Celebrating the festive season

The festive period is almost upon us and you may be wondering how on earth to survive all that food. Well, that is exactly the key, food. This December enjoy the fact that so many people make an enormous effort to feed you to an inch of bursting. This is such a wonderful time where multiple course meals are lavishly prepared and dished for your enjoyment. Suddenly everyone makes time to sit down and eat away from the hustle and bustle of normal everyday life.

To ensure that you are optimally nurtured as 2010 draws to a close, follow these simple rules:

Eat only food (variety is key)
Ratio your plate as follows:
½ plate vegetables
¼ plate protein
¼ plate carbohydrate rich food
If you simply cannot say no to dessert, choose one option and enjoy after a well proportioned meal. Alternatively, you can ask the host/hostess to please dish up only a slither of all the choices available
Drink a pint of water between alcoholic beverages if you simply cannot resist the offerings
Drink ½ pint of water after every cup of coffee if this is your hot beverage of choice. Alternatively choose green or red teas or any of the other delectable herbal teas available
Start every morning with a cup of hot water with ½ lemon/lime squeezed into it to aid hydration and combat constipation
Dress your vegetables with olive/walnut/avocado oil rather than using commercial dressings
The most important rule is to relax and enjoy. Being stressed out at mealtimes impairs digestion and can contribute to digestive upsets such as bloating and discomfort.

Self-diagnosis

Posted by admin on Feb 23, 2011 in Uncategorized | 12 comments

Self-diagnosing an illness is a dicey game. There are many checklists available which may link some of your presenting symptoms with known diseases. However, just because you tick most of the boxes or can identify 100% with certain case studies does not mean that you should now adopt that specific label. Once you have decided on your diagnosis it is easy to trawl the mass media for cures. Information can be very conflicting and the products suggested varying in efficacy. Few treatments exclude dietary changes and this too can be a...

Why is protein so important in the diet?

Posted by admin on Jan 12, 2011 in Uncategorized | 7 comments

Your body not only needs protein, it also needs a sufficient quantity of each of the amino acids (the building blocks of protein). There are 20 amino acids in total of which eight are essential and not manufactured in the body. These eight amino acids need to be included in the diet. Amino acids are required to manufacture the structural components of muscle tissue, enzymes, haemoglobin, antibodies, hormones and transport proteins. Protein is therefore needed for: strength building and maintaining of muscle tissue maintaining immune...