By Dr Harry
Fibre is an essential component of the diet. Even though it is not absorbed by the body, and therefore has no nutritional value on its own, fibre is vital to maintain a healthy digestive system. Another way fibre helps your health is by adding bulk to your food. These two features of fibre illustrate the two different types of fibre: soluble and insoluble. Soluble Fibre Like the name suggests, soluble fibre dissolves in water. It comes from parts of plants which draw in water and by forming a gel helps slow down the passage of food. So when it sits in your stomach it stays there for longer helping you feel fuller and reducing overconsumption. In this way fibre is a great brake on overeating by making you feel full and satisfied helping to control your appetite. That's why it is so difficult to eat a whole bowl of cabbage. Insoluble Fibre Insoluble fibre does not dissolve in water and passes through the body unchanged. Because it helps food to pass through the body in a timely manner, if you don't get enough fibre in your diet you may feel constipated!
My wife and I have recently upped our fibre intake considerably by eating a lot more legumes.
Many people get a high fibre hit first thing in the morning by eating cereals such as bran flakes, weet-a-bix, shredded wheat etc. for breakfast because these are marketed as "high fibre". Personally, we like oats because oats are a great source of fibre but are also low in sugar and salt (which the other cereals mentioned tend to have added to make them more tasty). So oats are all-round very healthy. You can read our blog dedicated to oats here.
The recommended daily intake of fibre is 25g for women and up to 40g for men. Exact figures depend on age and gender, but a general rule is: the more the better! Unfortunately according to the British Nutrition Foundation, we are usually missing out on this daily target, only eating 60% of the recommended amount of fibre per day. Over time, this can have a negative health impact.
One way to get some extra fibre in your diet is to increase the amount of fruit and vegetables you consume. For example, why not add a sliced kiwi to your breakfast routine? The exact amount of fibre per food varies, but a minimum should be 3g per 100g (or 3%) to count towards your daily fibre intake. Some foods are "high" in fibre which is defined as 6g of fibre per 100g (i.e. 6%). Fruit and vegetables are generally high in fibre, so as long as you are getting your "five-a-day" you should meet your daily fibre target. Foods high in fibre:
Some foods are higher in insoluble fibre while others are higher in soluble fibre. Since they both have a positive effect, it's best to get a mixture in your diet. Some super foods are high in both insoluble and soluble fibre. You may not be surprised to learn that oats contain both types of fibre.
Insoluble fibre is that which is based on cellulose - a plant component found in green vegetables and whole grains. Soluble fibre is based on pectin and gums and is found in all fruits. And by the way, chips don't count - unless they contain the potato skin! Although your personal finances and your business success are my primary interest, I believe you only operate at peak efficiency when you're fit and healthy. If you feel good, it filters through to your work. To help you with that, click for your free ebook: The Quick Guide to Sexy
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By Heather As this small analysis shows, not all oats are equal. The key differences are:
Oats are a great source of fibre (fibre helps to reduce cholesterol), thiamine and iron. Oats contain more soluble fibre than any other grain. This results is slower digestion ultimately meaning you feel fuller for longer. Oat groats are the only source of antioxidants called avenanthramides. These compounds are known to protect one from the hardening of arteries. All in, oats are definitely one of the best foods you can have for breakfast. I have them almost daily.
