June newsletter: My Top Ten Lists....

June newsletter: My Top Ten Lists….

June 25, 2012 12:20 pm

As I was climbing up and down the hills of Greece the other week I started to talk to myself (as I do, although it could have been from lack of water, it was very hot!)… and went through my top ten lists, you know the thing, top ten films, books, film stars etc (these were steep hills I was climbing), then my mind wondered to food and nutrition. Its so rainy and miserable out there at the minute that I thought I should keep this months newsletter upbeat so I’m ditching all the serious scientific research and health ill issues for next month! So here are my top ten lists: Top ten diet tips, health tips, supplements, favourite foods etc -you get the gist!

Top Ten Diet Tips
Don’t mix too many different food groups at one mealtime.
Eat double the amount of dark green leafy vegetables than you think you are.
Keep your protein levels at approximately 60% of the plate and the carbs at 20% -30% – the government “Food plate” is in my humble opinion, too weighed in
favour of carbohydrates.
When buying food look at the back of the label not the front – you want to know exactly what the ingredients are. A classic example of this is a certain fast food restaurants fries – I know what fat does to my body but I’ve no idea what anti foaming agent does and am more concerned about that!
Stay away from low fat and sugar free foods.
Avoid high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup and glucose fructose syrup.
Start the day with a protein breakfast and ditch the high sugar cereals.
Try not to go more than three hours without food.
Stay away from coffee, fizzy drinks and refined carbohydrates.
Drink enough clear liquid so your urine is a pale straw colour.

My Ten Lifestyle rules

Have a sense of perspective.
Don’t sweat the small stuff.
A smile costs nothing.
Go to work every day doing something you love and if that’s you – how lucky!
Get enough sleep.
Have comprehensive health checks where you can.
All the organic food in the world will mean nothing if your life is unbalanced and weighed down by severe stress – address your stress levels now!
You’ve had a bad day – try to put it behind you and start afresh tomorrow.
Look up and out you never know what you might see and find (I’m still astonished at how often people are looking down at their phones).
I’m too busy for……… you know you can find the time for the things that matter.

My Top Ten Favourite Foods and Drink

Smoked salmon
Mango Sorbet
Earl Grey Tea
Ginger beer
Roast chicken
Fish and chips
Braised fennel
Dark chocolate
Mashed potato with butter
Shortbread

My Top Ten supplements

As you are aware I’m not a huge fan of supplements however these are the ones I use most in my clinic (as always please don’t self prescribe!)

cranberry-complex-lamberts Vitamin B – the amount of strain and stress in our daily lives means we would need to eat pots of Marmite to combat our daily vitamin B needs – great for supporting stressful lifestyles and female hormone issues.
Biocare Probiotics – the wonder stuff – helps all kind of digestive problems.
Quest Aged Kyolic Garlic – so good for so many ailments.
Magnesium – how many dark green leafy veg and nuts do you really eat? – most of us don’t come anywhere near what we need.
Vitamin D – we all know we need it and I suspect this year even more so!
Floravital iron tonic – far better than iron tablets.
Biocare Vitamin B12 drops – if you don’t eat meat or offal these are great.
Lamberts Cranberry Powder – this just works – not only preventing cystitis but helping to clear the infection. Magic stuff.
Psyllium Husks – a fabulous cheap soluble fibre that never fails to work.
Zinc – one of the first ports of call with fertility issues.

Top ten list of the most pesticide-contaminated foods (based on reports from the Environmental Working Group).

Grapes (especially imported varieties)
Cherries
Nectarines
Pears
Red Raspberries
Sweet Bell Peppers
Celery
Spinach and Lettuces
Potatoes
Tomatoes
Milk
Meat
Apples
Peaches
Strawberries

corn Only in the USA – top nine astonishing food facts

90 million acres of corn are produced in the US annually.

Less than 1% is used as sweet corn.

The price of fizzy drinks has gone down by 33% in the last 30 years.

