Fiona
Stress Less Seminar
Overwhelmed, exhausted and tired???
Living on energy drinks or coffee?
Why is it important to Stress Less and why is it so difficult to just relax????
What is stress doing to your health? You will be surprised!!
What can you do about it? Come and find out at our:
FREE STRESS LESS SEMINAR
Presented by: Informed Health Nutritional Wellbeing Centre
Everyone is welcome!
Book Now: (02) 4722 2111
Details:
When: Tuesday, 8 May 2012, 7.30pm
Where: Connect Fitness (Building L) Studio 1 (Group Fitness Room), UWS Kingswood Campus, Second Ave, Kingswood NSW 2747
What gets in the way of healing?
Sitting here on a Sunday afternoon watching and listening to a storm come over my house, glad to be inside and safe. I find myself reflecting on my experience of listening to many clients and hearing their stories and how vastly different but still somehow similar these stories are. It is such a brave thing, to go and tell your story and reach out for help. This takes courage, apparently the word courage came from the word cor which means heart. In its original definition, courage is defined as “to tell the story of who you are with your whole heart”.
In this world where everyone is striving for perfection, where we have to have the best job, the best marriage, fantastically well adjusted kids, a beautiful home, a perfect body, the list goes on…………. It is really hard to admit that you don’t “have it all together”.
I have observed that one of the main things that gets in the way of healing, is shame. The feelings of I am not worthy of this, I am not good enough. It is so common to see the belief that I will be worthy when I fit into that size 10 dress or when I get married or when I have this or that job. I will go and join in on life when I and perfect, until then I will stay on the sidelines and not take any risks!
Well guess what? You will never be perfect, I will never be perfect – this “outside” perfection that we are seeking does not exist. This is not a dress rehearsal – this is your life! You are worthy of love and connection now, regardless of what you have or haven’t done. Worthiness has NO pre-requisitves.
When you feel shame, you think you are not worthy and tend to spend time pleasing, perfecting and performing which often means saying yes when you mean no, this is so exhausting that you also end up saying no when you want to say yes and missing out on the things in life that you want to do. This also leads to feeling resentful and angry towards the people around you.
I have recently discovered the work of Brene Brown who has studied the dark emotions that get in the way of leading a fuller life. In her studies she has found that the people who have a strong sense of love and belonging and connection in their lives believe they are worthy of it.
These are not people who are perfect or people who make no mistakes, these people are connected as a result of being willing to let go of who they thought they should or who the world thought they should be in order to be who they are. These people are willing to share themselves, they fully embrace vulnerability and believe that what makes you vulnerable makes you beautiful.
When you go to take a forward step in your life towards healing, towards doing something new, shame is the gremlin that says, “no, you can’t do this you are not good enough”. Shame drives two trains of thought: never good enough and who do you think you are? Brene explains that shame is not guilt, shame is a focus on self guilt is a focus on behaviour. Shame is I am bad, guilt is I did something bad.
Shame, not surprisingly, is highly correlated with addiction, depression, violence, aggression, bullying, suicide, eating disorders and much more.
Brene explains the differences in men and women. Shame feels the same for men and women but is organised differently. Women aim to do it all do it perfectly and never let them see you sweat, this is controlled by a web of unobtainable competing confliciting expectations of what we should be. In men the main aim is to not ever be perceived as weak. The underlying fear is is we are “found out” we will lose connection.
Shame is supported by secrecy, silcence and judgement. The antidote to shame is empathy, the two most powerful words are “me too”. Yes the thing we all have in common is that we all experience fear and shame.
Although often perceived as weak, vulnerability is the birthplace of innovation, creativity and change.
Vulnerability is our most accurate measurement of courage. To be vulnerable to let ourselves be seen to be honest. Vulnerability is out path back to each other as human beings.
I have learned from Brene’s talks and book that:
Men and women with high levels of resilience have these things in common:
- Physical Awareness: they recognise a physical awareness that they are feeling shame and what triggered it.
- Critical Awareness: they question how realistic are the expectations and messages that others put on us or we put on ourselves.
