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.

This week it’s time to reveal the third of the seven types of hunger… mouth hunger.

Mouth hunger is the mouth’s desire for sensations.  It likes variety, particularly variety of flavours and textures.  The mouth is also easily bored and if it becomes accustomed to always being stimulated then it won’t be happy being empty.  You will then begin to snack continually, putting food and drink into your mouth in a continuous stream throughout the day.  In addition, the food industry has increased the level of sensation in food, particularly snack foods, to include more salt, more sugar, more spice and more fat.

Our food preferences with mouth hunger varies between person to person and depends on factors such as genetics, food habits in your family, cultural traditions and conditioning – where you may develop associations of particular foods with pleasant or unpleasant experiences.  For example, strawberries will have an entirely different appeal if you enjoyed them on your wedding anniversary, compared with if you ate them on a long journey where you were travel sick. 

To satisfy the mouth’s hunger for sensation, it isn’t enough to put food into your mouth, chew and swallow it.  In order to feel satisfied, the mind has to be aware of eating and the sensation of chewing.  For example, if you are at a restaurant, the first bit of your meal might taste delicious, as does the second bite.  However, as the conversation begins you can quickly finish your meal and look down and without realising it your plate is empty. After the first few bites you didn’t taste it, as you were busy talking and your mouth has therefore not been satisfied with the food and wants a second helping. 

To satisfy mouth hunger, you therefore need to move from mindless to mindful eating.  Try to have a variety of flavours and textures with your meals and engage in chewing and tasting the food.  During the day, observe mouth hunger and what it is asking for and whether it might be thirsty instead of hungry. Is the rest of your body hungry, or just your mouth?

Mouth hunger affects everyone, but can be a particular problem in cases of binge eating and other disordered eating patterns.  If you have a question about disordered eating then please do give us a call to see if we can help you, or to book a consultation at one of our London nutrition clinics.

Julia

If you suffer from IBS, it may be that your doctor has mentioned that you could be suffering just from stress.  It is a funny word “stress” because the implication is that somehow you are just not coping.  Maybe a better word is pressure – because in busy lives that pressure can just build and build, making it really impossible to stay even tempered and calm.

But certainly the influence of stress has a real and measurable effect on the body and particularly in the gut.  The gut’s friendly bacteria are disturbed by excess stress and the far reaches of the stress hormone cortisol can lower the Secretory IgA  (SIgA) which can lower the immunity in the gut – once this is lowered then, you become much more prone to infection generally – and once an infection in the bowel is there, it is tricky to get rid of without a healthy gut immunity – a bit of a chicken and egg situation.  Also, it makes you much more likely to suffer from food intolerances.  In effect, it is not really the foods themselves that is the problem but rather the gut not being in good shape that is the problem

One way to increase the SIgA is to take probiotics and/or find out if you do have gut infections (you can do this by coming to see us and we will undertake the appropriate testing) but you could also start by removing the stress response from your life!  Easier said that done, I know.  One really good way, is rather than try and remove the stress itself is to try and manage how you perceive that stress.   Meditation is a great way to do this because it encourages you to detach from the outcome and focus on the here and now and the breath.

The method I use (and trust me I have a whole library on the subject!) is through www.centerpointe.com.  They have CDs/downloads that sort of meditate you, rather than you having to “learn” how to mediate.  Like all things though, of course you have to actually do it for it to be of any use at all.  Stating the obvious I know.  Meditation has a real and measurable effect on health and although it has rather a new age image, slowly is being accepted into mainstream medicine.  The work of Jon Kabot Zinn at The University of Massachussetts Medical school testifies to this fact with all the research they have done over many years and thousands of patients. (See his book “Full Catastrophe Living” for his work on mindfulness).

It is hard to give yourself permission to take time out – one monk once said words to the effect  “every day I undertake to do 2 hours mediation a day, except when I am busy when I do 4”

Of course, many of us have not chosen a monk’s lifestyle – but if we can even take five minutes to sit down and observe the in and out of the breath and quieten the mind – this can actually take care of our guts as well!

Contact us about either Stress and how we can help your stress hormones or IBS

Everybody likes a treat, whether it’s the ‘Sunday-cake-treat’, the ‘after-work-wine-treat’ or the ‘Friday-I’v- been-good-all-week-treat’. Usually these treats are far from being nutritious – chock full of sugar, salt, nasty fats, and lots of E-numbers. I think it’s time to stop tricking yourself and treat yourself to the taste of Halloween by adding some pumpkin to your diet. Believe me, it’s so good for you it’s scary.