Nutritional info per 50g serving
This nutritional information was taken off the pack of Mornflake Coarse Oatmeal, Scott's Old Fashioned Porage Oats, Scott's Original Oats and Quaker Oats So Simple. I had no idea that the sugar content was so different! Although your personal finances and your business success are my primary interest, I believe you only operate at peak efficiency when you're fit and healthy. If you feel good, it filters through to your work. To help you with that, click for your free ebook: The Quick Guide to Sexy By Heather After a hard day’s work, there’s nothing I desire less than exercise. I also hate waking up early in order to exercise so finding an appropriate time to exercise has always been challenging for me. When should you exercise? Find a time that’s easy for you. The number of calories you burn is not impacted by the time you choose to exercise at all. For me, midday, after a hard morning of graft seems to work well and weekends, as soon as I wake up. I have, over time, discovered that if I tell myself I’ll exercise later...later never comes. I have to do it as the first thing during the weekend because after that, there’s always something much more fun to do. How intensely should you exercise? Mild to moderate exercise is good enough for most people. Moderate exercise should make you warm, sweaty and slightly out of breath. Anything that gets you out of breath and very sweaty is vigorous activity. Recommended activity levels Britain’s Chief Medical Officer, the Government’s top doctor, recommends the following:
Does the US Government advise the same? Pretty much. The US Department of Health splits its recommendations into aerobic activity and strength training. They recommend that:
Note that these are the minimum recommended guidelines for exercise. You can do a lot more if you wish and if you’re trying to lose weight, you will need to do more. Whether or not you are trying to lose weight, the key message is:
If you mess up one week, scrap it and just set new goals for the following week. You don’t have to make up the lost exercise. If you can, great, but being over ambitious can lead to feelings of failure causing you to give up exercising entirely. Although your personal finances and your business success are my primary interest, I believe you only operate at peak efficiency when you're fit and healthy. If you feel good, it filters through to your work. To help you with that, click for your free ebook: The Quick Guide to Sexy By Heather If you are on a calorie-controlled diet, then one easy way to cut your calorie consumption is to switch from whole milk to a lower fat variety such as semi-skimmed milk. If you are not counting the calories and living an active life, or if you are a growing child, then whole milk – typically around 3.5-4% fat – is a great source of nutrition. What is the difference between whole milk and semi-skimmed milk in terms of processing? Whole milk is more or less straight out of the cow in terms of fat content; all supermarket bought milk is pasteurised to kill germs and homogenised to ensure an even consistency. However, different cow breeds produce milk with slightly different fat contents. So a Jersey cow produces really creamy milk (yum!) compared to a Holstein. Even the season or type of food the farmer gives the cow can change the fat content. So to ensure a standard fat content of 4% the milk is processed. The processing is a way of separating all the fat (cream) from the non-fat (skim) and then returning the fat to the skim in specified amounts according to the desired milk. So less cream is returned to the skim when producing semi-skimmed milk compared to whole milk. What is the difference between whole milk and semi-skimmed milk in terms of fat content? The fat content of whole milk is 4%. For semi-skimmed the fat content is around 2%. You can also get 1% milk, which contains 1% fat, and skimmed milk which is virtually fat-free. Fat Content in Different Milk:
Is the fat in milk bad fat? Fat has a bad press, but milk is highly nutritious and a good source of fat. The fat in milk is made up of several different fatty acids. The majority of these are saturated fatty acids which you may have heard about. Much official guidance from health agencies advises limiting saturated fat intake because of the link to heart disease. However milk also contains other fatty acids such as mono- and polyunsaturates.
