We all enjoy the thought of red wine and dark chocolate being rich in antioxidants and therefore nourishing choices that we can call upon. But maybe now is the perfect time to accept their damaging effects and to turn to good nutrition to support your body through the stress of the economic changes. Whilst good food choices will support your body, poor choices will contribute to anxiety, fatigue, interrupted sleep and depression.

A supportive diet is one that keeps your blood sugar levels even and is rich in anti-stress nutrients. Your foods crutches should therefore nourish you with B vitamins, vitamin C, magnesium and zinc. Your kitchen cupboards should be stocked with wholegrains, beans, seeds and nuts and your fridges filled with fresh fish, fruit and vegetables. Sugary snacks should be replaced with alternatives such as oat cakes with hummus, natural yoghurt with berries or a piece of fruit with a handful of nuts. Instead of seeking a short boost from caffeine or alcohol, now is the time to experiment with roobios, green and herbal teas which are hydrating and wont leave you feeling exhausted.

By making the right food choices and nourishing yourself through the stressful times you can achieve a consistent, high level of energy, reduced anxiety and emotional balance. So, be aware of what crutch you reach for in your hour of need and ask yourself whether it really is supportive. In my mind good health is certainly more luxurious than any chocolate – and affordable too.

Find whether you are eating the right foods and discover practical and achievable dietary changes, with a Diet MOT consultation at The Nutrition Coach. Diet MOT consultations are on special offer at the price of £50.00 until the end of February. Call us on 0845 050 2442 or email angela@thenutritioncoach.co.uk to book your place.

Kate Cook specialises in helping people deal with their diet, stress and digestion so do get in touch.

Look forward to hearing from you!

The Nutrition Coach Team

Dim Sum: Literally meaning ‘to touch your heart’ dim sum, the ’small eats’ are originally a Cantonese custom and are inextricably linked to the Chinese tradition of “yum cha” or drinking tea (and that’s not PG tips I’m talking but plenty of healthy antioxidant rich green tea). Teahouses sprung up to accommodate weary travellers journeying along the famous Silk Road. Rural farmers, exhausted after long hours working in the fields, would also head to the local teahouse for an afternoon of tea and relaxing conversation. And if you go for the steamed and not the deep fried version you can enjoy some tantalizing healthy ’small eats’ and you should know by now that I always encourage eating ’small’ and if you do it while sipping a cup of green tea to relax instead of coffee you might dream of being in China instead of stuck in front of your computer.

Ginger and Garlic: These two ingredients are integral to Asian cooking. The unique tang of fresh ginger is used in everything from stews to stir-fried dishes, while the pungent flavour of garlic is featured in meals throughout China. If you are not using these two ingredients in your kitchen yet, it is time to start experimenting and some more flavour to your foods and dish up a nice ginger chicken or Chinese stir fry. Adding these to your diet will also mean you are adding some health promoting properties, as both of these two foods are thought to have medicinal properties and garlic provides you with anti-viral and anti-bacterial properties.

Tea: Brits are tea drinkers but unfortunately that’s mostly stimulating black tea and not relaxing herbal tea. I think it’s time to swap the black tea for some of the health promoting tea and tea drinking customs derived from the Chinese culture e.g. consuming tea as a sign of respect, to apologise or to connect large families on wedding days (I wonder how this would go down with the in-laws).

Kate Cook helps people deal with their diet, digestion and stress
Contact us
kate@thenutritioncoach.co.uk

Our bodies have natural cleansing cycles when they want a lighter diet and more liquid intake. This occurs on a daily basis, and also in tune with the yearly cycle and seasonal change. This makes spring a particularly good time for a detox, as it is a time associated with renewal and freshness before the summer months. A spring detox is therefore an ideal way to rejuvenate the body and mind, and improves energy and mood, aids weight loss, clears the skin and improves digestion.
So, why do we need to detox? Put simply, toxins that we’re exposed to damage the normal functioning of our cells, and therefore prevent us from reaching optimal health. We are exposed to an array of toxins on a day to day basis, and with approximately 4000 chemicals used in food production our food can be a major source.
Toxins we consume include preservatives, artificial colourings and flavourings, pesticides, fertilisers, antibiotics, growth enhancers, caffeine and alcohol. As the majority of these are relatively new man-made substances it’s not surprising that our body isn’t designed to process them, and overtime can leave us with fatigue, headaches, skin problems, cellulite, digestive problems and weakened immunity.
If this sounds familiar, give your body a well deserved spring cleanse. Experience the benefits of increased health, energy and vitality by following our top ten tips:

