Calories or Micronutrients - which to choose?

The answer here is that you need to balance these.
You need the best nutrition-per-calorie you can get.

If you're trying to lose weight, gain weight or maintain it, the age old catch-cry of "Do the math - Calories in and Calories out" is the answer.

But you also need to be aware that a 300 calorie piece of cardboard (soaked with the "right" balance of Carbs, Proteins and Fats (not to mention sugars, sodium and fibre) is just not the same as a 300 calorie vitamin and mineral rich, whole-foodstuff to your body.

In the long run (your life), you do yourself a better service by choosing something of the required calorific value, with perhaps a slightly skewed macronutrient balance that is micronutrient dense, than by making a choice that is 'perfect' in the macronutrient sense but relatively devoid of vitamins and minerals.

Your body knows when it is provided with enough of "the good stuff"....and it knows when it's being cheated. If you rip it off in the vitamins and minerals department, for the sake of a few calories, or a few less fat grams, it will provide you with cravings for what it is missing: potentially driving you to eat more orf what you don't need in it's search for "enough" of what it needs.

As re-knowned chef and author Stephanie Alexander said during her recent appearance on SBS's "Insight" (A Gutful), talking about preparing fresh food and, yes, adding a little creme fraiche or butter or olive oil.....

"There is no such thing as "bad" food"
Stephanie Alexander, Insight, Monday 30 March, 2009

So the answer is......as you learn to choose great food and sustenance, choose foods that give you the best value nutritionally. It's easy and delicious!

Cheers :)

Stephanie Alexander's Kitchen Garden Programme

Possibly one of the Australian Government's best investments in it's stated aim of increasing Public health is that of it's investment in Stephanie Alexander's Kitchen Garden Programme.

If you live in Victoria and have school aged children in your family you may well already know about this fabulous programme that teaches children how to grow food sustainably and prepare it for meals.

If you'd like to find out more about this programme and how to get access to it in your school, please click here to visit the Australian Government's Healthy Active page.

Food Labelling to prevent Obesity?

This week, SBS's "insight" discussed the obesity epidemic in it's programme entitled "A Gutful".
The discussion revolved around the perceived causes of the growing levels of obesity in our society and what can be done to prevent and reverse the current situation.

Are we an Obesogenic Society? What are the causes? And ... What measures can we take to prevent the advance of Obesity on us?

The expert audience included Professor Boyd Swinburn of Deakin University; a number of high profile Dietitians, including those from The Biggest Loser (Claire Collins) and Kellogs (Rebecca Bousted); high profile Chefs such as Stephanie Alexander; and representaives form various bodies such as Kate Carnell from the Aust. Food and Grocery Council, and Rob Moodie from the Preventative Health TaskForce.

All agreed that our diets and activity levels have undergone a major revolution in a very short time frame. Also agreed was that this revolution that makes food more accessible and convenient, and that has seen us significantly reduce our activity levels is the major contributor to the major health risk factor that Obesity is.

Much of the discussion revolved around food labelling and making it easier for people to understand what they were putting into their bodies in the name of food.

The thing that bothered me the most was that while I agree there is a need for food labelling that is easier to understand, the labelling criteria focused on only some of the picture!

The % RDI system was discussed, as was the Traffic Light System - both in respect to "Front of Package Labelling". BUT they seem to be concerned with only the standard items: Total Fat, Saturated Fat, Sugars, Sodium levels, and sometimes Fibre.
NOWHERE was there any mention of adding information regarding the overall load of the Vitamin and Mineral Content - the Micronutrient content! The macronutrients that give us our basic energy are important ( Fats, Carbs and Proteins), but so are the micronutrients as they are vital for our bodies metabolic processes.

Much talk was given to the apparently excessive amounts of sugar and fats and sodium in some products, but for my piece, I would take a product with moderate sugar /fat / sodium levels and high vitamin / mineral content over a low/non/fake sugar product or 'nil fat' product with either no or very little micronutient load. And on the basis that my clients don't have health issues that proclude them from this course of action, I recommend them to do the same. Why?
Think about it and come back to get the answer tomorrow!

If you must eat from packets, make an informed decision.
Consider the macronutrient and micronutrient levels and the balance between them to get the 'best bang for your buck' when deciding what to include as fuel in your daily intake.

To find out more about Insight's "A gutful" please go to http://news.sbs.com.au/insight/

Pure Fruit Sorbet Magic

Not much going on today, but I really want to share this fabulous recipe I found at Taste.com.au for Mango and Lime Sorbet.

I'm sure you wouldn't ordinarily think of sorbet as something we'd recommend here, and you'd be right, but This Sorbet is different. It meets all our criteria for good-for-you-food.
It's a fabulous marriage of "Nature's Sweeties" that will leave you truly satisfied without aggravating your sugar cravings. Here are 7 reasons why:

1. It tastes great!
2. No preservatives, additives or emulsifiers that you'd find in a shop-bought sorbet
3. It's a fantastic way to eat fruit in the hot weather we're facing here in Australia.
4. An exotic Icy treat for those of you experiencing a very chilly winter around the world
5. Stacked full of great-for-you, energy providing and recovery vitamins and minerals served in their natural states: a real, whole-food supply of Vitamin C, Vitamin A, Potassium, Calcium, Phosphorous and Magnesium (Source: http://www.healthalternatives2000.com/fruit-nutrition-chart.html )
6. Natural fruit sugars the way we were meant to consume them - sweetness along with loads of nutrients and fibre - so you'll feel satisfied with one sensible sized serving.
7. REALLY quick and easy to make!

