up band for his birthday last month, and believe me it has worked wonders and achieved changes in him that I had failed to do until now.  I have a Nike Fuel Band that he gave me for my birthday - the Jawbone Up wasn't available back in March, so I know the benefits of wearing your conscience on your wrist, as these gadgets are just that.  Your conscience! 

You set a daily goal of "Fuel" you have to generate or steps you have to take depending on which tracker you decide to use.  And believe me, you really want to achieve that goal everyday otherwise you tend to feel that you have failed!  These gadgets really do get you moving and also make you more aware of just what you are putting into your body during each day.

One of the things Nutritionists like myself know is that if a patient writes down exactly what they eat every day they are far more conscious of how much they are eating and are much more successful in following a weight loss program and in keeping off the weight they have lost.  These new gadgets are very good at keeping people mindful of what they are doing and eating at the touch of a button.

Now my general diet is healthy but my husband was finding it difficult in his stress filled life to stick to eating healthy foods, especially if you consider he travels a lot and different cultures with different ways of eating make it much more difficult to stick to what he knows is the right way to eat.  

Jawbone Up:

I find this to be a very complete tracker.  It monitors the steps you take, the calories you burn, the

calories you ingest and your sleep patterns.  Whoever said that too much information is not a good thing?  It is also discrete and can be worn by anyone in any situation.  It also gives you advice and sends you motivational messages through an app.  You have to input your food and drink intake via the app and it calculates the calories you have consumed.  It does not have a display on the band and it doesn't sync via bluetooth - you have to plug it in to your smart phone in order to download information.  You can compare with your friends through the app and see who is the most active and who is leading the healthiest lifestyle.  The sleep monitor tells you how long it took you to go to sleep and how deeply you slept during the sleep cycles.  The information is then presented in the app and it gives you advice on things you can change to improve.  You can also connect other gadgets such as the Withings scales to monitor your weight through the Jawbone app.

Nike Fuel Band:

Slightly less discrete visually and has less options.  It monitors the steps you take and how many calories your burn and how much "fuel" you produce through your activity.  This "fuel" is not useful for anything it is just a way of gauging how active you are.  It doesn't monitor your sleep patterns and there is no place on the app to input your food intake.  It does have a display on the band so you don't need to sync it to the app to see how you are doing during the day.  The app shows when you were most active during each day and how many days you have been active, plus the calories burned and the number of steps you have taken each day.  Of the two this is the simplest device and I sync it once a day via bluetooth which is very convenient.  You set a daily goal of how much "fuel" you want to achieve with a minimum of 2000 and once you reach your goal you can see just how far past that goal you can go.  The app also gives you motivational messages when you sync and you can compete with your friends to see just who is the most active.

I put these two first as they are the ones we have used and tested at home.  However, there are many more gadgets out there that do the same or similar:

The Fitbit Flex is another band, I did buy this one for my husband but ended up taking it back the next day, it was very chunky and a bit uncomfortable.  It also monitors steps taken, distance travelled, calories burned and via the app you can input food and drink intake and monitor sleep patterns.

One to watch out for is the Withings Smart Activity Tracker, this is a tiny clip on monitor that you wear.  Withings, as far as I am concerned, is a great company producing many handy health gadgets such as the scales that connect via WIFI to your computer or the blood pressure monitor you can plug into your smart phone.  The Smart Activity Tracker measures sleep quality, food intake, movement and pulse rate with a touch sensitive front and a heart rate sensor in the back.  It connects via bluetooth to the Withings Health Mate app.

The Fitbit One, is another cool gadget doing much the same: tracks steps/ movement, distance travelled, calories burned and sleep patterns.  One thing this one has that the others don't is that it has a built in altimeter which allows you to factor in stairs and hill-climbs for better accuracy in the calories burned area.  This also syncs via bluetooth to your computer or smartphone.  This is not a band, this you can keep in your pocket or clip on to your belt, so no need to wear it on your wrist if you don't like that kind of thing.

However, what all these have in common is that they literally are the voice of your conscience.  They really do get you moving and monitoring your food and drink intake.  People have found that they have lost weight and generally tend to move a lot more just by wearing one of these - let's face it, you certainly don't want your app telling you that you didn't reach your daily goal!  That would be really annoying!

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