Many athletes may fuel their bodies with refined carbohydrates, consuming too many empty calories which lack essential nutrients. They consume some protein but the optimal amount they require is unclear and although they will cut back on saturated fat they may be missing the intake of essential fats.

The first areas which need to be addressed are to ensure that blood sugar levels are stable and every meal consists of healthy fat, fibre and lean protein.

Blood sugar fluctuates every three hours, for athletes it is important to never go hungry and thirsty, ensure that you have planned snacks and spread your meals throughout the day. Try having a smaller breakfast and have the remainder mid morning, do the same for lunch and dinner, you will consume the same calories but less energy deficit and enhanced performance. Large meals will cause more insulin to be released and could lead to a sharper fall in blood sugar and leave you tired with low energy.

It is also of vital importance that you listen to your body. Through keeping a food log every 7-10 days note why, when and what you are eating. Do this five times and you will become an instinctual eater rather than just eating for eating’s sake.

Exercise has two effects on nutrient requirements: it increases the rate of energy usage and increases sweating, if there is not enough energy consumption it will have a negative impact on the body and on performance. That is where restricting calories come into play when trying to loose body fat. Although you may be loosing weight on the scales, you will also be loosing lean muscle mass because the body is compensating and needs to get energy supplies from somewhere.

Weight loss of one to two pounds per week is safe and realistic and won’t have a negative impact on you training.

Eating real food may take time and preparation but will deliver results!

If you are not getting results from training program, a diet overhaul may just be the ticket to help you achieve the results you are working so hard for. Get in touch to find out if we could help.

Kate Cook helps people deal with their diet, digestion and stress.
Contact 0845 0502442 or kate@thenutritioncoach.co.uk http://thenutritioncoach.co.uk/contact-the-nutrition-coach.php”>

We all vary in the foods we like, how much we need to eat, and when we like to eat. It is also normal for us to experiment with different eating habits, for example trying a vegetarian diet or maybe cutting out wheat for a period to see the effect on our health and how it makes us feel. However, when food is used to help us cope with painful situations or feelings, then eating patterns can become damaging. For example, food may be used to help someone cope during a time of feeling depressed, lonely, ashamed or as a way to control their environment and manage external pressures and expectations. Whilst we can all relate to the idea of comfort eating and restrictive eating, for people with an eating disorder, thoughts of food, eating, weight and shape encompass every aspect of their life.

Having an eating disorder is a lonely existence and is associated with many health problems. There is no single cause as to why eating disorders develop, but they are associated with a combination of many factors, events, feelings and pressures which lead to the individual feeling unable to cope. Controlling food intake therefore becomes a coping strategy, but as the disorder develops it takes control of the individual’s life. The media often glamorises eating disorders with dramatic weight loss, size zero and speculation of ‘near anorexic’ celebrities making the front pages of glossy magazines. The reality, however, is that anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and other eating disorders are complex mental illnesses caused by psychological distress. A person does not choose to develop an eating disorder, just like someone does not choose depression.

1.6 million people in the UK are estimated to have an eating disorder, and anorexia has the highest mortality rate for any psychiatric condition. People with eating disorders, but who do not have enough of the features common in anorexia or bulimia, are termed as having an Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (EDNOS), and EDNOS make up the largest group of eating disorder sufferers. Other eating disorders include binge eating disorder and compulsive overeating. You cannot tell if someone has an eating disorder by their shape and size alone, as many are of normal weight – the real pain of an eating disorder is on the inside.

Research shows that eating disorders are becoming more and more common. It is therefore particularly important that people are aware of the facts about eating disorders and what help is available to them and their loved ones. At The Nutrition Coach we work with those suffering with eating disorders to improve their relationship with food and to help them to find their way out of the cycles of disordered eating. Taking the first steps to get help can be extremely difficult, but seeking help is the first step to recovery. Food plays an important part in all our lives and we are here to help people develop a balanced, happy relationship with food, so that they can live life to the full.

BEAT (http://www.b-eat.co.uk/Home) is the UK leading charity on eating disorders and initiator or eating disorder awareness week.

Kate Cook helps people deal with their diet, digestion and stress.
Contact 0845 0502442 or kate@thenutritioncoach.co.uk

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

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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Find out more about our Dump The Diet (Weight Loss) Course – Ring 0845 050 2442

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.

The Nutrition Coach Food consultancy helps restaurants, supermarkets and the food industry

Contact us if you would like more information

Confusion arises partly because the concept of a “good diet” assumes that we all have the same nutritional needs. We don’t. We all have different health profiles and life circumstances and therefore unique nutritional requirements. There is no such thing as a universal diet which suits everyone.

Nutritional Therapists have long-recognised the importance of individual lifestyles and  biochemical make-up and thus the potential flaws present in transferring dietary guidelines designed for the general population to dietary recommendations for optimising individual health.

So why not call one of our expert Nutrition Coach team members to find out if your diet  is right for you?

Wishing you the best of health

Sylvia