- Reach out: they are willing to breathe through it and talk about it.
- Speak shame: shame cannot hold on when you name it (using the word and talking about the emotion). The opposite of experiencing shame is experiencing emphathy. Shame cannot survive empathy.
Show some emphathy for yourselves and others, embrace your imperfections and tell the story of who you are with your whole heart. Shameful silence is what gets in the way of healing. Knowing that we are all flawed, and we all experience these emotions is what brings us together and what brings us healing.
I highly recommend you read Brene Brown’s book The Gifts of Imperfection. I also recommend that you watch these online talks by Brene:
Brené Brown, The Power of Vulnerability, TED Talk
Cholesterol, what you need to know – Part 5
Fats and Oils
Many people in their attempts to eat a low fat diet are not eating enough essential oils. Every cell in your body requires essential oils (omega 3), especially your brain. These omega 3s are also anti-inflammatory – all disease processes are inflammatory so it is very important to consume anti-inflammatory foods. They are called essential fatty acids because the body cannot make them – you must include them in your diet!
Ways to include healthy fats in the diet
The main essential fat you need in the diet is omega 3 fatty acids - available in fresh fish (eg mackerel, salmon, herring), cold pressed extra virgin olive oil, raw unsalted nuts and seeds (walnuts, pecans, pepitas etc), tahini and avocado. Add extra virgin cold pressed olive oil to your salads and vegetables (it makes a lovely salad dressing – you can also add fresh lemon or tahini and basil).
For cooking use cold pressed extra virgin olive oil; don’t heat it up just coat the food with it before you place the food into pan. Be careful, olive oil has a low burning point and will flame easily at high temperatures. Coconut oil is also better for cooking at high temperatures (food will taste like coconut). Butter is excellent for cooking too (real unsalted block butter).
Plant sterols can lower cholesterol levels
They are found naturally in plant foods including nuts, seeds, legumes (peas, beans, lentils), fruit and vegetables. Some margarine has concentrated plant sterols added. Margarines enriched with plant sterols may help lower LDL cholesterol but do not treat the cause of the elevated cholesterol. They also often contain trans fats and other unnatural chemicals that can cause inflammation so are not a good long term solution. These sterol margarines only affect cholesterol absorption from the diet; they have no effect on the cholesterol your body makes. Remember it is not the cholesterol number that matters, it is the oxidised cholesterol – anything that increases inflammation will cause oxidation.
Eggs
Eggs are very nutritious and should be part of a healthy balanced diet. They contain good quality protein and omega-3, plus 10 vitamins and minerals. Boiled or poached is best, always cook eggs at a low temperature. The dietary cholesterol in eggs has no effect on blood cholesterol.
Are you taking cholesterol lowering medication?
Most cholesterol lowering medications affect only the cholesterol you make and therefore have no effect on the cholesterol that you eat. It is important to note that high cholesterol is not caused by a deficiency in statin drugs! They do not address the cause of the inflammation which is the real concern in cardiovascular disease.
Did you know that some commonly prescribed cholesterol medications may cause depletion of co-enzyme Q10 in the body? Co-enzyme Q10 is essential to cardiovascular health, it is a very important antioxidant for the heart (remember you need antioxidants to stop your body from making oxidised HDL’s LDL’s (the dangerous cholesterol). The highest concentrations are found in the heart where its action is vital to healthy functioning heart muscle tissues. Taking a co-enzyme Q10 supplement can:
- Help maintain the body’s co-enzyme Q10 levels
- Promote cardiovascular health
- Maintain energy levels
- Reduce muscle pain & weakness (common side-effect of statins due to depletion of co-enzyme Q10).
Go back to part 1
Go back to part 2
Go back to part 3
Go back to part 4
References:
Eddey Stephen. Cardiovascular Disease: The best treatment options, 2011. Health Schools Australia, Gold Coast, QLD, Australia.