1. Start the day with a cleansing mug of hot water with ¼ squeezed lemon, slice of root ginger and a pinch of cayenne pepper.
2. Eat a fruit-based breakfast, such as stewed or fresh fruit salad with natural yoghurt and ground seeds, or a freshly made protein smoothie.
3. Avoid black tea, coffee and alcohol and replace with herbal tea, such as nettle to support the kidneys, or dandelion root coffee to aid liver function. It’s important to stay well hydrated, so drink at least 1.5 litre of water daily. Fresh juices, such as carrot, beetroot, apple and cucumber are also fantastically nourishing and cleansing so aim to drink one fresh juice daily – ideally on an empty stomach for maximum benefit.
4. Avoid all processed and prepared foods – this really means anything that has been manufactured and comes in a packet e.g. ready meals, savoury snacks, biscuits. Instead eat food in its natural unprocessed state and cook by steaming, lightly boiling or poaching rather than frying.
5. Chose organic food over non-organic food to minimise your intake of toxic pesticides.
6. Eat at least five portions of fruit and vegetables per day, aiming for more (ideally nine!). For lunch and dinner, cover at least 60% of your plate with vegetables and eat as much variety of colours as possible, aiming to cover the whole spectrum of the rainbow.
7. Avoid wheat (e.g. in bread, pasta, pastries and biscuits) and replace with wheat-free alternatives such as brown rice, buckwheat noodles, quinoa, rye bread and oat cakes.
8. Eat snacks, but replace sugary treats such as chocolate and cake with supportive foods such as fresh fruit, vegetable sticks with houmous , half an avocado or mixed seeds.
9. Reduce consumption of animal products. Avoid dairy products, except natural live yoghurt, and replace milk with soya or nut milks. Avoid processed and fatty meats and replace with fish, eggs, lentils, beans, tempeh (fermented tofu), quinoa, seeds and nuts as good protein alternatives.
10. Incorporate lifestyle factors into your regime to support the process: get a good nights sleep, take a yoga class, treat yourself to a massage or sauna, try dry skin brushing before showering and use natural organic skin products.

Contact The Nutrition Coach for more info 0845 050 2442

James came to see me in January with symptoms of IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) – he had seen his doctor who had rule out the possibility of anything serious and the doctor had given him som peppermint oil to help with cramping symptoms.  James was convinced he had food intolerance as the symptoms seemed to get worse when he ate certain foods – the trouble was that on some occasions even when he avoided certain trigger foods he still had the symptoms.  He was keen to learn just what foods were to blame as try as he might he couldn’t see a pattern.  

When he came to me I took a detailed case history ( asked him loads of questions) and it turned out the symptoms had started at Christmas time with a bout of gastric flu –  before that he said he had a very sturdy gut.  He said he was able to eat anything!   This gave me the clue that perhaps rather than food intolerance -this might be a case of infection.  Instead of a food intolerance test I got him to do a gut test instead ( stool test)..  The results took about four weeks to come back and in the meantime we worked on improving his diet – although improving the diet did help improve the symptoms somewhat, the symptoms were still there.

Once we got the results back he had a very common parasite (very common in the UK) B.hominis –  This parasite makes the gut more sensitive to foods and in his case was the root of the problem.  We worked on getting rid of this parasite and improving gut ecology and immunity.   Now five months later he is in a much better position – his symptoms are heaps better.  We still have work to do but with persistence we can definitely see light at the end of the tunnel!

1. Low levels of iron

2. Poor diet – low in nutrients, including essential fats

3. Not enough water

4. Not enough sleep or poor quality sleep

5. Infections – or recovery from infections

6. Thyroid function

7. Too much exercise/not enough exercise

8. Recovery from infection/virus

One other area nutritional therapist might consider is adrenal function – The adrenals glands are where your stress hormones come from and allow you to cope with stress. Medically low adrenal function is not recognised only a complete lack of hormone is recognised as a medical condition and is really rare (Addison’s disease) – although President Kennedy suffered and managed to cover it up successfully.