Derived from ‘pepon’, the Greek word for ‘large melon’, pumpkins originated in Central America and have been around for many centuries. The Native Americans used them as both food and medicine, and no wonder, I think. Already looking at their bright colour is a dead giveaway that pumpkins are loaded with antioxidants and contain a range of nutritional benefits.

First on the healthy list is the antioxidant beta-carotene, found in high content in pumpkin meat and responsible for the bright orange colour. Beta-carotene is one of the plant carotenoids and an important precursor to the production of vitamin A in the body. Vitamin A, a fat soluble vitamin, is needed to promote a healthy body tissue, to ward off infections especially in the mucous membrane, and to aid in building of teeth and bones. If you lack vitamin A you could develop night blindness (not very beneficial if you’re actually planning to trick-or-treat). Together with the two other important antioxidants, lutein and zeaxanthin, beta carotene neutralizes free radicals that can attack our cell membranes and leave the cells vulnerable to damage especially in the lens of the eye. Research also indicates that a diet rich in foods containing beta-carotene may reduce the risk of developing certain types of cancer, and offers protection against heart disease.

Pumpkins are also rich in vitamins C, K and E, fibre, and lots of minerals including magnesium, iron and zinc. Iron, of course, is needed by red blood cells. Zinc, as you remember from last week’s column, plays an important role in hundreds of enzymatic reactions which support a healthy immune system and help maintain the sense of smell and taste (very important to enjoy all those treats). And fibre is important for your digestion promoting bowel health.

What about the seeds, you ask?

Pumpkin seeds are especially nutritious and worth latching on to. Loaded with healthful minerals such as magnesium, manganese, iron and zinc, as well as a great source of protein and high in monounsaturated healthy fats, pumpkin seeds are one of the most nutritious and flavourful seeds around. They have an anti-inflammatory effect, and may even help lower cholesterol and protect against prostate cancer and osteoporosis.

Now all you need is the fancy dress costume for cooking up your Halloween treats – of a smashin’ pumpkin! And make sure you share your favourite recipes with us.

Happy Halloween,

Lisa

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Following on from last week’s blog looking at eye hunger, this week the focus is on nose hunger – the second of the seven types of hunger.

Smells play a huge part in hunger and eating.  Our ancestors would have had to depend upon their sense of smell to locate food and distinguish which foods were good and which foods were bad.  It’s therefore not surprising that smells exert a primitive and potent effect on us.  What we call the ‘taste’ of a food is almost entirely the smell of the food.  Try tasting your food whilst holding your nose and you’ll find it’s a very unsatisfying meal, as when you can’t smell food, it’s almost impossible to taste it.  On the other hand, imagine walking through a bakery with freshly baked cinnamon rolls without feeling hungry.  If the smell reminds us of something that we like to eat that it can become almost irresistible.  The right smells will make us eat more.  This has actually been confirmed by researchers who demonstrated that people ate more oatmeal when the bowls that they were eating from were scented with the artificial odour of cinnamon and raisin, compared with people who’s bowls had been scented with macaroni and cheese!  

This is a wonderful reminder for us to bring awareness to our sense of smell and to really inhale our food and enjoy the aroma both before and whilst eating.  If we rush through our meals whilst multi tasking (e.g. at the computer or watching t.v.) then it’s difficult for the sense of smell to really engage in the experience and it’s likely to feel unsatisfied.  To make the experience of eating as complete and satisfying as possible, really inhale your food before tasting it and notice what smells and scents you experience.  You can also try this with other aspects of your day, such as smelling incense, flowers, washing powders etc.  Next time you’re hungry try and identify whether your hunger has been triggered by the smell of food, and if so, whether your stomach and rest of your body are actually in-line with your nose and hungry for the food too.  With the awareness of the power of smell, you are then able to stop and tune in with yourself before eating when the rest of your body isn’t hungry.

Nose hunger affects everyone, but can be a particular problem in cases of binge eating and other disordered eating patterns.  If you have a question about disordered eating then please do give us a call to see if we can help you, or to book a consultation at one of our London nutrition clinics.

Julia

I am loving my slow cooker.  If you don’t have one get one immediately!  I use the Crock Pot as quite a lot of the other ones are just plain ugly but the crock pot goes very nicely from the cooking unit to the table.

If anyone doesn’t know what a slow cooker is, it is NOT to be confused with a pressure cooker which is almost opposite in concept.  Slow cookers cook things at a very slow temperature over a long period of time so you can put something on in the morning and have a delicious evening meal waiting for you, rather than the delay of then making something when you get in.

Although the recipe below is more of a weekend recipe – put on in the morning , have a great time out and about and return to something hot and cheerful, more or less ready to eat!

