Healthy Eating Blog

Are you a calorie counter? Get ready to have your mind blown

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As a Dietitian, my mission is to help people to eat better. This usually means talking about what foods to eat, how much and when. The truth is, though, eating well isn’t always just about the nutrients, it’s about HOW we eat too. The environment that we eat in and eating together, in company, also has a huge effect on health and well being.
Most of us take eating together for granted but the simple act of sharing a meal is a greater one than we imagine. Food is so much more than just fuel. It’s a fundamental part of our health, relationships, culture and well-being. Eating together is about coming together; about belonging.

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I’ve had to think a long time about what I am going to write about National Obesity Week or, indeed, if I was going to write anything at all.
It’s a confusing time to be a Dietitian.
This is how my day went whilst trying to write this blog.

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They are a pain, yeah I know, right, but your Dietitian may give you a food diary to complete between visits. This is very likely if you are starting a low FODMAP elimination diet for IBS or an elimination diet for food intolerance testing but you could be asked to complete one of these for many other reasons. We don’t just give these as instruments of torture… honestly! There is a reason behind asking you to complete these and a very good reason to ask you to….please, oh please….fill them out as best as you can. They don’t have to be perfect, just give it your best shot.

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One of the most challenging and, perhaps, polarising concepts for Dietitians at this time would be the emergence of weight neutral approaches to dietary management. For an outcome focussed profession, trained in the quantitative skills of energy requirement calculations and “diet plans”, the potential change in this focus to a weight neutral approach can be one that is either readily embraced or rejected as a “step too far”. Weight loss currently remains the primary recommendation for health improvement in individuals with high body mass index (BMI) despite limited evidence of long-term success. Weight neutral approaches have now emerged as a result of building evidence that “dieting” with a weight loss goal does not result in significant health improvements, regardless of weight changes. (1,2) and that dieting as a weight loss strategy proves unsuccessful in terms of long term maintenance.

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Often when people come to visit me, they are asking for or expecting a 7 or 14 day “meal plan”.

“Oh, don’t tell me what to do. I just need a meal plan” is what I hear, quite often.

This is a sentence Dietitians dread.

In fact, Dietitians are very unlikely to give you these kinds of meal plans for 3 main reasons:

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I have managed to open a clinic for Friday 17th February and have some spaces available. Contact me if you are looking to book a consultation slot for this week.

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When they coined the phrase, “good things come in small packages”, they definitely must have been thinking about eggs. When it comes to nutritional value, eggs are action-packed with good quality protein, vitamins, minerals and healthy omega -3 fats. Despite this, the health benefits and risks of eating eggs have been debated for many years. The elephant in the room has always been that a single large egg contains around 187mg of cholesterol.

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It’s all in the planning.
Ok, so I did mention planning in tip 1 but this is all about planning your events. Scout ahead. Make sure you know what foods and drinks will be on offer at each function- this way you will know how best to prepare and plan. It sounds a bit over the top but it does help.

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Surviving the festive season- part 1
Advent calendars are being whipped out all over the country and people are preparing for the onslaught of the “festive season”. The festive season is a dangerous time when it comes to letting your guard down and the loosening up of healthy habits. There are parties, dinners, baking, the stressful rushing around, less activity due to the cold and those lovely Xmas treats everywhere. It doesn’t help that mince pies and sweets have been pushed on us by the supermarkets since November.

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Over the last few weeks, the temperature has definitely dropped here! Last Saturday morning, I spent a cold half hour scraping ice from my car windows. Yes, winter is here.
A lot of my clients are finding the cold weather a bit challenging when it comes to sticking to lunchtime salads. It’s true that when it’s cold, sometimes a salad doesn’t quiet “cut it”. It’s important to keep eating those vegetables though! You could try soup, (which I have nearly every day for lunch in this weather),or go for a warm salad.
There are lots of really lovely warm salad recipes around. I think it’s much more fun to invent your own.

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Life can be so busy these days. It can be almost impossible to get time off work, even for something as important as your health.
Appointment times for visiting the AM Dietetics clinic are currently within work hours but I am trying to make sure that I am able to make life easier for my clients…..did you know that you can also book a Skype appointment?

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You may have seen the “reversing Diabetes” reports and books coming out in the media/press right now. New results coming out from a UK study, this month, have also shown that people can reverse their Type 2 Diabetes with a strict low calorie diet regime. The research is part of a growing body of evidence showing that people with Type 2 diabetes who successfully lose weight can reverse their condition because fat is removed from their pancreas, returning insulin production to normal. But can it be done?

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It’s funny how things come around. Years ago, when I first became a Nutritionist/Dietitian, (goodness, it was over 20 years ago!), we used to say that the whole lemon in water idea was nonsense. Over the years, however, we have been able to get an idea of just how good a glass of lemon water can be. A glass of water with a squeeze of lemon in it can:

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Sometimes being a Dietitian just isn’t “sexy”. No, seriously! We can sound like old stick in the muds, trotting out the old “everything in moderation” line when others in the wide and varied world that is nutrition; may be encouraging that “new” lifestyle diet, (you know what I’m sayin’ – ala the newest super food, paleo, raw, sugar free, “clean”). These new super shiny “lifestyles” can sound like just the thing……
“From now, I’ll only eat “clean” and never let the poison that is- (insert latest “bad” food group here)- touch my lips. My body is a temple “.……..sounds good, doesn’t it?

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