The Nutrition Coach Blog London Nutritionist The Nutrition Coach offers advice on healthy living, nutrition and diet issues such as IBS, bloating, gluten intolerance and more.

Apart from causing anxiety and pressure, stress also creates some physiological changes in the body.

Stress causes the adrenal glands to secrete the ‘fight or flight’ hormones – adrenaline, noradrenalin and cortisol. In the days when we were hunter-gathers the fight or flight reaction was vital for enabling us to flee dangerous situations whilst out hunting.

Our modern stresses are obviously very different! Fast paced lives mean that many people are now under long-term stress, which can cause the adrenals to become fatigued.  When this happens, sleep, mood, concentration and appetite are often disrupted. Long-term stress can make us more vulnerable to illness and can contribute to many health problems such as irritable bowel syndrome, psoriasis and repeated colds and infections.

Some simple dietary and lifestyle changes can help counteract the effects of stress and help you stay healthier.

Eat little and often (never skip meals), avoid refined carbohydrates such as white bread, pasta and cakes, avoid or reduce stimulants (alcohol and caffeine), and eat a little protein at each meal/snack. Dips in blood sugar trigger the adrenal glands to release adrenaline putting more pressure on your adrenal function.

Chew your food well and aim to eat in a relaxed environment. This will help your body to digest and absorb nutrients efficiently.

Sleep is vital for rest and repair.  Aim to get eight hours a night. Go to bed early and get up at the same time each day as this helps to set your body clock.  Allow yourself to wind down before going to bed – have a warm bath and read a good book or practice deep breathing.

And finally – don’t take yourself and life too seriously.  Just smiling can reduce your stress levels.

If you’d like to find out more on how stress is affecting your body, book in for a nutrition consultation and get some more personalised support.

With the reduced daylight hours and the sun setting by mid-afternoon, the winter months can be mellow.  It’s tempting to want to warm ourselves up and boost our spirits by reaching for traditional comfort foods.  Unfortunately these tend to be stodgy, high-fat foods that do little for boosting our mood and actually make us feel worse in the long run.  If this sounds familiar and you suffer from winter blues, or Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), it’s all the more important to eat well to ensure that you’re getting enough mood-boosting nutrients.  Try following our top mood food tips to keep you feel merry in the run-up to Christmas:

1. Aim to include oily fish, such as salmon, sardines and mackerel into your diet two to three times per week, and have a handful of seeds or nuts (walnuts and hemp seeds are ideal) per day.  These foods are rich in omega 3 fats which help build receptor sites for ‘the happy hormone’, serotonin.
2. Include foods that are rich in the amino acid tryptophan in the diet, such as fish, chicken, turkey, oats, eggs, cheese and beans.  This is because tryptophan is needed to produce serotonin.
3. Eat complex carbohydrates such as oats, brown rice, rye bread, pulses and vegetables.  These help to stabilise blood sugar level fluctuations which can cause mood swings and depression.  They are also rich in brain boosting nutrients such as B vitamins, zinc and magnesium.
4. Eat three meals a day and a mid-morning and mid-afternoon snack.  Eating little and often helps prevent large dips in blood sugar levels and can leave you feeling low
5. Avoid artificial stimulants including sugar, refined carbohydrates and caffeine as these play havoc with blood sugar levels and lead to low mood.  This includes white bread, pasta, cakes, many breakfast cereals, chocolate, coffee, alcohol and fizzy drinks.  Diets based on refined foods can reduce your levels of nutrients such as zinc, magnesium and the B vitamins which are vital for good brain health.
6. Food intolerances can play a part in depression and therefore it may be worth seeking advice from a nutritional therapist to identify the culprit foods.

Find out more about how diet and nutrition can help improve your mood, or contact us to book an appointment at one of our London clinics.

Julia

Your skin is the outside indicator of how your body is doing on the inside.  Although important, taking care of it purely from the outside isn’t going to be enough if you want a glowing healthy looking skin.

Here are our top five foods for great looking skin

1. Water.  Not a food as such, but essential for life, and for your skin too.  Nourishing from the inside is just as important as moisturising from the outside.  Have a 1.5 litre bottle of still water at your desk at work, or near you at home, and sip throughout the day, aiming to finish by the end of the day.
2. Oily fish (salmon, sardines, mackerel, trout, tuna).  Apart from water, your skin also needs good fats to keep supple.  Include oily fish as part of your meals at least twice a week.
3. Fresh nuts and seeds.  Nuts and seeds (except peanuts) are all a great source of good fats that help keep the skin supple and wrinkle free for longer.
4. Fresh vegetables.  Most vegetables offer an abundance of nutrients that nourish the skin, but broccoli, red and yellow peppers, cauliflower, spinach and sweet potato are particularly good as they contain vitamins A, C and E which can protect the skin from ageing.
5. Fresh berries.  Berries are an amazingly rich source of vitamins and minerals relative to their size.  Have them as snacks, or mix into yoghurt or porridge to give a real boost to your breakfast.

