Nutrition Archives - Help Me Be Healthy

Weight Loss Woes

Posted on January 23, 2015January 23, 2015 by jenny

DIETING DRAMAS

THE QUICK FIX

One thing that really upsets me, especially during the month of January, is the amount of ‘quick fix’, extreme and fad diet regimes that are promoted.

It is seemingly never ending – programs on TV, adverts, and social media all promoting the idea that we must lose some weight and we must do it quickly. Extreme exercise regimes and/or hugely restrictive diets may yield quick results. However, they are never sustainable and often the weight piles back on again, leaving you feeling more rotten than you did before!

The other problem is that all of these regimes promote the idea that weight loss is a simple matter of reducing calories in and increasing exercise. This is not always the case.

METABOLIC ISSUES

As I said last week, through our weight loss clinic we have discovered many different metabolic and emotional issues, which affect our clients ability to lose weight. If these are not taken into account, people will always struggle. In my opinion, understanding your possible metabolic issues and dealing with stress, anxiety and emotions will have a much greater effect long term on your ability and motivation to lose weight and keep it off.

UNDERACTIVE THYROID?

For example, we have discovered that there are many, many people out there struggling with a mildly under-active thyroid, which is responsible for poor weight loss, low motivation and low energy. If you suffer with a number of the following symptoms, this could be one of your issues as well:
Sensitive to cold;

low mood;
weight gain;
dry skin;
low energy;
menstrual problems;
muscle and joint pain;
forgetfulness;
falling hair;
anxiety.

If this does sound like you, then it is possible that until this is dealt with, energy, motivation, mood and therefore weight loss are always going to be a struggle for you. On top of this, if you do get desperate enough to try an extreme regime, there is the possibility that your metabolism could slow down even further!

So what is the solution?

IF YOU DO NOT TAKE THYROID MEDICATION:

Try Higher Nature Thyroid Support Formula. This contains all the nutrients known to support better thyroid function. I have used this for a number of people in our weight loss clinic and each time been impressed with the improvements in mood, energy and weight loss that follow.

IF YOU DO TAKE THYROID MEDICATION ALREADY:

Your body may not be using it efficiently. We have discovered that your body has to convert your thyroid medication into its active form and that the mineral selenium is needed for this. Therefore we often suggest that people who do take thyroid medication try Natures Aid Selenium for a couple of months and again we have been impressed with the feedback we have received.
FOR MORE HELP
If you are unsure what metabolic issues you may have, we are happy to provide a free metabolic analysis. To do this, click the link below, download your questionnaire and send it back to us when you have completed it. This should help you understand how to take more control not just of your weight loss, but also of you energy, mood and motivation as well.

Strong healthy Nails

Posted on April 15, 2014April 15, 2014 by jenny

This week I am writing about healthy nails after receiving a request, via our Facebook page (Facebook.com/MorecambeHealthFoods), for an article on that topic.
Healthy Nails are often spoken about in the same breath as healthy hair. This is because the growth of hair and healthy nails are affected by the same nutrients and issues. For this reason many of the products we sell for strengthening the nails will also be beneficial for brittle or falling hair.
The main considerations for strong and long nails and hair are:
SILICEA –
This important mineral is involved in providing the structure onto which healthy hair and nails are built. It provides the strength and structure. It is therefore the best product to choose if you are struggling with weak or splitting hair or nails. We have had some great feedback on this – in fact I started using this myself late last year when I noticed that my nails had started to peel and break quite a lot. You do have need to be patient because you have to grow new nails – which takes around three months, but I have to say that my nails are now one hundred percent better – no flaking or peeling and they are growing really well – as is my hair!
IRON –
This is particularly important for women. Partly due to menstruation and also many of us eat very little red meat – the main source of dietary iron.
People often think that iron only affects the blood and energy levels – but low iron levels can also affect the hair and nails. Low iron levels can lead the hair to become quite thin, as you will have less active hair follicles. With the nails it can cause ‘spoon shaped’ nails to grow – with a real dip in the middle, the nails could also be really brittle, if iron levels are low. If you suspect this could be the case – it may be worth using a good iron supplement like Solgars Hematinic Formula for a month or so.
THYROID FUNCTION –
If you have ridges in your nails, weak, brittle or falling hair and you are struggling with weight issues, it could be worth getting your thyroid levels checked. Your thyroid is a major part of your metabolism, so most people know that it can have an impact on weight loss or gain. But low levels of thyroid hormone can also lead to problems with hair and nails, low energy, low mood and problems with temperature regulation. If this sounds like you – find out your thyroid levels. Sometimes your thyroid may not be bad enough you to need medication, but a ‘borderline’ type reading could still give rise to the problems we have listed here. We have seen many people with lower thyroid readings find benefit from a thyroid support supplement including an increase in energy and weight loss and an improvement in their hair and nails.

