by Sal Prothero | 16, Mar, 2017 | Blog
10 Common Foods that you think are healthy but they’re not
- Cereals and Muesli/Granola – High in added sugar and oil. How can Kellogg’s Nutri Grain have a 4* health rating when Coles Greek Style yoghurt only has 1.5*?!To understand nutrition labels, the sugar content should be less than 15g per 100g (ideally less than 10g). With this product, it’s 26.7g per 100g.
- Milo – high in sugar (20g per serve with reduced fat milk). That’s a whopping 5 teaspoons of sugar. Also contains fats and emulsifier.
- Energy Drinks – high in sugar and some with high amounts of caffeine. Opt for plain old filtered water.
- Rice Cakes – white rice is high GI and stripped of all its nutrients. Also, arsenic has been found in rice but you’d have to be eating rice cakes every day to be affected.
- Home-made fruit juice or smoothie – very high in sugar. A juice or smoothie should be made with mostly vegetables (for example, kale, spinach, parsley) and ½ a piece of fruit for sweetness. You can also add chia seeds, avocado, wheatgerm, protein powder, anything that takes your fancy!
- Sushi – white sushi rice is high GI and stripped of all its nutrients. Brown rice is a better option. Watch out for the soy sauce as it’s very high in salt.
- Gluten free – gluten free doesn’t necessarily mean healthy. Gluten free packaged food is still processed and sweet foods are still high in sugar. Minerals, vitamins and fibre are lacking in some foods. If you’re cutting out wholegrains, gluten free alternatives include quinoa, buckwheat, amaranth and millet.
- ‘Low Fat’/’Fat Free’ – more sugar than ‘regular’ fat foods.
- Organic packaged foods – organic doesn’t necessarily mean healthy. They still have the same ingredients as non-organic. Eating organic vegetables is a good thing if you can afford it.
- Raw desserts – they seem to be the craze at the moment. High in sugar and fat.Tags[tags_all_in_one number=”20″ smallest=”11″ largest=”11″ unit=”px” separator=” ” orderby=”name” order=”asc” post=”true”]
by Sal Prothero | 05, Jan, 2017 | Blog
STRESSED?
We’re always told to be calm and to de-stress but what does this really mean and how does stress affect our digestion?
Most of us have felt nervous before public speaking or before an exam. Remember how your tummy felt at the time? Pain, nausea, butterflies, diarrhoea? Sound familiar? The brain is directly connected to the gut so this is why we feel this way.
When you are stressed, blood flow of the digestion system can shut down and the muscles of your digestive muscles are affected. Gastric juices, which you need to break down your food, are also decreased. Your gut can also be inflamed as a result of stress.
Stress can also increase the acid in your stomach causing indigestion and the stomach can shut down causing nausea. Your bowel movements are also affected. Corticotropin releasing factor (CRF) is released which either increases or decreases bowel motility. In other words, you can either have diarrhoea or constipation.. Usually, this is temporary but if you experience long-term stress on a daily basis, this can lead to serious problems in the future. Chronic stress activates your enteric nervous system which eventually leads to gut diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease and ulcers. Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a common condition in our clinic. Stress contributes towards IBS where the microbiome is altered via the central nervous system. When the microbiome is altered, you may have ‘leaky gut’ or ‘dysbiosis’ resulting in nutrient absorption being depleted. Long-term stress can also deplete Vitamin C, B Vitamins, zinc, calcium and magnesium.
What can you do to de-stress?
Meditation and deep breathing are proven means of relaxing and de-stressing. However, meditation doesn’t suit everyone. Yoga is an excellent alternative which has been proven to relieve stress.
You diet is also a big factor in the health of your gut and state of mind. Eating a healthy whole food diet is essential for good gut health and mental health.
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by Sal Prothero | 24, Oct, 2016 | Blog
In 2007, 15.4% of Australians aged 16 to 24 experienced an anxiety disorder. This is equivalent to 440,000 young people today. There are no statistics for 2016 but I’m sure this percentage has increased.
We at Whole Food Nutrition do not claim to fix mental health but we believe that the practice of Nutritional Medicine appeases most mental illness. 90 % of our feel good neurotransmitters are made in the gut. Serotonin is just one of these important neurotransmitters therefore good gut health is vital.
Serotonin and Gut Health
- Low serotonin levels are associated with anxiety. The majority of serotonin is produced in the gut, therefore if your gut is under-functioning chances are you are deficient in serotonin. Get good gut health to set you up.
- You also need many vitamins and minerals to produce serotonin, for example, vitamins B6, C, zinc, iron and magnesium.
- How do you know you have low serotonin?
- Are you stressed, worried or anxious?
- Do you have a busy mind and can’t switch off?
- Are you depressed?
- Do you crave carbohydrates?
- Are you dieting and restricting calories?
- Do you have sleep problems?
How to boost serotonin!
- Support gut health by eliminating food sensitivities and reducing inflammation.
- Manage your stress levels – this could be a massage or a run. Anything that you enjoy.
Eat a whole food diet.
- Eat complex carbohydrates – brown rice, brown basmati rice, barley, beans, lentils, oats, spelt/buckwheat pasta, sweet potatoes.