What are the advantages of whole milk? Whole milk is a good source of energy for growing children or young adults with high energy needs. It is also energy dense, so the elderly may use whole milk to get a good portion of their calorie intake. What are the disadvantages of whole milk? Whole milk does have the highest fat content, and contains 21-23 more calories per 100ml than 1% semi-skimmed. So if you are on a calorie controlled diet or trying to lose weight, you may want to swap whole milk for a lower calorie milk since over time, these calories are significant. What milk should one choose? Your choice of milk should be guided by your individual tastes as well as your health goals. If you cannot tell the difference in taste between the different milk and you are restricting calories, semi-skimmed or lower fat milk is a good option. If you are living a physically active life and not drinking milk to excess, you can enjoy whole milk. Although your personal finances and your business success are my primary interest, I believe you only operate at peak efficiency when you're fit and healthy. If you feel good, it filters through to your work. To help you with that, click for your free ebook: The Quick Guide to Sexy By Heather Although Fat Creep™ is all about healthy eating and maintaining a regular exercise regime, I get asked questions about how to lose weight fast more frequently than one might expect! I have never had to lose weight fast so these tips are based on what I know about food and periods when I have just happened to lose weight rapidly. Okay, so let's say you have 7 to 30 days within which you need to drop a dress size or two. The following will help you get trim. FAST WEIGHT LOSS MEAL PLAN: a. Breakfast: 40 - 60 grams of oats cooked with water or fully skimmed milk with no sugar added, if possible. Oats are very filling and will help you to stave off cravings. Do you have a kitchen scale? It is not obsessive behaviour to weigh key food items like grains and other carbs because eating too much of these is a common reason for weight gain and weight retention. Get a scale. b. mid-morning snack: a vegetable or fruit such as carrot, kiwi, tangerine or any other fruit/vegetable. c. Lunch: if you consider an ordinary-sized plate, carbs (e.g. cous cous, corn, rice or pasta) should fit in no more than one-third of the plate; half should be vegetables, and meat should fill just under a quarter of the plate. Alternatively, just have a 12-ounce soup or a large salad with no bread or fatty salad dressings. Some people will advise you not to have any rice or pasta at all but in all honesty I find that having a little bit (say, 100-125 grams in one meal) stops carb-cravings from occurring. I think cutting carbs out completely does more harm than good. d. afternoon snack: allow for more than the mid morning snack: a heftier fruit serving or a boiled egg. e. dinner - like lunch. FAST WEIGHT LOSS RULES: 1. Completely remove all processed foods including (but not limited to) the following from your diet:
If you are offered foods like the above at a party or any other unavoidable social gathering and cannot resist, just have a mouthful from someone else's plate and stop there. If you get your own serving you will finish it. Clear your cupboards at home of all the above foods to avoid temptation. 2. If you go to restaurants, choose fish, meat and salad options, they tend to contain fewer calories; if they come with carbs e.g. rice or mash, give half of that to someone else. If you can, don't eat out at all for this period of fast weight loss. Going out just opens you up to a lot of temptation. 3. Never ever get hungry, hunger pangs lead to cravings, cravings lead to overeating bad food - keep carrots and other portable veg in your handbag. You can eat as many vegetables as you like but don't overdo the fruit, too much sugar! 4. Drink water regularly: 2 glasses each first thing in the morning, before lunch, during the afternoon and before dinner. Making sure you are well hydrated will help to keep cravings at bay and is great for good skin. 5. Nuts are good but for a rapid weight loss, I would consider not eating them at all as it can be hard to eat the right-size portion. If you love nuts then have no more than a handful within any seven day period; nuts are high-ish in calories although they are healthy. 6. Do at least 45 minutes of cardio at least twice a week e.g. an intense jog, cycle or rowing session. 