Natural Treatments for Irritable Bowel

Posted on February 3, 2014February 3, 2014 by Nicola

Natural Remedies for Irritable Bowel

Whether you have a diagnosis of Irritable Bowel Syndrome or if you are suffering from similar symptoms, there are various ways that you can help yourself. Diet, lifestyle and natural remedies can all have a huge role in alleviating the discomfort of diahrroea, constipation and the associated wind and bloating that come with the two. This month we are opening a free Bowel Health Clinic, offering advice to all those who suffer with what seems to be a widespread problem across the Western world. Below are some of the most common problems we see on a daily basis and the ways in which we treat them.

Irritable Bowel with Diarrhoea

– For the most part, loose stool are caused by either a tummy bug or bacteria that your body is purging itself of; or inflammation along the mucosa of the gut and/or bowel walls. If your problem persists for longer than a few days or if the problem is recurrent, it is more likely to be caused by inflammation than a tummy bug and there are many things you can do to help reduce this.

Eat a diet that is low in sugar, including natural sugars such as fruit and fruit juices as well as lagers, beers and wines. Sugar is pro-inflammatory and can aggravate any inflammatory condition. Instead fill your diet with plenty of spongy fibres that will absorb water, helping to slow transit. Spongy fibres include root vegetables, porridge oats, beans and pulses and ground seeds like flaxseed. Fibres like bran are generally quite scouring and can irritate the gut mucosa, quickening transit of stools. Choose foods that are easy to digest, like soups and casseroles and avoid raw foods that are more difficult to digest.

If you would like to try a natural remedy alongside adjusting your diet, we generally recommend the herb tormentil to our clients, alongside a probiotic to replace gut flora and improve the general health of the bowel. For a limited time we have put together a Healthy Bowel Package – for Loose Stools and Fast Track Bowels, a 4 week plan containing both these products as well as a digestive formula to ease flatulence and dispel wind. Dietary guidelines are included, advising on how best to eat during these 4 weeks for optimum health of your bowel.

Irritable Bowel with Constipation

– Improved greatly by addition of water and the right kinds of fibre if added to your diet regularly. Choose spongy fibres again, root veg, beans and porridge; while ensuring that you are getting 3 pints of water into your system each day. Fibre needs water to soften your stools and without it, you may still find them hard and difficult to pass.

Constipation is not always caused by a dehydrated bowel or lack of fibre. It could be caused by weakened peristalsis. Cola drinks, tea, coffee and a diet high in salt may deplete your levels of magnesium which helps to keep the muscles of the bowel wall working smoothly, ensuring they are strong enough to keep things moving. It is best to move your bowel every day, so if you are getting the urge less frequently than this, strengthening your peristalsis might help to relieve you of any bloated feelings around the belly and even help you drop a few pounds as the excess waste is eliminated.

Our Healthy Bowel Package – for Constipation, contains a 4 week diet plan, that involves consuming just the right type of fibres, regularly and throughout the day. In addition it contains a 4 week supply of magnesium citrate to strengthen your bowel muscles and improve regularity and a fibre formulation by Pukka to provide additional fibres to move things along, softening any stubborn stools and easing pain.

Irritable Bowel with Alternating Constipation and Diarrhoea –

When the bowel is put under pressure from continuous blockages, the mucous membranes along the walls of the bowel can become inflamed. This inflammation as discussed earlier can cause diarrhoea, therefore if you find that you often switch between the two, treat it as you would constipation.