Cholesterol, what you need to know – Part 4
More recommendations for Diet and Lifestyle:
- Include foods in your diet that are rich in soluble fibre, such as fruit, vegetables, raw unsalted nuts and seeds and legumes (peas, beans, lentils). Note: always increase water consumption with increased fibre.
- Increase dietary phyto-oestrogens (miso, flaxseed/linseeds).
- Cease alcohol consumption or reduce your alcohol intake to no more than one drink per day, ensuring you have 2 or 3 alcohol free days each week. Avoid binge drinking.
- Don’t smoke, it increases inflammation and artery damage causing more cholesterol to be produced by the body to act as a “bandaid”.
- Exercise regularly (for example, at least 30 minutes of brisk walking daily – you must get puffed)!
- Avoid fried foods, especially deep fried foods, battered food, pies, sausage rolls, hot dogs, spring rolls etc.
- Avoid sugar (confectionary, lollies, cakes, muffins, pastries, chocolate, sweets, sweet drinks etc).
- Avoid consumption trans-fatty acids/hydrogenated oils (including margarine and other processed foods) and confectionary (sometimes listed as hydrogenated oil/fat on the label).
- Reduce salt (labelled as sodium in packaged foods). Foods are considered to be low in sodium if they contain 120mg or less per 100g. Foods with more than 500mg per 100g of sodium are considered to be high in salt.
- Reduce caffeinated and sugary drinks: coffee, tea, soft drinks, milk drinks and energy drinks.
- Drink dandelion coffee/tea (it is liver friendly) and other herbal teas such as chamomile.
- Drink green tea an antioxidant (no milk or sugar) in moderation (it still contains caffeine).
- Eat a serving of berries each day 1/3 to 1/2 cup depending on the size of the berry (bilberry, blueberries, cranberry, strawberries etc) – high in bioflavonoids and antioxidants. Antioxidants are extremely important because they stop the LDLs from become oxidised and therefore damaging to your body.
- Add fresh garlic to meals.
- Do not skip meals, eat regular meals. Compared to a regular meal pattern an irregular meal pattern has been shown cause blood sugar and blood cholesterol problems.
- Drink plenty of water.
- Relax: relaxation has been shown to reduce cardiovascular risk factors.
- Any food allergies/intolerances or other gut problems such as Irritable Bowel Syndrome must be identified and managed properly. These allergies and gut problems cause inflammation and over stimulate the immune system which will ultimately lead toward chronic diseases like heart disease. It is best to enlist the support of health professionals who specialise in this area (this is one of our specialties at the Informed Health Nutritional Wellbeing Centre).
Go back to part 1
Go back to part 2
Go back to part 3
Go to part 5…..
References:
Eddey Stephen. Cardiovascular Disease: The best treatment options, 2011. Health Schools Australia, Gold Coast, QLD, Australia.
Cholesterol, what you need to know – Part 3
Recommendations for Diet and Lifestyle:
The most important thing you can do to prevent atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease is to maintain a healthy diet and lifestyle, with the goal of reducing your weight, reducing your triglycerides, reducing inflammation and balancing blood sugar levels. It is very important to lose any excess body fat, especially visceral (abdominal) fat around the organs, it contributes to raised blood triglycerides and oxidised cholesterol.
Suggestions include:
- Increase the amount and variety vegetables you have each day, especially leafy greens. Eat vegetables of all colours to ensure you are eating plenty of antioxidants. Antioxidants are essential to stop the LDL and HDL cholesterol from oxidising.
- Have a piece of fresh fruit every day (avoid fruit juice completely).
- Remove highly processed carbohydrates (sugar, flour) and all of the products made from them, bread, pasta, cakes etc from your diet completely or have a maximum one serving per day. If you do have grains at all have multigrain in very small amounts rather than white. In the western world our overconsumption of grains as a whole is causing a huge amount of inflammation and disease.
- Choose lean meat, eat grass fed meet. Avoid grain fed meat, grain is fed to cows to create fatty plaques (essentially to create heart disease – the same effect that eating grains has for us)! These fatty plaques make the meat soft and tasty but also very unhealthy to eat.