7. Do resistance training at least twice a week. I've actually put this as a separate thing 'to do' because combining this with the cardio would lead to people doing just the type of exercise they prefer, cardio in my case. Combining different exercises actually helps more with weight loss than doing just one type. 8. Adjust your daily routine to include more activity e.g. walk to work or part of the way to work, take the stairs instead of the lift, walk up escalators, do sit-ups and weights as you watch TV, put a cycle bike in front of the TV. Substitute sedentary activities e.g. watching TV with active ones e.g. going to a museum. Overall, the less you eat and the more you exercise the faster you will lose weight. You might also like: What's a balanced diet? A healthy eating plan: slow-carb diet, Low-GI diet The 'life' stuff that unexpectedly makes you fat. Be aware. Although your personal finances and your business success are my primary interest, I believe you only operate at peak efficiency when you're fit and healthy. If you feel good, it filters through to your work. To help you with that, click for your free ebook: The Quick Guide to Sexy By Heather I've had three episodes of weight gain in the last 10 years and each time have had to change my lifestyle to accommodate a healthier way of living. That's yo-yo dieting, some might say, no it isn't. Looking back, I can identify exactly what led to the weight gain and it's taken a lot of learning on my part to discover what works. Moving country The first time I gained weight was due to a move from Malawi (Africa) to England. Going to a new country means a new diet and exposure to a new attitude to food. In Malawi, I ate whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted but I was usually surrounded by healthy natural foods so it wasn't a problem. To eat foods like cakes and chocolates, I really had to go out of my way. In addition, I wasn't bombarded with the Ad Man's images of what I should be eating. England on the other hand was the opposite: relatively cheap junk food combined with the constant advertising of confectionery. The same I'll eat what I want, when I want attitude led to weight gain. Moving from university to a full-time job This was the cause of my next round of weight gain. Moving from a relatively active university or school life to a sedentary desk job usually cannot be helped. My mode of transport in university was a bike. With my first job came sitting for prolonged periods of time and a much more limited ability to exercise. I tried to eat well so the weight gain was very gradual but ultimately, I lost track. Changing Jobs The third and final time that I ever gained weight and that I will ever gain weight (fingers crossed) involved a job change. I went from a sedentary job to an even more sedentary job. I sat for such long periods of time that I even started getting back problems. An injury No longer being able to exercise for instance because of an injury will lead to weight gain. There are two solutions: either eat less or do the types of exercise that your injury will allow. If you can't run, try cycling or fast walking; do more resistance training. Increasing availability of food – both junk and healthy food. Nowadays every corner shop and supermarket has a tasty little delight that they are trying to get you consuming. If you go back even a couple of decades this ubiquitousness of food simply wasn’t there. This becomes a bigger problem every year. It’s especially a problem in the developed world where consumption and more consumption has become a way of life. Resist it Moving from a low portion country to a high portion country I did a 6-week stint in New York a few years back and I was flabbergasted by the portion sizes. The food was delish but every meal was 3 to 4 times a standard London portion AND half the price or less! At first, I resisted but by the end of 6-weeks I found myself adapting so much so that I was annoyed by the stingy London portions when I got back. Had I stayed in New York, fat would surely have become me. Most of us were brought up not to waste and to finish our food so leaving food on one's plate doesn’t come naturally. I say, ignore this advice, if you're given a portion that's too large get a doggy back for the excess or just leave it. Moving house The stress of moving makes you eat more but in addition, it takes time to find the local gyms and parks in a new area so it’s quite natural to pile on a few pounds leading up to a house move. Having a baby I don't have one of these but many women gain weight during pregnancy and have trouble shifting it afterwards. They also have less incentive as this is a time when they have other more important priorities. You actually don't need to eat that much extra when you're pregnant. Most of us overeat so in reality most of us shouldn't be eating extra at all! How much extra should you eat if you're pregnant? The equivalent of an extra slice of toast per day - only. That's only 100 - 200 kcal extra per day. What is the solution?