It is important to remember that persistent diarrhoea can have many causes and it is always best to check with your GP that there are no underlying problem that needs medical treatment. Similarly, any sudden change in your bowel habits should always be checked out by a qualified medical practitioner.

If you want to keep up to date with our Bowel Health Month, keep an eye out for our next blog post on our Beat Bloating Package and Wind and Indigestion Package. If you would like any specific advice on your digestion or bowel habits, please check out our Free Bowel Health Clinic, in which we are always available for advice.

Breakfast & The Sugar Question

Posted on January 22, 2014January 28, 2014 by Nicola

: meehanf / Foter.com / CC BY-NC

Last week Jenny wrote about the shocking amount of sugar that is found in our everyday foodstuffs, particularly our breakfast cereals. We also got some wonderful feedback on our Facebook page about peoples thoughts on the best healthy and unhealthy breakfast foods. So what is the key to getting the best nutrition out of your morning meal?

1. Check the packaging: If your breakfast comes out of a packet (e.g. muesli, cereal, yoghurt), check the information on the side for the ingredients and nutrition information. This is the first thing you should do. Get to know what you’re putting into your body at the start of the day.

2. Add protein: If you find yourself feeling hungry or sleepy mid morning and/or if you have problems losing weight, it is possible that you are not getting enough protein at the start of the day. Protein slows the release of energy in your body, keeping you fuller and awake for longer. Great protein rich breakfasts include eggs, beans, muesli or porridge with added nuts and seeds, peanut butter, cold meats or fish.

3. Can you add vegetables?: It’s not common place to see veg in a cereal bowl of course, but if you want to add an extra punch of nutrition to your breakfast then there are lots of ways to add in veg. Spinach and eggs is a well known combination, poached or fried; tomatoes, peppers, onion or celery all go great in omelette or scrambled eggs. Beans or cooked tomatoes on toast. If you have a cold breakfast, would some fresh green leaves go well alongside it?

4. Don’t over do the fruit: Don’t forget that fruit is very sugary. It is natural sugar, but still sugar nonetheless. If you do have fruit, make sure it is no more that a portion (a handful or a small glass of fruit juice) and take care to balance it with protein based foods as well.

5. Hydrate yourself: A cup of tea or coffee is needed to wake us up in the morning, but they can effect the absorption of essential nutrients when taken alongside a meal. With that in mind, limit yourself to your wake up brew and if you are still left with a thirst, look to herbal teas or water to put the fluid back in your body. Coffee and tea tend to act as diuretics so they can leave your body feeling dehydrated if you rely on them as your main morning drinks.

If you have any questions about how you could up the nutrient content of your breakfast, contact us or post a question on our facebook page. We are always happy to give out ideas!

sugar

Posted on January 14, 2014January 28, 2014 by jenny

: Mrs Magic / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-SA

Big news at the moment is…SUGAR! Finally people are starting to realise that sugar is one of the leading causes of weight issues, these days it’s probably more of a problem than fat. It’s no surprise to us, as we have been advising people who want to get healthy to try and cut sugar out of their diet for years, but this is not always made easy by food manufacturers and there are a lot of misleading claims made about the health of certain products. One of the adverts which annoys me the most at the moment is the one that is trying to sell Nutella to us as a health food, telling us it contains nuts and slow release sugars…ok maybe it does, but that does not alter the fact that the product itself is 55% sugar and therefore probably not the healthiest choice we could be making. Then again maybe I shouldn’t get upset about that, after all most of us would expect chocolate spread to be high in sugar, like many people may not be surprised that coco pops are 35% sugar. What may surprise you though is that cereals which are held up as healthy and good for people trying to lose weight are also high in sugar. For example All Bran contains 22% (that’s nearly a 1/4 as sugar) and Special K contains 6.8g per serving, which is actually more sugar than you would find in a McVities Chocolate Cake Slice! On top of this did you know that a weight watchers digestive biscuit has more sugar in than a standard digestive?!

