I have been asked to bring back the information section to the newsletters. So starting this month I have a series of the most important articles I’ve ever written. They aim to be life changing, creating an opportunity for you all to have a more informed decision on what you eat and how you live. This isn’t a diet or FAD, this is a lifestyle, that will make you feel better and ultimately live longer. The articles will be followed up with small group on-line support groups to share best practice and further education. We have 3 groups trialing the support at the moment with it being rolled out in January, ready for all those New Years resolutions!!
Here are some of the past articles I have written to help with nutrition, in case you missed any –
Nutrition – Vegetable Oils – http://www.enjoyfitnessstudio.co.uk/blog/%ef%bb%bfnutrition-review-vegetable-oil
Nutrition – The 16:8 plan – http://www.enjoyfitnessstudio.co.uk/blog/the-16-8-plan
and
Nutrition – Inflammation – http://www.enjoyfitnessstudio.co.uk/blog/exercise-articles/inflammation
In this months newsletter we start to look at food and your health. I was inspired from a photo posted on social media at the height of our summer heat wave earlier this year. It shows a beach taken during our last major heat wave in 1976.
The photographer stated that there were no traffic issues getting to the beach, no sun-cream used to block out Vitamin D and if you look closely no overweight people!! If you look at a beach in 2022 it will be difficult to find a healthy body.
So what has changed since in the last 36 years. Most people automatically think we are just eating more! However, we are actually eating less calories now on average than in 1976 – 2280kcal versus 2130kcal. Some people argue that we move less, more cars, sitting at desks etc. However, children’s physical activity has been measured to be exactly the same as 50 years ago with other studies now showing there is no relationship between physical activity and weight gain. So what is the difference?
If you start to look at the nutrition figures in more detail you will see that, although we ate more in 1976, it was very different. Today, we buy half as much fresh milk per person, but 5 times more yogurt, three times more ice cream and – wait for it – 39 times as many dairy deserts. We buy half as many eggs than in 1976, but a third more breakfast cereals and twice the cereal snacks; half the potatoes, but three times the crisps. While our direct purchases of sugar have sharply declined, the sugar we consume in drinks and confectionery is likely to have rocketed. This all points to the theory that it isn’t necessarily the amount of calories that we eat but the type of calories that is causing the weight gain!
Nutrition is an absolute minefield these days. 56 different names for sugars added to our foods and 15,000 different chemicals added to food between field and mouth. But why are these changes in our eating habits making us overweight if we are eating less calories?? The answer can be summarised fairly simply and it is called Leptin!
Leptin is a hormone in the body discovered relatively recently. It was discovered that giving mice leptin caused them to significantly lose weight within days. It was felt that this could be the magic solution to obesity in the early 90s. However, it was then discovered that obese people had high levels of leptin in their bodies already and adding more made no difference. Leptin is a weight regulating hormone, produced when you have plentiful food, it informs the brain that we are in a state of satiety. The brain then ensures we don’t put on too much weight by increasing our metabolism, increasing bone and muscle growth, and we lay down more brown fat (producing a thermogenic effect that increases metabolism) and we build muscle! When there is no Leptin, the body thinks we are starving, so it slows everything down, hair and muscle growth become harder, reproductive function slows or stops (causing early menopause in some people), the body then starts to store as much fat as possible to survive the perceived famine. This all sounds understandable, but we are hardly in a state of famine, so why aren’t we managing our weight better? Imagine this hormone, that controls your weight, not being able to get its message to your brain. The brain, deprived of Leptin, thinks it is in a state of constant famine, so stores as much food as it can to protect itself, slowing down your normal body functions, including the production of “feel good” hormones, so you feel low and lethargic as well. This is what is happening now in many people. Leptin is fighting to reach our brain receptors to be heard. They are battling with sugar and the chemicals we consume in diet drinks and foods that replicate sugars that are fogging our brain. So our body just keeps storing fat as if we are starving!
The first lesson in being healthy is to look after your brain, create an optimum environment for it to function in the way it is designed to allow it to manage your weight, metabolism and feel good factors. Here are the quick recipe to create the perfect brain environment –
- Don’t consume any chemicals
- Reduce sugar intake, replacing with good proteins
- Ensure you consume good levels of Vitamin C
- Ensure good levels of Vitamin D
- Ensure good ratio between Omega 3 and Omega 6 in your body!
- Sleep well!
We will review some of these in next months newsletter
If you are interested in finding out more, or would like to reserve a place on our Eat Well nutrition groups for the new year, please email – Mark@nltraining.co.uk