Although your personal finances and your business success are my primary interest, I believe you only operate at peak efficiency when you're fit and healthy. If you feel good, it filters through to your work. To help you with that, click for your free ebook: The Quick Guide to Sexy By Heather My most comprehensive blog to-date is dedicated to my brother and those that have asked me this question recently, three enquiries this week! First things first, when I use the word "diet", I don't mean weight loss programme, I mean diet plan or food regimen. I do not do diets, I only do lifestyle changes. I have had three lifestyle changes over the last 10 years and lifestyle change no. 3 seems to be permanent. If you go from bad eating habits to following the advice below, you will lose weight and then you will stabilise at a normal weight. The diet plan provided here is obviously subjective, it is what I have learnt works for me. You are unique and will have to adapt the below for your own preferences. The media gives mixed messages so you should always do more research on anything that baffles you. How much like me are you? Sweet or savoury? I will choose sweet every time! I don't like sickly sweet stuff though, like thick chocolate sauces or icing. Carbs or meat? I'm more on the carb side of this spectrum - I'll choose rice and beans over steak or cake over a sausage roll any day. The first thing that should go down your throat every day: Two glasses (500 ml total) of water; I have mine warm with a squeeze of lemon. I won't go into the benefits of water here but know that there are many. A healthy and filling breakfastFor me, only one breakfast fills me up: oats. Not just any oats, rolled oats or steel cut oats. Good quantity? 40g for a woman, 60g for a man. 40g? Are you kidding? You'll get used to it. It looks like it's so little at first but it expands on cooking and once you've conditioned yourself you'll be alright. Nutritionally all oats are about the same but steel cut oats are the least processed; rolled oats have been steamed and rolled to soften them up and any packet that says quick-oats or two-minute oats is very processed stuff. The very processed oats are much easier and quicker for the body to absorb so you get hungry a lot faster - or at least I do. I consider them junk food and I never eat them. That said, they are better/healthier than rice crispies, corn flakes and so on. Oats are also said to expand in your tummy that's why they fill you up. Whole milk or semi-skimmed milk or fully skimmed milk? Whole milk. I have been using semi-skimmed milk for 10-years now and recently switched to whole. It's healthier and I realised that my diet is very low in fat so I need all the fat I can get. That said, I don't use that much milk: every portion of oats has 100 ml milk and the rest is water. Nutritionists might recommend less fat but, you know what? It's not the fat in a very natural food like milk that matters. It's the bread, cake and pastries you should watch out for. 100ml of whole milk only has 3.4-3.7% fat. Semi-skimmed milk has 2% fat or 1% fat depending on the variety. Would you process the fat out of your breast milk before feeding your child? Hmmm, no? I thought so! Don't have time to cook steel-cut oats daily? I cook a big batch of oats at the weekend covering six days of food as shown in the video below: 250 g steel cut oats + 1200 ml water + 600 ml whole milk. Fruit for breakfast This is another highly nutritious breakfast choice. Some people I know can have fruit for breakfast and feel satisfied, sadly, that is not the case for me. I can snack on fruit but it's not a meal in my book! How about bran flakes and all that high fibre cereal? It's great if eaten in the right quantity but it doesn't fill me up. The recommended quantity you should eat is so little that if you eat that amount, you'd be hungry again in an hour. Breakfast should keep you filled for three to four hours. What about fry-ups? I love a fry-up as much as the next person. I will not normally have more than one a week. I treat fry-up breakfasts as a treat that is (usually) eaten out of the house for lunch at a nice cafe. Having a fried breakfast for lunch rather than breakfast helps to reduce the calories consumed in a day. If you're on holiday and it's included with the hotel, have it but have smaller lunches and dinners to make up for it. What should you not eat for breakfast (ideally)? Croissants, bagels and bread. I love bread and I'm crazy about good quality croissants (Tesco's in the UK do the best) but this stuff doesn't fill you up and simply isn't as nutritious as oats. If you must, have breakfast like this no more than once or twice a week. Try to have five oats breakfasts per week. Mid-morning snackAny fruit or vegetable. I don't usually have time for a snack mid-morning but if I get hungry I like carrots and tangerines. To all those who say fruit is bad: it's better than a snickers bar and plus it's packed with nutrients, minerals and fibre. One note, nutritionists seem to be confused about bananas. They seem to hinder some people's weight loss but not others. I don't know if they're good for me but I