This recipe is taken from (Kitchen Classics) Slow Cookers by Jane Price (Murdock Books)

400g Puy lentils or tiny blue green lentils

500ml vegetable stock

Grated zest and juice of 1 lemon

1 small green chilli chopped

80g fresh sourdough breadcrumbs

2 tablespoons of horse radish

4 tablespoons chopped dill

10 g butter, melted

4 x 180g salmon fillets

50g English Spinach, stalks removed, chopped

1 handful of coriander leaves

125g plain yoghurt

Lemon wedges to serve

Out the lentils, stock, lemon zest, lemon juice and chilli in the slow cooker and cook on high for 3 hours

In a food processor, roughly pulse the breadcrumbs and horseradish until well combined. Stire through the dill and melted butter until the mixture is fairly moist.

Remove any bones from the salmon using your fingers or tweezers, then press the breadcrumb mixture over the top of the salmon fillets

In a large non-stick frying pan over a medium head, cook the crumbed side of the salmon for 3 minutes, or until the crumbs are golden.  Work in batches if necessary.

Mix the spinach through the lentils in the slow cooker and place the salmon on top. Cook on low for an hour, or intell the fish is cooked through and flakes when tested with a fork.  Remove the salmon to serving plates.

Mix the coriander through the lentils and spoon some lentils onto each plate.  Serve the salmon topped with the yoghurt and with lemon wedges on the side.

PREPARATION TIME;  25 MINUTES – COOKING TIME 4 ½ HOURS

Contact us for an appointment to look at improving your immune system at this time of year!

There’s no denying anymore: It’s officially autumn. The mornings are cold, the evenings are dark, and London is playing up to its reputation on the weather front.

Top this with the daily stressors of City life, public transport and an inadequate diet, and you’ll soon experience the discomfort of a ‘cold’. The great news is that much of what our bodies need to fight off infection can be found in foods, so muscle up your immune system and add some of these great immune boosting nutrients to your diet.

Vitamin C
Vitamin C tops the list of immune boosters. There has been more research about the immune-boosting effects of Vitamin C than perhaps any other nutrient. Vitamin C is available naturally in many fruits and vegetables such as broccoli, cabbage, kiwi fruits, mango, sweet peppers, asparagus, green vegetables and parsley. Eat your five portions a day and increase the production of infection-fighting, white blood cells and antibodies, as well as levels of interferon, the antibody that coats cell surfaces, which prevents the entry of viruses.

Vitamin E
This important antioxidant and immune booster doesn’t get as much press as vitamin C, but is important for a healthy immune system. Vitamin E stimulates the production of natural killer cells and enhances the production of B-cells, the immune cells that produce antibodies that destroy bacteria. To get your daily Vitamin E dose eat foods such as sardines, sunflower and sesame seeds, oats, brown rice and dark green leafy vegetables.

Beta carotene
Beta carotene is another powerful antioxidant that mops up excess free radicals and increases the number of infection-fighting cells. The body converts beta carotene to Vitamin A, which itself has anti-cancer properties and immune-boosting functions. Foods high in beta carotene include watercress, apricot, papaya, pumpkin and pumpkin seeds, sweet potatoes, carrots and green leafy vegetables.

Zinc
Zinc is an essential element and critical to the work of more than three hundred enzymes in the body which assist in cell reproduction, maintain vision, wound healing and enhancing immune function (just to mention some). Zinc, like vitamin C, also possesses direct antiviral activity. The food highest in zinc are oysters but if you (like me) can’t stomach them, have some pumpkin seeds, fish, egg yolks, nuts (like almonds or cashews), turkey, lean red meat or spinach. (If you’re curious if you’re zinc deficient,get in touch with me and we can meet up for a quick, easy and free test.)

Garlic
OK, this might not be the best option if you have a big client pitch ahead of you, but think about this: garlic is nature’s antibiotic. Over 1,000 studies have shown that garlic’s immune-boosting properties are due to the sulphur compounds found in allicin, an antioxidant that’s released when fresh garlic is crushed.

Now here are two more factors for all those sleep deprived and sociable City workers who want to make sure their immune system doesn’t get depressed: sleep and alcohol.

Research shows that not enough sleep leads to more colds and flus, and excessive alcohol intake can harm the body’s immune system in two ways. First, it produces an overall nutritional deficiency, depriving the body of valuable immune-boosting nutrients. Second, alcohol, like sugar, consumed in excess can reduce the ability of white cells to kill germs.

Now you’ve got the tools, so stay healthier this winter.

Lisa

If you are a busy City worker looking for nutrition and health tips on a weekly basis, please follow my new column on here’s the city.