I have some tasty new foods to try...

Hello everyone, it's been a while!

I'll be posting on here more often though this is just a very short post. My diet has wavered recently and it's been difficult for me health wise. I discovered a website called muscle foods which I've heard good reviews about.

I decided that I'd try some new foods to make my diet seem less bland. I will post an update soon and let you know how it's all going. I'm looking forward to trying it all!

See you all very soon!

Barry

I passed!

Looks like my hard work over the past few days have been worthwhile...

I'm currently thinking of ideas for a website I'm going to be setting up but in the mean time, I need some time to recover!

Thanks for reading my posts x

Nutrition - Food Labelling basics and Marketing terminology

When it comes to food labels, the ingredients that appear on the back of one are always listed in descending weight order. There are also certain things that ALL food labels must provide due to law, these are the product name, the weight or total volume, a best before date, instructions for storage, an ingredients list as well as stating potential allergens, details of the manufacturer and a place of origin.

In the BBC News in 2005, it was reported that out of 70 products that were tested for 570 nutrients, only 7% of those actually matched the food label values whilst nearly a fifth of them had food labels values more than 20% over (the margin of error).

The control and the sale of food in the UK is down to the FSA (Food Standards Agency). Food currently made including the labelling and manufacture is governed by the 1990 Food Safety Act. The FSA is also responsible for the food model, "The Eatwell Plate".

The FSA have also provided a list of terms regarding food regulations.

These include the terms fresh, pure, natural, authentic, home made, traditional, farmhouse and original.

Fresh is to differentiate the food sold a short time after harvest.
Pure is single ingredient foods, or to show the amount of ingredients of a food.
Natural is comprised of natural ingredients and not the work of a man.
Authentic remains unchanged and originates from the area implied by its name.
Home made is made from home or of domestic manufacture.
Traditional is a method of preparation that's existed for a long time period.
Farmhouse refers to produce on a farm, other than bread.
Original is a method of preparation that's stayed unchanged over time.

Next up is 'Healthy marketing terminology'...

Nutrition - Digestion

Digestion has 2 very important uses: Digestion and the absorption of nutrients. The body has to break down large food molecules into smaller amounts which make them more manageable. The job of the digestive system is done though chemical and mechanical digestion.

Enzymes help to speed up the digestive process by breaking down unabsorbable, large macronutrient molecules. Many parts of the digestive system produce these enzymes.

The GI tract (gastrointestinal tract) is where the digestion and absorption of all the nutrients take place.
The GI tract runs through from the mouth to the anus and comes in the form of a hollow tube. The mouth, pharynx, oesophagus, stomach, small and large intestines, anus are what makes up the GI tract. All of these parts have a direct use.

Mouth, salivary amylase, carbs
Stomach, pepsin, proteins
Small intestine, lipase, fats
Small intestine, pancreatic amylase
Small intestine, trypsin, proteins

Carbs result in the end product of glucose, proteins result in the end product of amino acids and fats result in the end product of free fatty acids and glycerol.

Starting with the mouth - mastication is the mechanical chewing, saliva helps to dampen food and protects the teeth against rotting and also contains an enzyme, salivary amylase which begins to break down the larger carb molecoles.

The oesophagus contains peristalsis which helps the food to travel down and into the stomach.

The stomach has gastric juices that hold enzymes and acid, the hydrochloric acid also kills bacteria and pepsin helps to break down the proteins into peptides.

The pancreas has pancreatic juices that contain enzymes, lipase that helps to break fat and into fatty acids, amylase that turns carbs into glucose and trypsin that turns the proteins into amino acids.

Next is the liver although food doesn't enter the liver. It does however produce bile acids which emulsifies fats or mixes them with water.

The gall bladder is a storage place for the bile acids.

The small intestine is the key site of digestion and absorption, the pancreas and the gall bladder empty into the 1st section and duodenum villi helps to absorb the nutrients into blood.

The large intestine has colon that helps to absorb any of the water that's still there that also applies to vitamins and minerals, the bacteria then produces some vitamins and helps to fight any infection that occurs in the intestine, the rectum also stores faeces.

Lastly, the anus is the opening for the elimination of waste!

Next up: Food labelling!

Nutrition - Hydrogenation, Trans Fats and Cholesterol

Hydrogenation and trans fats is where amounts of vegetable oils (unsaturated) are made into more solid fats e.g. margarine and shortening. The formation of saturated fatty acids occurs when the heating, catalysing and the pumping of hydrogen happens. Single bonds replace the double bonds which are again full of hydrogen. A very waxy hard substance is made when vegetable oil is fully hydrogenated. Although there are some amounts of vegetable oil that still contain unsaturated double bonds, they will have been converted into trans fatty acids.

The following foods contain trans fats - pies and pastries, cakes, crackers, biscuits, margarine (many), pre-prepared food, low fat processed foods (many) and take away foods.