cut down from one a day to 0 - 3 a week. A healthy and filling lunchA friend sent me this image of his lunch; he was probably surprised that I sent him an email reprimanding his choices. Lunch has to be filling otherwise you'll get cravings. Indeed, that evening I got an email telling me he'd guzzled the whole 250g (1500 kcal) packet of peanuts by that evening! Just before lunch, drink another two glasses of water. I usually have mine warm with no lemon at midday. Three good lunches: 1. Soup 2. Salad 3. Cooked wholegrain plus legumes of some form 1. SOUP Very filling. I watched an experiment on TV where they gave one group of builders one lunch, and another group the same stuff as soup. The soup group were full for 1.5-2 hours longer! Especially in winter, soup will satisfy you; 300 ml (12 ounces) is a good portion for anyone. If you must have bread, no more than one slice. Even better, bulk it up with two tablespoons of rice or pasta - preferably brown or wholemeal. Ideally just the soup should be enough. Grains I usually have 50g dry weight equivalent of whatever grain/starch I am having. Some people say cut out white rice and white pasta but I don't eat them every day so I don't think it does any harm at all. I am very anti diets that recommend cutting certain things out completely. From my perspective, there is only one diet that can work, it's called the eat-less-diet and it's been tried and tested for centuries! Legumes I usually have the equivalent of half a can in my preparation. I will publish the recipe in another blog. Oil I don't use oil in the preparation, the onions are sweated in a bit of water, seriously, you can do that. It makes a big difference to the calorie content and the taste is absolutely great. With grains and legumes as a big part of your diet you'll get two massive thank yous: one from your waist and another from your wallet. Meat Add a piece of meat to your dinner if you want. I prefer not to most of the time, I would rather have some custard and fruit for dessert than a piece of meat. Read this to decide on your meat portion. Mid-afternoon snackAround 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. you will get hungry. Listen to your body and have a snack. If you don't, around 5:00 p.m. you will end up having crisps, biscuits, chocolate and other such junk! A 100-200 calorie snack should take away your cravings. As a mid-afternoon snack I love peanuts (no more than a small handful please and not every day), a hard-boiled egg, yoghurt, carrot with houmous, a nectarine or honeydew melon. Something a little more filling than the mid-morning snack. WATER: Make time for two glasses (500 ml total) of water at any point in the afternoon; I have mine warm with no lemon mid-afternoon. A healthy and filling dinnerHave two glasses (500 ml total) of water; I have mine warm with a squeeze of lemon like in the morning. The foods from lunch are just as good for dinner. I don't like salad for dinner because I wake up hungry in the middle of the night if I have that so I almost always have grains and legumes. Have one piece of meat too if you have the calorie space. I personally never have two pieces of meat with any meal, one is enough for any person. As a kid, we were always rationed one piece of chicken or one sausage etc. so this isn't something I had to learn, I just carried it on into adulthood. Other foods that I eatALCOHOL Not a regular part of my diet. I will have a fair amount of mulled wine at Christmas and one or two cocktails (max) at a party. When I go out for meals I never have alcohol, it's simply not necessary and it's too expensive a habit. PIZZA I love Domino's. I estimate that I have pizza once every two months or so. I can go ages without having it and then have it twice in a month. I don't have a rota or anything! SOFT DRINKS I successfully weaned myself off my Coca Cola "addiction" during lifestyle change one. I used to drink it daily, then I cut it out - cold turkey - and I have never craved it since. BREAD I love bread! Excuse the number of times I have used the word love in this blog but I am a real foodie. I am so into food, that is why I got fat in the first place. As much as I love bread, we don't stock bread at our house anymore. Generally, it's hard to eat it in the right quantity and we manage fine without it. A two-bread-slice sandwich is not a filling lunch, in my humble opinion. We have bread when we go out for meals. Re-classifying it as an eating out food led to a sharp drop in bread consumption. If you can't remove bread from your daily routine go for low-GI breads, these tend to be very oaty/nutty breads, yum. CRISPS, BISCUITS, CHOCOLATE, CAKE Not generally stocked at my house. I think a portion of any of these foods 2-3 times per week should be okay for most people. Classify them as an eating out food and don't keep them in your house otherwise you will eat them. Don't use your kids as an excuse, they don't need them either! Stuff that will get you off track!1. Cravings - never ever allow yourself to get hungry; keep a low calorie snack on you always. 