- Eat tryptophan rich foods – pumpkin seeds, turkey, brown rice, cottage cheese, sesame seeds, chia seeds.
- Eat Vitamin B6 rich foods – fish, chicken, sunflower seeds, dark green leafy veggies, bananas and avocados.
- Get out in the sunshine – Vitamin D enhances the utilization of serotonin in the brain.
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by Sal Prothero | 17, Oct, 2016 | Blog
Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. What you eat at breakfast is extremely important. Eating a breakfast that contains a good source of protein, good fats and complex carbohydrates will keep your blood sugar steady, provide energy, brain power, and set you up for the rest of the day.
These top 5 ideas are designed to give you much needed vitamins and minerals and macronutrients;
Porridge
- Heat 1 cup wholegrain rolled oats with your choice of full fat milk.
- Serve with 2 tablespoons of plain natural/greek yoghurt with berries and 1 tsp cinnamon.
Bircher Muesli
- Place 1 cup oats in a bowl with a handful of seeds and goji berries.
- Pour your choice of full fat milk of your choice into the bowl so that the milk is covering the oats.
- In the morning, top with berries/kiwi fruit and ½ a banana, 1 tablespoon chia seeds, 2 tablespoons of plain natural/Greek yoghurt and 1tsp of cinnamon.
Protein smoothie
- ½ cup blueberries, 1 banana, 1 cup of your choice of full fat milk, a scoop of good quality whey protein powder (at least 20g protein) and 1 teaspoon cod liver oil. Blend and enjoy!
- Other optional ingredients are LSA, nut butter, ½ avocado and greens (spinach is the best one to blend).
Yoghurt
- Plain or greek yoghurt topped with anything you like!
- Berries, banana, kiwi fruit, chia seeds, coconut flakes, cinnamon, granola, the list is endless!
Eggs
- A veggie omelette or poached eggs on wholegrain toast with ½ avocado on the side.
Great for weekends when you have more time.
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by Sal Prothero | 11, Oct, 2016 | Blog
Have you ever had a “gut-wrenching” experience? Do certain situations make you “feel nauseous”? Have you ever felt “butterflies” in your stomach? Most of us have and this is because our gut is sensitive to emotions.
So what’s going on inside our gut? Microbiome or gut microbiota seem to be the buzzwords at the moment and for a good reason. There are approximately 100 trillion microorganisms within the gastro-intestinal (GI) tract. While most of the microbes are bacteria, the gut can also harbor yeasts, viruses and small parasitic worms. If there is an imbalance of bacteria, in other words, if there are more bad bacteria than good, this can cause many health conditions. What causes the microbiome to become imbalanced?
* Environment – pesticides, herbicides, synthetic hormones, pollution
* Foods – intolerances, processed foods, high sugar foods, high trans-fat foods
* Under-active digestion (low stomach acid)
* Chronic stress
* Medication – contraceptive pill, painkillers, sleeping tablets, thrush treatments, antibiotics, anti-inflammatories. e.g. Nurofen and Voltaren
The brain communicates with the gut via the parasympathetic (PNS), sympathetic (SNS) and enteric nervous systems (ENS). This is called the gut-brain axis. The ENS is sometimes called ‘the second brain’. In Irritable Bowel Syndrome, for example, stress often leads to over-stimulation of the SNS which interferes with the way food is digested, leading to pain, discomfort and altered bowel motility. Did you know that 90% of our neurotransmitters, adrenaline and serotonin for example, the feel good chemicals in our bodies, are formed in the gut? So if our digestive system is compromised in any way, our mental health will be suffering.
Stress
Given how closely the gut and brain interact, it becomes easier to understand why you might feel nauseated before giving a presentation or feel intestinal pain during times of stress. Stress (or depression or other psychological factors) can affect movement and contractions of the gut, make inflammation worse, or perhaps make you more susceptible to infection.
There is strong evidence that exposure to stress may be responsible for the dysregulation of the brain-gut axis, thus leading to the different diseases of the gut. What can you do about it? Repair your gut and de-stress! Avoid inflammatory foods that can irritate/inflame the gut mucosal layer.
These include;
- Gluten
- Refined carbohydrates and sugar
- Too much caffeine/alcohol
How to repair your gut;
- Gut Healing Foods/spices – whole food diet
- Anti-inflammatory foods – turmeric, ginger, onion, garlic, oily fish, green leafy vegetables
- Tryptophan foods – chicken, turkey, bananas, oily fish, nuts, seeds, wholegrains
- Glutamine – Fish and meat such as beef, chicken, pork and turkey, beans, milk, yogurt, ricotta cheese and cottage cheese, raw spinach, cabbage and parsley
- Slippery Elm – add to smoothies
- Zinc – oysters, nuts, seeds, red meat
- Vitamin A/beta carotene – egg yolks, orange vegetables, salmon
- Gelatine
- Fermented foods (probiotics) – kim chi, sauerkraut, kefir
- Kombucha tea, bone broth
- Reduce your stress
- Meditation
- Massage
- Counselling
- Yoga
- Exercise
- Chat with a friend
- Mindful eating
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