The problem with all this is that when you eat something which is high in sugar, the energy from that food is released very quickly into your blood stream. Your body then produces insulin, which tells the cells of your body to take the sugar out of the blood stream to make energy. However, when you eat more energy than your cells actually need, insulin will store the rest of that sugar for later. Most of that excess sugar will be stored in the fat cells around your middle. Is it any wonder then, that despite their best efforts many people struggle to get the weight off eating foods they are told are healthy?

Weight issues are not the only thing affected by this high intake of sugars either. We see a lot of people with bowel issues, bloating and wind, who are surprised to learn that we believe the sugars are feeding the fermentation in their guts which is causing the problems. Cutting out sugars in those situations can make a massive difference – one girl I saw recently had been struggling with bloating and pain for years and was shocked that such a simple step made a massive difference to her in just two weeks!

Cutting sugar down then could be a key to weight loss and bowel problems, but we know it is often easier said than done – sugar is addictive and many people struggle with sugar cravings and sugar dips which affect their energy levels and their mood. There are things that you can do to help though and getting on top of those cravings and keeping your blood sugar levels balanced is a real key to this. We tend to suggest using a supplement like Higher Natures Metabolic Balance to start off with. This supplement is designed using nutrients like chromium and magnesium to help support healthy blood sugar levels, which will in turn reduce fat storage, and sugar cravings. Once the sugar cravings are more controlled, a low sugar diet is easier to stick to and weight loss tends to follow. When we see people for our weight loss clinic then, one of the first things we do is work with them to get as many sugars out of their diet as possible, get their blood sugar levels balanced and get rid of their sugar cravings and it is surprising how quickly this can be achieved. Using a low sugar diet alongside Metabolic Balance can knock those cravings and the cycle of fat storage and low energy levels on the head and give weight loss a real kick start.

Love your Liver – Detox and Lose Weight

Posted on January 9, 2014January 28, 2014 by jenny

: kanenas.net / Foter.com / CC BY

I read this week that film actress Gwynth Paltrow was saying that the best way to detox and lose weight was to limit your calorie intake take to 300 per day!! Not Possible!! Someone living a normal life, with jobs to do and children to run around after, cannot possibly function properly on 300 calories a day! Not only that, as we all know, when following a diet which restricts calories so hugely, the weight may come piling off quickly, but, it piles back on even quicker!
Actually, one of the best ways to detox AND lose weight is to follow a sugar free diet, which has plenty of fresh vegetables and protein rich foods like beans. Ideally you should Focus on foods like flax seeds, beetroot, walnuts, oily fish, garlic, greens and tomatoes and whilst avoiding alcohol and fizzy drinks. Drink plenty of water and limit tea and coffee. This limits all the stimulants and things that strip your body of nutrients. It also ensures that your body is getting all the nutrients it needs to heal itself and cleanse the tissues.
But as well as this it is absolutely vital to look at the health of your liver. Any detox diet which does not look at cleansing the liver, is not going to work as well as you would want it to. Your liver is your body’s main detoxifying organ – it breaks down all the wastes and eliminates them. It deals with all the chemicals and medications. Therefore, you can detox your tissues with juices, or cocao or lemon juice etc, but unless you clean your liver out, those toxins are not going to leave your body as effectively as you would like.
Your liver is also your main metabolic organ. Signs of a sluggish liver, to a practitioner of natural medicine will include weight gain, bloating, indigestion, skin problems, low energy, bowel problems and sugar cravings. Boosting the liver function then could be really useful – not just in ensuring that your body is detoxing properly but also in helping shift a few excess pounds. The best way to support your liver in my opinion is with Vogels Milk Thistle Complex This combines milk Thistle, which has been reported in clinical trials to help promote the regeneration of liver cells, with artichoke, which helps lubricate the bowel, easing bowel issues. Artichoke also helps with indigestion symptoms and bloating, making it a great addition to this remedy. Milk Thistle Complex also contains dandelion, which again with the breakdown of fats. Taking a course of this whilst following the simple dietary guidelines I have laid down, should help you achieve what you want from a detox, without starvation or feeling awful. We do have a free diet sheet available to support this – if you would like it, please contact us and we will email it to you.