Well Being

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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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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