- Limit poor quality deli meats that include lots of questionable ingredients, including sausages and salami, and choose meats like turkey breast, or meat carved off a whole roast such as ham off the bone or cooked lean chicken where you know exactly what you are eating.
- Have fresh fish at least twice a week, eat the skin and the fat under it – these are good fats.
Use real butter (unsalted block butter). You can also use avocado and cold pressed extra virgin olive oil. Avoid margarine or other soft butter mixes.
Go back to part 1
Go back to part 2
Go to part 4 for more diet and lifestyle tips
References:
Eddey Stephen. Cardiovascular Disease: The best treatment options, 2011. Health Schools Australia, Gold Coast, QLD, Australia.
Cholesterol, what you need to know – Part 2
I previously discussed saturated fat under a separate post but think it is important to repeat here:
Saturated fat – finally the truth!
There are three main kinds of saturated fats. Short chain (eg butter) – which is healthy, butter actually breaks down to butyric acid in the body and this is colon protective. (The soluble fibre in an apple also breaks down in to butyric acid, which is also why apples are colon protective). Medium chain (eg coconut oil) – this is also healthy. It is long chain saturated fats that are damaging to the body. The main foods that cause heart disease are refined sugars including grains. These foods, especially if combined with a low fat diet will be stored as long chain saturated fatty acids in the body, this is what will clog up your arteries and cause atherosclerosis.
Highly refined carbohydrates (sugar, flour and all of the products made from them) over stimulate the immune system and cause inflammation.
Dr Dwight Lundell, a heart surgeon and author of The Cure for Heart Disease and The Great Cholesterol Lie explains how this happens:
“Imagine spilling syrup on your keyboard and you have a visual of what occurs inside the cell. When we consume refined carbohydrates such as sugar, blood sugar rises rapidly. In response, your pancreas secretes insulin whose primary purpose is to drive sugar into each cell where it is stored for energy. If the cell is full and does not need glucose, it is rejected to avoid extra sugar gumming up the works. When your full cells reject the extra glucose, blood sugar rises producing more insulin and the glucose converts to stored fat.”
This is usually visceral fat which is the dangerous fat that covers your abdominal organs and leads to a fatty liver.
What does all this have to do with inflammation?
Dr Lundell explains “blood sugar is controlled in a very narrow range. Extra sugar molecules attach to a variety of proteins that in turn injure the blood vessel wall. This repeated injury to the blood vessel wall sets off inflammation. When you spike your blood sugar level several times a day, every day, it is exactly like taking sandpaper to the inside of your delicate blood vessels.
To make matters worse, the excess weight you are carrying from eating these foods creates overloaded fat cells that pour out large quantities of pro-inflammatory chemicals that add to the injury caused by having high blood sugar.
Simply stated, without inflammation being present in the body, there is no way that cholesterol would accumulate in the wall of the blood vessel and cause heart disease and strokes. Without inflammation, cholesterol would move freely throughout the body as nature intended. It is inflammation that causes cholesterol to become trapped.”
The other issue is excess consumption of omega-6 vegetable oils such as soybean, corn and sunflower that are found in many processed foods. Omega 6 are also important for the functioning of the body but most people over consume omega 6 and under consume omega 3 fats which puts everything out of balance in the body and contributes to inflammation.
Other causes of inflammation can be food allergies/intolerances, parasites, bacteria, stress, viruses, exposure to chemicals including what you put on your skin.
Go back to part 1
Go to part 3
References:
Eddey Stephen. Cardiovascular Disease: The best treatment options, 2011. Health Schools Australia, Gold Coast, QLD, Australia.
Saturated fat – good or bad?
Saturated fat – finally the truth!
There are three main kinds of saturated fats:
- Short chain saturated fats (eg butter) – which is healthy, butter actually breaks down to butyric acid in the body and this is colon protective. (The soluble fibre in an apple also breaks down in to butyric acid, which is also why apples are colon protective).
- Medium chain saturated fats (eg coconut oil) – this is also healthy.
- Long chain saturated fats ARE damaging to the body.