Cancer, diabetes, obesity, birth defects and low birth weight babies, sterility, lactation difficulties, atherosclerosis, difficulties with tendons and bones and also decreased visual acuity are diseases that have been linked in with the consumption of hydrogenated fats. It can also affect blood lipid levels as well as decreasing healthier HDL cholesterol and increasing LDL cholesterol. The effect is double that of saturated fat. Lastly, it has been shown that 30,000 premature CHD deaths per year could be linked in to the consumption of trans fatty acids.

Cholesterol has no calories, it can't be used as energy in the body and it is a large lipid molecule though it is used in the tissues. This is for essential functions and structure.

Cholesterol produces steroid hormones, is the synthesis of vitamin D and bile acids whilst being an essential part of cell membranes.

75-80% of the body's own supply of cholesterol is synthesised by the liver though dietary cholesterol plays only a small part of meeting a persons daily needs. The amount the body synthesises increases when dietary cholesterol intake is low. Cholesterol production falls as the dietary intake increases.

Nutrition - Reliable sources for nutritional information

The Nutritional Therapy Council regulate the industry whilst the BANT (British Association of Applied Nutrition and Nutrition Therapy) evaluate therapists (nutritional) in the UK.

If you are looking to obtain nutritional information, reliable sources are found within these places:

COMA - Committee on Medical Aspects of Food and Nutrition
BNF - British Nutrition Foundation
ION - Institute of Optimal Nutrition
FSA - Food Standards Agency
Scientific nutrition journals

What this course enables me to do is advise people about nutrition but by no means am I a Registered Dietician or a Nutritional Therapist, I am a Personal Trainer after all! I can't advise on illnesses though I can advise generally on food and diet. Illnesses would include severe obesity, cancer, CV (cardiovascular) disease, diabetes mellitus and elevated cholesterol.

Back to the advising part... certain things have to be taken into account when helping someone with their nutrition. This involves religious practices and food habits.

Nutrition - Food quality & Organic foods

Continuing from the last post...

There is a "Cycle of Food Quality" which helps to understand food production.

This starts with nutrients from soil that help to grow plants, the plants are then eaten by animals, animal produce is then eaten by man, man eats plant produce, man then decides how to enrich soil and the cycle starts again.

Now we move onto "Organic foods".

Relating to studies, organic produce was shown to have the same or higher nutrient content than commercial food in 85% of cases. Around 70% of organic producers in the UK are checked that they are meeting the correct requirements put down by the European law. The Soil Association also states that the main reasons people should purchase organic food are minimal use of additives, animal welfare paramount, no genetically modified foods are used, no pesticides, herbicides or fungicides are used when producing and there is no routine antibiotic use on the animals.

The following list are all medical conditions/health problems that have a main cause through food and diet.

These are as follows: metabolic syndrome, cancers (some), high cholesterol, asthma, stroke, heart disease, arthritis (some types), infertility, menstrual irregularities, eczema, diabetes, obesity and hypertension.

The next post will relating more to "nutrition" as a whole...

Nutrition - Food Portions

So, continuing from yesterday's post...

When talking about the different macronutrients (protein, carbs, fat), they have an approximate amount of calories and useable energy. These figures are as follows:

There are 4 calories per gram in carbohydrates, 4 calories per gram in proteins, 9 calories per gram in fats. Although alcohol is not a nutrient, there are 7 calories per gram in it... approx!

There are portion guides that people prefer to follow to save time counting each calorie they take in. Some guidelines will give out typical portions of foods to help.

According to the guidelines, these are what are classed as typical portions:

Fruit - small, medium, large, dried and juice. Small = 2 satsumas, 2 plums, 2 kiwi, 7 strawberries, 14 cherries. Medium = 1 apple, 1 banana, 1 pear, 1 orange. Large fruit = half grapefruit, one 5cm slice of melon, 1 large slice of pineapple. Dried = about 30g, one large heaped tablespoon of raisins or sultanas, handful of banana chips. Fruit juice = 150ml glass of unsweetened juice.

Veg - green veg, salad veg, cooked veg. Green = 2 broccoli spears, 4 heaped table spoons of kale, spinach, or green beans. Salad = 3 sticks of celery, 5cm piece of cucumber, 1 medium tomato, 7 cherry tomatoes. Cooked = 3 heaped tablespoons of carrots, peas, corn or cauliflower.

Bread, rice, pasta and potatoes = 1 slice of bread, handful of rice or pasta, handful of breakfast cereal, 1 small to medium potato.

Meat, fish, eggs and beans = lean meat the size of a deck of cards, 1 large egg, side of fish the size of a standard chequebook, handful of beans, nuts or seeds.

Milk and dairy = small cup of milk, 150ml of yogurt, piece of cheese size of small matchbox.

Food and drinks high in fat and sugar = limit these foods to no more than 8% of total intake.

The next post will be about food quality etc...