Try it out and let us know what you think: Mango and Lime Sorbet

Why Taking Obese Children Away is not The Answer

Over the last year or so much has been made of the parental role in childhood obesity in Australia and world wide. And it's resurfacing.

Doctors, Local Council officials and leading health experts in the UK have all called for obese children to be taken from their parents.

Surely our history teaches us that taking children from their parents is not the answer?!
As a very quick example, consider the damage caused by historical Australian government policies that removed indigenous children from their parents. While at the time, this may have seemed the best policy for the care of the children, it has since been admitted and recognised how damaging and cruel this policy really was.

Given that we know children "comfort eat" just as adults do; that they know when they are full and over-full; and that they can recognise the difference between when they're really hungry and when they are eating for emotional reasons, it seems strange and completely topsy turvy to remove them from their support bases.

Parents do play a very significant role in childhood obesity, however it must be better to educate the parents and the family and support them in lifestyle changes than to remove children from their support network and cause more reason for emotional eating and damage.

From a government spending perspective it must be cheaper to educate parents and families than remove children and feed, clothe and educate them elsewhere, and then need to provide counselling for both parents and children who have been separated. If the governments of this world, and (and as I'm in Australia) more specifically, the Australian Government really wants to reduce the costs of preventable disease, they will be wise to invest in such families and educate and thereby empower them.

Taking obese children from their parents is not the answer, unless we want to encourage a disabled mentality. Effective education and support in these cases should be used in the first instance to empower people and will prove to be a sound investment in the country and it's economy instead of a drain.

Thought for the Day

"The pursuit of happiness is the source of all unhappiness".

Impressive, huh? Certainly made me think, that's for sure. But not for too long. The way I see it is, if you're looking desperately and constantly seeking for things outside of you to possess, to "make" you happy, to keep up with the Joneses: then you're setting yourself up for trouble and a very unhappy life indeed.
If, on the other hand, you practice what I call personal peace, instead of looking for some all encompassing panacea outside yourself, then I think you have it made for a very happy life.

Think about that and let me know what your ideas are - post a comment.:)

Guilt Free Food - Always

Did you know that unnecessary negative stress in your life increases your chances of being overweight and decreases the chances of you losing any weight you might have to lose? It does. Cortisol, one of the key hormones released into your body in times of stress

• is catabolic (it helps break down muscle protein into glycogen that your body and brain can readily use),
• increases your appetite once the initial stressful situation has passed and adrenaline levels drop; and
• encourages the accumulation of abdominal fat (identified as the most dangerous to your health
  

None of these are conditions are what you're looking for when you're trying to maintain or improve your health. Of course, right now I could go on about how you can control and even eliminate the negative stress in your life, but it's not what got my bug-bear going when I sat down to write today.

What got me going was hearing these three words "Guilt Free Food". And my thought was ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Food should never be associated with anything so negative as guilt. Imagine what it feels like to be stressed out every time you consider eating (maybe you don't have to imagine). Here are the facts:

1. Your body needs fuel to maintain your optimal health
2. Food is Fuel
3. You need to eat

Bottom Line: If you get stressed about eating, your blood cortisol levels rise, your appetite increases, your muscle mass decreases and your ability to accumulate abdominal fat skyrockets - to say nothing of the other effects of being in a near permanent state of negative stress has on your life and health.

Read and listen carefully: Food is not "Good" and "Bad".
There are highly nutritious foods and less nutritious foods. Enjoy the high nutrition foods regularly and enjoy the less nutritious foods for fun sometimes, but NEVER, NEVER, EVER feel guilty. As you've read above: Feeling guilty only compounds the effect of consuming the less nutritious food. If you have a real craving for something like chocolate, twinkies or Cheezels...go for it: But let me clarify. I'm not talking about an addictive rush, when you're hungry for anything and everything in the fridge (or even the world) but what you're really doing is reacting to your feelings of anxiety and you're stuffing food into you to stuff down your emotions. No.
I'm talking about a ridgy-didge craving.
If you're truly craving something, your body is telling you that it needs something provided by that food choice - so first - have some water, and if that doesn't do it for you then have whatever it is that you're craving and really, really enjoy it, for your health's sake! Drop the Guilt - it doesn't serve you, or your health goals.

Want to know all about high and low nutrition foods and the effect they have on your health so that you can make well informed choices? Check out this book: Ultra-Metabolism by Dr Mark Hyman MD from Amazon.com or, in Australia, Dymocks Bookstores

Simple Portion Control

Yep, I'm sure you've heard this one before. Reduce the size of your meal portions if you're looking to reduce your waist line.

So: how do you control those portion sizes?

As an athlete, I was always told that about 1/2 my plate should be filled with carbohydrates like pasta and or rice; that the lean meat/ protein portion should fit into the palm of my hand; and that the remainder of the plate should be filled with plenty of colourful vegies. It was a guide designed to create a fairly consistent 60% Carbohydrate/ 20% Protein / 20% Fat macro-nutrient balance for active people. While I have my own thoughts and theories on the 55-60 CHO/20-25 Pro/15-20 Fats 'balance' ratio, it's a whole other topic and I'll stick to the topic at hand for now.. Meal size and portion control.

The guide was a fairly good one for it's purpose, but it failed to recognise that the size of your plate would dictate how much food, and therefore how much energy, you took on board at each sitting.

Controlling food portion sizes can be tough and doing it "by eye" isn't the answer as our views of what we need are distorted, BUT this device just might be the answer. The Meal Measure frames your plate and portion sizes conveniently for you, to show you how you should be eating. We think it's one of the better uses of plastic this world has seen in recent history. Buy the Meal Measure Now