The Diet Angel Blog has moved

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 13:39:00 GMT

Just to let you know that The Diet Angel Blog posts will now be at www.DietUser.com. Please update your bookmarks and subscribe to the new feed to stay updated!

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Nutritional Claims on Food Labels

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 09:28:39 GMT

When shopping, it's really easy to be misled by manufacturers' claims on packaging. "95% fat free" may sound good, but it's still got 5% fat and this might be more than other, similar products - it's all in the marketing!

So what can manufacturer's actually claim, and what do these claims mean? Food labelling regulations mean standard definitions are used:

When a food has less fat content, it may have added sugars and starches to help make up the flavour - added those pesky calories straight back in!!! And what about other terms, which are not regulated? These can be rather ambiguous at the best of times:

You need your wits about you when shopping, but if you are able to spend a little bit of time looking at food labels when shopping, you can make healthy choices for you and your family.

To see more about the nutritional content of various different foods, see www.EasyDietDecisions.com.

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Listen to Your Body

Mon, 11 May 2009 12:35:19 GMT

Your body is your most powerful ally when losing weight, but do you always really listen to it? By not paying full attention, you gradually desensitise yourself to the signals it sends you - resulting in eating more and over time, putting on weight.

You can't always help eating habits - how often do you end up grabbing a sandwich and eating it at your desk at work, or only having a few minutes to eat your evening meal before having to pick up the kids? However, there are things you can do to 'tune in' to your hunger signals again.

The golden failsafe rule? ...Only eat when you are hungry. Ahhh, it doesn't sound like rocket science, but how can you tell when you are hungry? Or is it thirst?

If you want to eat something, grade the hunger on a scale of 1 to 5. If you are at a 4 or 5, then eat. Otherwise, have a glass of water and try re-grading after five minutes. This will weed out any boredom eating and also help you distinguish between 'hunger' and 'thirst' signals which can be very similar. If you don't get to a 4 or 5, find another activity to take your mind off food!

When you do eat, rather than tucking into the traditional 3 meals a day, why not break it down into three smaller meals and two snacks (e.g. an apple with a handful of mixed nuts)? Eating more regularly means you are more likely to only eat what you need rather than what's there. Try aiming for fruit, vegetables, pulses, rice and pasta, which are 'slow release energy' foods, and will make you feel fuller for longer, rather than 'quick release energy' foods such as crisps, sweets and 'quick fix' foods.

By making you feel fuller longer, your blood sugar levels fluctuate less, which means your insulin levels also stay more constant - more insulin in your blood leads to greater fat storage, which is not the best approach to weight management! Also by eating regularly, you are less likely to binge when you do eat as you are not 'starving' or 'ravenously hungry'. This means again, you are likely to eat fewer calories. The other message hidden in here is...ALWAYS eat breakfast!

Golden rule number two is...stop eating when you are full.

Again, this sounds easy enough - how many times have you had a Sunday roast with all the trimmings followed by dessert and then felt to tired and full to move? If you felt like that, you've eaten way more than enough!

There is a time-lag from starting to eat to feeling like you've had enough. If you wolf your food down without pausing, you will eat a lot more than if you put your fork down between mouthfuls and actually taste your food. This is because the hunger signal has not been able to kick in - next time you eat, try eating at a much slower rate, and you may surprise yourself that you don't want the same amount that you normally eat. Try putting your fork down between mouthfuls, chewing each mouthful a bit more (also better for your digestion!) and sipping water between mouthfuls.

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Sweet as sugar? Not always.

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 13:34:43 GMT

I was so incensed whilst eating my cereal yesterday whilst watching BBC Breakfast, that a nutritionist so vehemently misled the public that I was shouting at the television - not the usual behaviour of the sane!

So, according to Dr Clare Leonard (sadly a bona fida public health nutritionist number RPHN475 registered with the UK Voluntary Register of Nutritionists), sugar doesn't turn into fat and there's no evidence of sugar leading to obesity. She was representing the cereal industry, in retaliation to a Which? Report on children's breakfast cereals still containing far too much sugar (see here for more information. This latest report is particularly damning as the same problems were highlighted three years ago and no substantial changes have been made.

As a nutritionist myself, I can tell you that Dr Leonard's so-called facts are blantantly untrue, and to make matters worse, she works for Nestle - manufacturer of some of the cereals highlighted in the Which? Report!

There is mounting evidence that added sugar in the diet, and in fact, sugars in processed foods are more likely to lead to obesity than fat! One of the many things that insulin does for example, is help your fat cells remove glucose from your blood and turn it into fatty acids (fat storage molecules) - this is a well documented metabolic process and is not up for dispute!

Worse still (and ignored by her), sugary cereals cause spikes in blood sugar levels, leading to increased snacking behaviour, leading to...yep, obesity!

Her comment that simple carbohydrates are necessary in the diet for energy is also dubious - yes, we need carbs, but of the complex variety ("starchy carbs"). You do get simple sugars in fruits which cannot be avoided, but refined sugars (i.e. those added to breakfast cereals and pre-prepared meals and sauces) should be avoided and can lead to other problems such as tooth decay, as well as obesity.

She did make a comment that you can't take one meal in isolation and have to look at the day's food to make balanced decisions which is true to an extent BUT you can look at your diet a meal at a time and work out how to improve it. All healthy eating advice, whether from a dietician, the government or your friendly blogging nutritionist (!) starts with increasing fibre and cut out all processed and added sugars.

Whilst having breakfast is better than skipping it, I heartily recommend parents to choose cereals with as little sugar content as possible - that will give their children a far better start to their day and their life!

For more information see here and here.

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Voluntary Calorie Labelling on Menus

Mon, 06 Apr 2009 15:06:22 GMT

According to BBC news today, 18 businesses have agreed to display calorie information on their menus. On the surface of things, this sounds like good news, but will it really make a difference, and does it go far enough?

As well as the legal minimum information that needs to be displayed on food items, some manufacturers go further. On many foods, there are labels to show the calories, sugars, fat, saturates and salt per serving, in both grams and percentage of an adult's guideline daily amount. Some labelling uses a traffic light colour coding to show whether the amounts of these per serving is healthy or not (see here for more information on both these methods).

This certainly gives people more information about their food, and as long as their portion sizes are realistic, can help as part of a diet or lifestyle change.

The voluntary calorie labelling of foods reported today is obviously a good start, but there is no unified approach. This means that different food outlets will display the information differently, which is a potential source of confusion for customers.

A far better system would be similar to one of the labelling guidelines above - knowing calories is a good start but knowing salt, sugar and saturated fat content is far more useful information. It also helps people understand whether their diet is balanced.

A chicken salad from one of the fast food chains can be a healthy option - most of the calories are in the dressing, which normally comes in a separate sachet. Will the restaurant label each salad component seperately so you can make an informed choice, or will the salad suddenly look like a frighteningly-calorific option because they assume you'll use all the dressing? (And decide a burger looks like a better choice!!)

It also depends on how often you eat calorie dense food (food that provides a lot of calories in a small amount). If you eat fast food every day of the week, cutting down on calorie intake will be very beneficial. However, if you eat it once every few months, you won't really see much change if you do opt for a lower-calorie option.

However, having to show calories may force 'healthy' competition - fast food outlets vying for more business by reducing the calorie content of their foods to below that of their competitors whilst retaining flavour, and keeping the price down.

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