Day 70

Ten weeks into the Challenge and this blog has reached another important milestone. Once again - thank you for taking the time to read! However, seeing as I’m at the conference for the Olympics, I couldn’t stop thinking about 'it' this evening when gathering my thoughts for the blog. ‘It’ being a major food-related problem which is taking over Western society i.e. obesity. We all know that generally people (and children) are getting bigger which has major health implications now and for years and generations to come. It’s a really tricky subject and although I am not intending to preach to my readers, I feel very strongly about people eating and leading healthier lives – for their own sake. Therefore, for a change tonight, I took a slightly different slant on writing about food. Instead of writing about the Italian we went to this evening, I’m going to offer some tips which are simple ways of making your eating habits that little bit healthier. Remember that you should always eat a healthy, well-balanced diet and should consult your GP about any changes you're considering but here are some food rules on five specific food items according to Lynda to help you eat healthier…

1. Water

Drink 1-2 litres of still water every day. Keeping yourself hydrated will help prevent headaches. Also, if you’re looking to lose weight, your body can’t break down its fat stores if it’s dehydrated.

2. Diet/sugar-free drinks

If a soft drink says it is diet or sugar-free then the manufacturer has taken out the sugar and replaced it with horrible sweeteners such as aspartame and saccharin which actually make you addicted to the food/drink and increase your appetite – Diet Coke is a prime example. If you must drink Diet Coke, you would be better drinking the original thing.

3. Butter

Always buy the real thing. Avoid margarines and those spreads which allegedly make your heart healthier. All they will do is cost you a small fortune of money. Remember that saying I mentioned before? Trust a cow before a chemist. Just eat the butter in moderation. Again, the running theme for healthy eating has to be moderation.

4. Mayonnaise and ketchup

It may seem counterintuitive but buy the full-fat versions of ketchup and mayonnaise. Just eat less. Do NOT buy low-fat, fat-free versions. If the food item says it’s low-fat or fat-free, chances are that it’s full of sugar and salt. To make my point, a manufacturer could set a 2lb bag of sugar on your kitchen table and stick a label on it saying ‘fat free’. Is it? Yes. If you eat bags and bags of sugar, will you get fat? Yes. They don’t tell you that though. Without getting too technical, sugar is a form of carbohydrate. Carbohydrate is our body’s preferred source of carbohydrate. All our muscles have stores of carbohydrate which are topped up every time we eat. However, once those stores fill up, the excess carbohydrate is converted to fat and stored in the body. This is partly why carbs get so much bad press; however, it’s not that eating carbohydrates makes people fat, it’s simply eating too much and doing little or no physical activity.

5. Milk

Full-fat milk is actually a low-fat food as it has less than 4% fat. The fat from milk is important as it’s full of Vitamin D and helps the body absorb calcium which is important for bone health. This is especially relevant for women because of the higher risk of osteoporosis in middle age. Interestingly, a study was done on women who take full-fat milk versus semi-skimmed milk in their tea/coffee. Taking full-fat or semi-skimmed milk made absolutely no difference to their waistline.

So there are five things to give you ‘food for thought’. Sorry, I couldn’t help the pun! Even making one change will make a positive change to your eating. Give them a go and see what happens. Chat to you all tomorrow...