The price of fruit has risen by 40% in the last 30 years.

The US government has pumped $50 billion into the corn industry in the last decade.

$1 can buy you: 1,200 calories of crisps, 875 calories of fizzy drinks, 250 calories of vegetables or 170 calories of fruit. Point ten: This is clearly insane!

Top ten ingredients to avoid

1. Sodium Benzoate: found in salad dressing, pickles, sauces, mayonnaise, fizzy drinks,
juice drinks, and even in foods labelled as “all natural.”

2. Monosodium Glutamate (MSG): also called free glutamate,and glutamic acid. Just because a product says “No MSG” doesn’t mean it’s not in there. Monosodium glutamate is a processed flavour enhancer. While glutamates are present in some natural foods, such as meat and cheese, the ones produced by the processed-foods industry are separated from their host proteins through hydrolysis. It’s a known excitotoxin, which is a neurotoxic chemical additive shown to harm nerve cells by overexciting them.

3. Sodium Nitrates (nitrosamines): Used for fertilizers and explosives, and as a solvent in the dry cleaning industry. This ingredient may keep haemoglobin molecules in your blood from carrying oxygen to your body tissues. It’s considered a “super salt” (like MSG) and added to foods like hot dogs, cold cuts and bacon for added shelf-life, colour and flavour.

4. Anti-foaming agents: (Dimethylpolysiloxane) An industrial
chemical used in sealants.This component is mostly used in fast food chicken nuggets and chips. Do I need to say any more?!

5. Anti-caking agents: These are chemicals that absorb moisture and prevent other compounds from sticking together. These are added to table salt and powdered food products. They are often composed of phosphate, carbonate, silicate and oxide compounds which contain aluminum. Watch for sodium alumino-silicate, alumino-calcium silicate and aluminium silicate.

mechanically-separated-chicken 6. Artificial Sweeteners: There is so much controversy over these so you do the research and make your own judgement call! They are present in many of our foods particularly sugar free, low sugar, lite and light foods.

7. Palm Oil
When a regular fat like corn, soybean, or palm oil is blasted with hydrogen and turned into a solid, it becomes a trans fat. Palm oil is still widely used. These help packaged foods stay “fresh,” meaning that the food can sit on the supermarket shelf for years without ever getting stale or rotting. Read lables carefully.

8. High Fructose Corn Syrup
The king of all refined grains is high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). The amount of refined sugar we consume has declined over the past 40 years, but some western countries are consuming almost 20 times as much HFCS. According to researchers at Tufts University, Americans consume more calories from HFCS than any other source. It’s in practically everything in the US. It may increase triglycerides, boost fat-storing hormones, and drive people to overeat and gain weight. Although the amounts are less in the UK, it is in fast food outlet foods, and glucose fructose syrup and fructose syrup is in thousands of our every day foods -the only way to avoid it is to check labels.

9. Artificial colouring
The amounts have been reduced over the last ten years in many foods however they are still in many processed foods. Walking around Iceland I was shocked how many of these are still regularly used.

10. Hydrongated Fat
Much has been done to remove this from our food stuff but it is still present. Again check labels.

Slightly off subject I know, but I’m still in a holiday mood – I could never list my top ten films, but here are my top 20!
Annie Hall
As Good as It Gets
The Italian Job
Some Like It Hot
The Odd Couple
Ordinary People
The Philadelphia Story
Citizen Kane
The Shawshank Redemption
North by North West
Casablanca
The Graduate
The Godfather
All about Eve
Hannah and her sisters
Cool Hand Luke
The Apartment
Moonstruck
The Good the Bad and the Ugly
Notorious

04-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly My Top Ten male actors
Jack Nicholson
Woody Allen
Jimmy Stewart
Humphrey Bogart
James Cagney
Cary Grant
Spencer Tracey
Michael Caine
Clint Eastwood
Steve McQueen