2. Temptation to have a large portion - get used to weighing. Calorie track for a week and buy a kitchen scale. We love the Rosemary Conley scale, I've had one since 2005. 3. Friends and colleagues - they're always offering you stuff and telling you it's just this time and that you deserve it and all sorts of other lovely things that you want to hear - learn to say no. 4. Holiday - have fun but not too much, Dr Harry has some tips on keeping healthy on holiday. 5. Life changes e.g. moving country or house, starting a new job, having a baby. These things are major; think about how your life needs to change with the new circumstance before it happens otherwise you will gain weight. Final note: life's for the living so enjoy yourself. I am particularly strict with myself because I have a condition that makes me very prone to weight gain. Once gained, that weight is like fuel prices: downward-sticky! FURTHER READING
Although your personal finances and your business success are my primary interest, I believe you only operate at peak efficiency when you're fit and healthy. If you feel good, it filters through to your work. To help you with that, click for your free ebook: The Quick Guide to Sexy By Heather I come from a region of the world where people LOVE their meat. In my high school, there wasn’t a single vegetarian, not one. Indeed, meat eating is encouraged over the consumption of carbohydrate-rich foods by many diets including the Atkins diet and the Paleo diet. Apologies to any Paleo fans that abhor being included in the same line as Atkins. My view, however, is that although meat is good (studies show that when it was added to the diet of cavemen there were evolutionary benefits) most of us eat far too much of it. In deciding the type of diet that's best Paleo fans look back at ancient times when no one was fat. Their logic appeals to me too but I don't really agree with the conclusions. I don’t have to imagine ancestral times to get a picture of basic living: I can look at my own village in Malawi and see how they live now. As much as they would wholeheartedly welcome the daily consumption of meat, there are obstacles: 1. They don’t have any fridges to store meat; 2. Killing the animals they keep for consumption too often would deplete their stock in no time at all: Even if the village entered into a co-operative scheme and slaughtered one family’s animal at a time based on a rota, they couldn’t do that daily or even weekly without risking rapid depletion of livestock. There’d also be considerations like killing animals of the same size and what do you do if someone’s farm is destroyed by a disease and so forth. 3. They can catch wild animals but not every day; wild animal sightings are few and far between; 4. When the weather is poor hunting down animals is even less likely. The above problems existed centuries ago. Indeed, in reading Born to Run by Christopher McDougall, he found that the very fit Tarahumara people seldom eat meat and subsist almost entirely on corn and other wholefoods like beans and legumes. Why is too much meat bad? It’s associated with an increased risk of certain diseases: heart disease, diabetes, stroke and cancer. Scientists aren’t sure why but they suspect the iron and saturated fat in red meat, the nitrates used to preserve them or carcinogenic compounds created in the cooking process increase the risks. How much meat should we eat? You get conflicting answers depending on who you ask! According to Mayoclinic (June 2010), a Harvard study collated 20 studies to see if different types of red meat – processed vs. unprocessed – had different effects on the risk of getting heart disease, diabetes and stroke. They found that: Red meat: 100 grams a day (roughly the size of a deck of cards) was not associated with a higher risk of heart disease and posed only a slightly higher risk of diabetes. Processed red meat: About 50 grams a day was associated with a 42% higher risk of developing heart disease and a 19% higher risk of diabetes. Total red meat: A daily total of 100 grams of processed and unprocessed red meat wasn’t associated with a higher risk of heart disease. However, it was linked to a 12% increase in the risk of diabetes. A newer, widely reported (March 2012) Harvard study on red meat (see LA Times & The Telegraph) found the opposite! The LA Times reported that “any amount and any type - appears to significantly increase the risk of premature death, according to a long-range study that examined the eating habits and health of more than 110,000 adults for more than 20 years.” According to the study, adding the same deck-of-cards quantity of unprocessed red meat to one's daily diet was linked to a 13% higher chance of dying during the course of the study. Adding a daily serving of processed red meat e.g. two slices of bacon increased that 13% chance to 20%. Substituting red meat with the following foods led to a reduction in mortality risk by:
What is unprocessed meat? The least processed meat you can eat involves killing the animal and eating it, raw. But generally, you can consider the following to be unprocessed even if they’ve been cooked, grilled or fried:
What is processed meat? Any meats that has been preserved, especially using nitrates.
