Food For Thought!

Bingo wings, moobs, muffin tops, thunder thighs, skinny arms, skinny calves, beer guts...the list of negative associations we have with our poor bods is endless. In fact I lose count of the various parts of the body I’ve had waved at me with a tortured “but how do I get rid of this?”

As such you will find future blogs talking about ways to achieve a balanced lifestyle...healthy eating and exercise! Simples eh?! I hope I can inspire you to embrace a healthier lifestyle and help you learn to love your body, squidgy or skinny bits and all, and work with it rather than against it!

So I’m starting with some really basic stuff you’ll find me referring to in future articles.

NUTRIENTS: Together these make up a healthy balanced diet:

• Proteins - essential to growth and repair of muscle and other body tissues
• Fats - one source of energy and important in relation to fat soluble vitamins
• Carbohydrates - our main source of energy. Two types simple or complex.
• Minerals - inorganic elements occurring in the body and which are critical to its normal functions
• Vitamins - water and fat soluble vitamins play important roles in many chemical processes in the body
• Water - essential to normal body function - 60% of the human body is water!
• Fibre - essential to health of the digestive system

CARBOHYDRATES

· Complex carbs – found in bread, cereals, rice, pasta, potatoes and beans. They are also found in fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds and grains.

· Simple Carbs - include glucose, fructose (fruit sugar), sucrose (table sugar) and galactose (the sugar found in milk). Simple sugars are used as ingredients in sweets, cakes ice cream, chocolate...yep all the tasty things! They also occur naturally in fruits.

PROTEIN

· Protein sources include meat, fish, eggs, and dairy products. Vegetarian sources include nuts, beans and wholegrains as well as tofu and soya.

FATS

· Your body needs Essential Fatty Acids, EFAs, (the clue is in the name!!)... they are important carriers of certain vitamins into the body and help with many functions within the body.

· EFAs - found in oily fish (mackerel, salmon, trout), seeds and nuts and oils such as flaxseed oil.

There are of course the bad fats, along with simple sugars these are the curse of the modern lifestyle!! Think butter, cheese, cream, cakes, burgers, sweets.....all the things we love so much otherwise known as junk food. So easy to consume yet laden with calories and heart stopping amounts of saturated fats and sugar and sadly lacking in vitamins and minerals!

The key is balance; we all like a little junk sometimes, just make sure the bad outweighs the good!