If you think your skin could do with some more personalised support, get in touch with and book in for a nutrition consultation.

As the current series of The X Factor 2009 reaches its grand final, it’s worth flagging up the involvement of London Nutritionists The Nutrition Coach with one of the UK’s leading independent websites dedicated to Cheryl Cole’s style: www.cherylcolestyle.com

The Nutrition Coach are the diet and nutrition experts for the site which focuses on all aspects of the ’style’ of one of the UK’s most popular female celebrities.

Joining a select band of leading style experts including Celebrity Makeup artist Louise Constad, Celebrity Hairstylist Mellissa Brown and Celebrity Fashion Stylist Desiree Lederer, The Nutrition Coach provide useful diet and nutrition advice.

Diet and Nutrition topics covered so far by The Nutrition Coach include how to get great skin like Cheryl Cole, how to beat bloating and wear glamorous, silhouette-hugging dresses  and how to reduce stress with good nutrition.

Recently featured in Look and Now magazines, the site has built up a strong following and continues to grow.

So you’ve recently had a positive pregnancy test – congratulations!  After the initial elation you are quickly bombarded with a whole litany of dos and don’ts about what you should and shouldn’t be eating.  You, through the foods you eat, will be the only source of all the building blocks that your baby needs to develop and grow, so it is important to give some thought to your nutrition in pregnancy.

The old safety advice about avoiding unpasteurised cheeses and other dairy products, pate, raw or partially cooked eggs and making sure you cook your meat thoroughly is still valid.  You should also avoid peanuts, especially if allergies are common in your or your partner’s family.

There are some differing opinions about how much alcohol is safe during pregnancy, but zero alcohol is always the safest level.  It is a substance that your growing baby doesn’t need.  Tea, coffee and other caffeinated drinks such as colas are also worth reducing or better still, eliminating completely.  Caffeine crosses the placenta and will affect the baby the same way it affects you – i.e. it increases the heart and breathing rate.  As your baby is not yet fully developed, the effects are likely to be more profound.

Nutrition for a healthy pregnancy is also very much about what you should be eating.  Your baby’s organs are all formed in the first 3 months of the pregnancy, so it’s important that you can provide all the necessary building blocks through your diet.  Below are some simple guidelines to point you in the right direction:

• Ensure you have some protein with every meal (protein sources include all animal foods, eggs, dairy, beans, lentils, nuts, seeds and soya).  Protein is an important building block required for many structures in the body and you need to be able to provide enough both for yourself and the growing baby.  Making sure you have protein with every meal will also boost your energy levels and can help reduce morning sickness.
• Eat 5 or more servings of fruit and vegetables daily to boost your intake of key vitamins and minerals.
• Drink lots of water to help avoid constipation.  A good way to help you achieve this is to fill a 1.5 litre bottle in the morning and make sure you’ve finished it by the end of the day.
• Include oily fish (salmon, mackerel, trout, sardines, herring, and tuna) and fresh (not roasted) nuts and seeds in your diet.  They are a source of essential fats which provide building blocks for the baby’s brain.
• Choose wholemeal bread and pasta and brown rice to boost your fibre intake and help avoid constipation.
• Remember that dairy is not the only calcium source available.  Almonds and sesame seeds actually have a higher calcium content and come with a package of other useful minerals that make it easier for the body to absorb and utilise the calcium.

In addition, a good nutritionist can advice you on your individual needs and whether you need to supplement with any vitamins or minerals to optimise your nutrient intake.

You don’t know how to say No to a person then please learn because a single Yes can eat up your fruitful quality time. People will respect for being open and honest enough to say you are unable or unwilling to do something as long as you explain your reasons. Saying no at the appropriate time can be a great confidence booster too.

1) If you don’t know how to say NO, people will take undue advantage of you. At the office you will be bogged down with your work and the work of others while they sit back and enjoy themselves.

2) Be aware that additional work or demands will often come from your boss or your peers because you cannot say “NO”.

3) As a parent you need to understand when to say NO or else your children will take undue advantage. Children have no scrupples and will often push boundaries. Saying no can set healthy boundaries and is good discipline.

4) If you cannot meet a person’s expectations just tell them NO rather than thinking what will they think if I say NO and then worrying or becoming stressed. Explain why you can’t do what they want and help them with an alternative solution if that is appropriate.

5) Its always better to say NO rather than saying YES for additional work and then suffering afterwards.

Be true to yourself, you understand yourself better than anyone else. You have to understand when and how to say NO. The people who are close to your heart may feel bad if they hear a NO from you, so you very well need to understand how to tell NO them assertively without hurting their feelings and without giving in to the situation.

It happens to everybody and you are not the only one. In day to day life we face these situations and it’s upto us how well we can manage that situation.

If we start doing others work there will be an imbalance in our own life which may have other implications further down the line.

Try out the power of saying “NO” and be a different and transformed person

For more information about Ian Dickson go to www.iandickson.biz