So what should you do about meat? I’m not one who stops doing something just because a study tells me it’s bad; I take the information on-board (given it is science) and make a judgement about how much I want it to impact my life. The fact is, and at risk of stating the obvious, we’re all going to die someday. I want to live healthily so that I can enjoy life but I don’t believe every action I take should be clouded by fear of getting this disease or that. That said, it is well advised to eat less meat and to consider substitutes like legumes, whole grains, poultry and fish. Your meat cravings can be satisfied by making meat a secondary part of your meal e.g. meat bits in a veg dish rather than a full-on steak. My current philosophy on food is that the less processed it is, the better. So my diet is very high in grains, legumes, fruit and veg. I don’t eat meat every day; there are 21 meals in a week (breakfast, lunch and dinner times seven) and I have meat in about three or four of those – unless I’m on holiday and sampling new cuisine, of course! Although your personal finances and your business success are my primary interest, I believe you only operate at peak efficiency when you're fit and healthy. If you feel good, it filters through to your work. To help you with that, click for your free ebook: The Quick Guide to Sexy By Heather The London Olympics 2012 app has a beautiful amount of data on the athletes. My husband, Harry, came up with the idea of calculating the BMI for some of the athletes to show just how rubbish BMI is - the results were even better than we hoped. A BMI of 25 means you are overweight. A BMI of 20 to 25 is normal but once you start going past 24 (and some will even say 23) you are in a danger zone within which you need to be careful. Of the 11 athletes featured on the London 2012 app yesterday (plus one we just added to have an even number), three are overweight:
This goes to show how inaccurate BMI is. These guys are as fit as you get - their diets will be on point and at risk of stating the bleeding obvious, they take regular exercise. These aren't even body builders or weight lifters, they're standard top athletes. Anyone who does a lot of physical work should take BMI with a pinch of salt. If your BMI is in the 25-28 range and you know you're fit and eat well, do not despair! Although your personal finances and your business success are my primary interest, I believe you only operate at peak efficiency when you're fit and healthy. If you feel good, it filters through to your work. To help you with that, click for your free ebook: The Quick Guide to Sexy By Heather I decided to look into whatever I could find on the employment prospects of fat people in the developed world. This is what I found: A daily mail article reported that:
Having gained a lot of weight following the death of her grandmother, a highly qualified woman interviewed by the Daily Mail said, "When you are fat, they assume you must be stupid and lazy, because only a stupid, lazy person would allow themselves to get so big." A Forbes report assimilates various studies:
Indeed, American employers seem to have some stats to back up their discrimination against overweight people: between 1997 and 2004, obese workers:
In addition, the average medical-claims costs per 100 employees was $51k for the obese and $7.5k for the non-obese. An article by The Guardian summarises the phenomenon as follows: Fat people are regarded as less successful at restraint. Fat bodies (are deemed) - less worthy, less capable and less employable. Fat-hate is so pervasive in Western society although it's so superficial. I would like to think that in hiring someone I would ignore what they look like and focus exclusively on their ability to perform a certain role. For many roles, what you look like doesn't and shouldn't matter. Sadly, overweight people often share the bias against them and that impacts on their self esteem and confidence. When it comes to fatness, I prefer to focus more on health factors rather than on aesthetics. Health consequences are more real and if you're obese that should really be your key concern. Being fit means you can run around with your kids, you'll live longer and you're less likely to get any obesity-related illnesses. Whatever your size, love yourself and know your value as a person. Peace and chicken grease, Heather Although your personal finances and your business success are my primary interest, I believe you only operate at peak efficiency when you're fit and healthy. If you feel good, it filters through to your work. To help you with that, click for your free ebook: The Quick Guide to Sexy |
By Heather
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