The main foods that cause heart disease are refined sugars including grains. These foods, especially if combined with a low fat diet will break down into long chain saturated fatty acids in the body, this is what will clog up your arteries and cause atherosclerosis.
In summary
- Butter is good (unsalted block butter), stay away from soft mixed butters and margarine.
- Coconut and coconut oil is good.
- Grains and other refined carbohydrate foods create long chain saturated fats, this is the kind that causes heart disease so these foods should be avoided!
Learn more about cholesterol
References:
Eddey Stephen. Cardiovascular Disease: The best treatment options, 2011. Health Schools Australia, Gold Coast, QLD, Australia.
Cholesterol, what you need to know – Part 1
Cholesterol is a type of fat that is part of all animal cells. It is essential for many of the body’s metabolic processes. The body is very good at making its own cholesterol – it makes approximately 80% of your cholesterol.
Cholesterol is produced by the liver and also made by most cells in the body. It is carried around in the blood by little ‘couriers’ called lipoproteins. We need blood cholesterol because the body uses it to:
- Build the structure of cell membranes.
- Make hormones like oestrogen, testosterone and adrenal hormones.
- Help your metabolism work efficiently; eg cholesterol is essential for your body to produce vitamin D.
- Produce bile acids, which help the body digest fat and absorb important nutrients.
- Low levels of cholesterol are associated with depression, suicide and, in older women, lung cancer.
The big Cholesterol Myth
Cholesterol for many years now has been reduced to a single figure – a number that is said to indicate health or disease, high cholesterol is said to be bad, low cholesterol is said to be good. Eventually this was broken down into two forms of cholesterol that you needed to know about, two numbers to indicate health – HDL (called the “good cholesterol”) and LDL (called the “bad cholesterol”).
It has become clear with consistent research from 2001 onwards that your cholesterol number is irrelevant; it is not an accurate way to determine one’s health including risk of cardiovascular disease. LDL’s and HDL’s can both be good and bad, depending on whether they have been oxidised and depending on whether important inflammatory markers are high in the blood (eg C-reactive protein (CRP), triglycerides, ESR and Lp(a). If you are overweight, especially if carrying visceral fat (the abdominal fat that covers your organs), you can be sure that you have oxidised cholesterol regardless of if you have a “good number”. Visceral fat releases toxins into the body causing inflammation and disease.
Triglycerides are other ‘storage’ fats that are transported in blood lipoproteins, if these are present in high concentrations in the blood you are at high risk of cardiovascular disease.
Did you know that you make adrenal hormones such as cortisol when you are stressed? These hormones are made from cholesterol so stress causes your liver to make more cholesterol!
The body uses cholesterol to repair damage to the arteries caused by inflammation; these fatty deposits that develop in the arteries are your body’s short term solution to seal up the damage (kind of like a bandaid in your arteries). If the reasons for the inflammation are not addressed this will eventually cause the vessels to narrow and they can eventually become blocked. This can lead to heart attack or stroke.
Sources of cholesterol
There are two sources of cholesterol in the body. Some is present in foods (eg dairy products and meats), but most is made by the liver. Foods from plants do not contain cholesterol. You may be surprised to learn that eating foods that contain fat is not what causes heart disease. That’s right, eating cholesterol does not cause heart disease! For a long time saturated fat has taken the blame for a more complex issue.
The story continues in part 2
References:
Eddey Stephen. Cardiovascular Disease: The best treatment options, 2011. Health Schools Australia, Gold Coast, QLD, Australia.
Surviving the festive season!
The festive season can be challenging when it comes to weight loss. Over indulgence during the festive season can easily put on 3-8kg. The weight gain occurs because we consume larger food portions, more alcohol and do more snacking on the wrong foods. We also tend to move less and drop all of our good habits. The extra kilos are much harder to get off than they are to put on, so moderation is the key over Christmas.