It is possible that your adrenal glands can get tired, if you have been under stress for a number of years without respite. It means that the production of cortisol (flight and fight hormone) is reduced – you do need stress hormones to feel energetic and to cope with the stress that is thrown at us. There are many ways to look after the adrenal glands:

1. Get to bed early – 10.00pm would be ideal

2. Eat a diet that balances your energy across the day (low GI diet would be ideal)

3. Take time for relaxation – breathing is important

4. Take time for exercise – but make sure that you don’t over do it if you are tired. Try yoga/pilates too

5. Make sure you are taking your holidays

6. Draw your boundaries at work – make sure that you get home at a decent time

How do you know if you have adrenal fatigue? Come and talk to a nutritional therapist at The Nutrition Coach to find out more – 0845 0502442

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Londonnutritionist

There is so much in the media about food intolerance. Is it myth or reality?

What is food intolerance? Food intolerance is when it seems that the very food we are eating is not agreeing with our system. It could be that syptoms of bloating, gas, wind and pain appear when eating certain food groups. It can be that the food is almost giving the symptoms of a hangover where you feel rough for a few day. Many people get aching joints or syptoms of a foggy head.

Certainly our diets have changed to an unrecognisable degree from around the 1960’s onwards – our ancient selves would not be familiar with a lot of what we eat now-a-days, from bagels, to crisps to ice-cream to smoothies! The most stunning difference in the diet from even when I was a child is the amount of wheat products we eat. Our first meal of the day is often a sugar loaded breakfast cereal (wheat) then a snack of a biscuit (wheat) and then lunch of a sandwich (wheat) and then a dinner of pasta (wheat). If we eat the same thing over and over without variation it is possible that we set up food intolerances. The trick is to keep the diet really varied – rye, kamut (!), brown rice, quinoa, buckwheat are just a few of the hundreds of different grains that are available.

Generally I find that rather than the food intolerance being something that has caused symptoms the food intolerance is the symptom of something else that is going on in the bowel. Bacterial, yeast or parasitic activity in the bowel can make it more likely that you will react to certain foods. These types of organisms can make the gut “leaky” where larger than nomal semi-digested food molecules escape through the gut wall and directly into the system. Thus it is not just about the foods you are eating (although if you are reacting it does seem sensible not to eat it!) but about what might be exacerbating the symptoms.

I find it fascinating how the bowel can be so linked up to how you are dealing with stress for example. Being more stressed can make you seem like you are reacting to foods as the relationship between the gut and cortisol (stress hormones) can lower your inherent gut immunity.

In summary for sure, identifying what might be causing is the key – but that might be a combination of the foods you are eating and making sure your digestive tract is working optimally to digest and absorp that food.

Contact us for a free 15 minute chat on the phone about how we might help your digestive issues.

Sometimes, the diet can be contrubing to the symptoms.  One of my bete noirs is our horrible British bread.  I am on a mission to change our bread eating habits.  Our bread is generally packaged bread and full of other ingredients than you would expect to find in a loaf of bread.  This squishy, yeasty, substance often does not help people with already a lot of fermentation going on in their guts.

Often the cause can be down to parasitic/bacterial/or yeast infection (for which we conduct lab tests).  The medical profession do not recognise this more functional idea of health.  Doctors are only diagnosing pathology (ie when there is something seriously wrong with the bowel)

Stress can contribute to the lowering of gut function and inflammation in the bowel (due to the nature of stress hormones on “gut immunity”) – so often solving IBS is more down to a holistic approach, where a bunch of contributing factors are considered.

IBS should be looked at in context of  each and every person – not just assuming that everyone’s symptoms are the same or come from the same cause.  Look at the person, do the necessary tests, and then make recommendations on the basis of that person’s unique case-history.

Contact us IBS clinic

Just putting the calories on menus can miss the point too -  for example some fats (and therefore calories) can be beneficial (eg  Omega 3 fat in Salmon) An avocado sandwhich can have a huge amount of calories but is full of good fats whereas some fat is not the kind that is benefical to humans, like huge amounts of saturated fat.

Whilst it is a good idea to watch how many calories consumed in a day of course,  the calorie story on its own does nto put the food into context.  It is important to know what the mirco nutrient content is too (vitamins and minerals).  It is possible to have a low calorie meal which has not contributed to over all health, and left the person starving and digging into a cream bun later on in the day.

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