At Christmas time for most people it is unrealistic to try to lose weight; it is more realistic to aim for a goal of weight maintenance, here are some useful tips to ensure that you maintain your weight this Christmas:
- Don’t just drop all of your good habits for the next four to six weeks, Christmas functions are in full swing. If you start overdoing it now and continue until well after New Year’s you will undo all of your good habits. Don’t make Christmas 2011 something you have to spend much of 2012 recovering from – is it really worth it?
- Choose the parties/functions where you will allow yourself to indulge, don’t go crazy at every function, limit the days you indulge a little more to Christmas day and one or two other selected parties, this will limit the damage that you can do to your waistline!
- Alcohol is often a source of calories where people come undone. Beer and pre-mixed drinks are the worst offenders. Instead of a glass of wine, try a wine spritzer (with soda water). Spirits with soda water (instead of cola) are a lower calorie option and rotating an alcoholic beverage with water is good for both the waist line and your liver, helping to avoid a hangover from dehydration!
- Which is the biggest meal today? Change your eating habits accordingly. If you are going out to a big three course lunch then have what you would normally have for lunch for dinner, a salad would be perfect.
- The key is to be selective and choose the healthier option most of the time, like small portions of fresh berries and nuts in place of pudding, or kebab sticks over party pies, raw vegies over fried spring rolls. At a cocktail function with trays and trays of delicious finger food, avoid all things deep fried in favour of fresh items such as sushi, rice paper rolls and sashimi.
- Don’t starve yourself all day it will cause you to overeat at the party.
- Use smaller plates to help you eat smaller portions. Enjoy all the great food but moderation is the key.
- Limit high calorie items. It is important to enjoy all foods in moderation however some foods are going to be much harder to work off (eg pork crackling, pudding, cake, etc). Be mindful of what you are eating and make a conscious decision not to over-indulge in high sugar and high calorie foods.
- Stay positive. If you over indulge, don’t give up, just get back into your usual routine the next day!
- Most importantly, don’t drop all of your good habits, keep exercising! You may miss a few days but don’t miss weeks!
With some sensible planning, go ahead and enjoy the Festive Season!
The joy of eating out with food intolerances/allergies
If you have any food allergies/intolerances you would be familiar with the challenges that can come with eating out. Scanning the menu looking for something that sounds nice but is also safe for you to eat. Often the choices are very limited and you end up spending some time talking to the waiter about options and possible alternative ways of making a dish – only to end up with a disappointing meal that is inedible due to taste or presence of allergic foods.
Last week I went to a Penrith Chamber dinner at the Glenbrook RAAF base, I had given advance warning of my allergies I was pleasantly surprised. They provided a three course meal which was completely allergy free for me which was tasty, filling and even included a dessert. Yes they even made a cake for me which was gluten free, dairy free, almond free, olive oil free and cocoa free – and it was lovely! This is so rare, usually I just watch everyone else eat dessert.
It is important to remember that restaurant staff don’t always understand food groups and allergies. The next day I was at a local cafe for a breakfast meeting. I was running late so instead of saying can I please have omelette with spinach, spanish onion and tomato. No cheese, milk or cream and no bread. I quickly listed what I wanted included in the omelette and said no bread or dairy. Five minutes later a concerned waiter came in to my meeting to chat with me about my choice in breakfast and explained that is was not possible to do a dairy free omelette because omelettes contain eggs!
After explaining to him as patiently as I could that eggs come from chooks not cows; he then went on to explain that they had to use milk, would skim be OK. Starting to lose my patience by now I explained that I was allergic to whey and that it is in all milk. Just make the eggs without milk, they won’t be as fluffy but they will be fine, do you need me to show the chef how to do it? He walked out still looking confused and unsure but ultimately the chef figured it out and my eggs arrived allergy free!
In my case, this is just mildly amusing because my allergic reactions are quite mild, unlike some of my clients who have quite severe and debilitating reactions. Of course this can be deadly for people of suffer from acute anaphylaxis.
Moral to the story is to always spell it out as plainly as possible to wait staff, don’t assume basic knowledge of food groups and allergies.
What have your experiences been good and bad? Any tips for other allergy sufferers about ordering to avoid allergies?
