Top health tips for 2019 by Gillian Killiner
At 121 Dietitian, we firmly believe that small steps can always be taken to greatly improve our health. Looking at the key areas of mental health, kids’ health and weight loss, here we share our top health tips for 2019…. Mental health tips If you want instant improvements a few simple suggestions include: Stay well hydrated: fluids, notably water and not caffeinated drinks allow the brain and body to function. If dehydrated you will become sluggish and metabolism slows down adding to a depressed state. Avoid processed meals and snacks: Artificial, chemical laden foods will cause your body to build insulin resistance over time. High fructose syrups and sugars affect metabolism and cause low level inflammation, affecting Vitamin A and D levels, magnesium, copper and iron to name a few. This downward spiral negatively affects mental health and causes additional chronic illness. Get adequate sleep: This is essential for brain health. Poor sleep is linked to physical problems such as a weakened immune system and mental health problems such as anxiety and depression. Sleep allows the brain to shrink and eliminate toxins that can build up and lead to Alzheimer’s. It also allows to repair and consolidation of memories. Kids’ health Nutrition and lifestyles are ever changing as kids grow. Peer pressure, advertising and increasing independence all contribute to choices made. To optimise growth, development and good mental stability, we recommend the following: Encourage your kids to eat all together and most importantly with an adult – the more the merrier! A meal with family and friends allows a relaxed, enjoyable experience. It encourages children to eat more variety and not scoff! Each week or month try a new healthy food, especially with vegetables and fruits. Make it fun, research the food chosen and rate different recipes. When eating, turn the gadgets, phones and TV off. This will reduce the risk of mindless eating and thus obesity. If your kids are eating many unhealthy snacks, try to reduce these over time. Use tasty protein/fat alternatives like nut butters, avocados, cheeses, eggs, seeds, greek yoghurt topped with a little natural sugars such as dark chocolate or berries, plenty of vegetables including peppers, celery, carrots, cucumber and make flaxseed wraps or oat buns. Weight loss health tips Do not get caught up in kcal counting! The quality of your food is vital for providing satiety and happiness, better than any sugarless, fatless, processed biscuit. Make sure you are not battling with a hormonal or nutritional imbalance. These can thwart your best efforts and really damage your confidence. Always chew your food well and take time to enjoy what you eat. Getting the enzymes in your mouth involved will assist metabolism and send the correct signals from the gut to the brain to indicate fullness. Avoid low fat/sugar processed foods where possible. Eat a rainbow at each meal for nutrient density. Alcohol provides liquid energy so be careful of how much you consume. It can negatively affect your weight loss goals. If you are unsure of how to change your eating habits, or need help optimising the foods you eat please do contact us. We would love to help you or your family and friends with any nutrition related queries big or small. In the meantime do please check out our 121Dietitian Shop If you have enjoyed this blog we would love you to share this with your family and friends on your social media channels. Why not visit our YouTube Channel for more on keeping your health optimal. How can a Dietitian help Book a consultation via our Online Portal About Gillian Killiner Check out our tailored dietary programmes Gillian x [instagram-feed] Information checked & correct on 12th December 2018.
FODMAP – all you need to know to get results..
Here, Gillian Killiner, Principal Dietitian at 121, discusses the Low Fodmap Programme and in particular, why seeking the help of a qualified and experienced Dietitian is key to implementing it successfully. The Low Fodmap Programme has been around for over 10 years. I heard about it in its infancy and thought: “Wow! This is excellent for gut dysfunction and IBS”. And so in 2010/2011, I packed my bags and returned from Belfast to London on three separate weeks to go back to my training hospital, Guys and St Thomas’s to learn all about it – the first course of its kind outside of Monash University, Australia. The work load was intense but exciting. After qualifying with my certificate in Low FODMAP practice, I took my first guinea pigs patients and we followed the information I had learned from the course. I can’t lie. It was hard work. Now over the 7 years I have been practicing the Low FODMAP programme daily, much has changed in the way I deliver, advise and support because everyone is different. My high success rate of 97% is due to my expertise of using the programme daily. The gut is not just about absorption. It’s microbiota has a complex network of links to emotions, stress, activity, genetics, medical history, medication, lifestyle, food and fluids… We as individuals are not all uniform. We do not all follow the same diet and lifestyle. This is the basis of my increasing frustration and the fiasco I find myself in. People are coming to me more and more in desperation, telling me they have tried the Low FODMAP programme and it hasn’t worked. AhhHHHHH!! Another emotional boundary to cross. I have found that with the programme’s popularity and success has come the internet dippers. They take a bit from one website that they like and mix it with another and believe they have completed the programme. Wrong… The other – and most frustrating way that these people are not succeeding. They are being handed a “sheet” from their Consultant or GP and left to get on with it. Excuse me… WHAT??? A little more respect to the programme please! A sheet or a smorgasbord will not get results but in fact dangerously add to people’s fears around food and restriction is dangerous in the wrong hands. Low FODMAP Dietitian -why use one? A patient came to me recently and had been told by a local health food shop to avoid a major list of foods. She did so and over two years of carefully following the advice she to me gravely ill, malnourished, depressed and still her stomach issues continued. Appalling. If you have a gut health problem that has not resolved with medication, dietary changes, or visiting a health shop to pay and hold two balls in the air and told to eat very little, don’t despair – do get in touch. Gillian Killiner is an expert in all areas of Gut Health. Unsure of how to change your eating habits, or need help optimising the foods you eat please do contact us. We would love to help you or your family and friends with any nutrition related queries big or small. In the meantime do please check out our 121Dietitian Shop which has been expertly created especially for you. If you have enjoyed this blog we would love you to share this with your family and friends on your social media channels. Why not visit our YouTube Channel for more on keeping your health optimal. How can a Dietitian help Book a consultation via our Online Portal About Gillian Killiner Check out our tailored dietary programmes Gillian x [instagram-feed]
Essential Nutrition for Recovery after Surgery (Part 2)
Essential Nutrition for Recovery after Surgery (Part 2) In this follow up to our essential Nutrition & Surgery focus part one, Director and Principal Dietitian Gillian Killiner, continues in this blog to discuss the key role that vitamins and minerals play in helping your body recover after surgery. Vitamin A – essential for recovery after surgery Vitamin A is commonly known as the anti-infective vitamin for surgery. It is central to normal functioning of your immune system. Vitamin A is also needed to maintain the integrity and function of your skin and mucosal cells. When you enter a hospital or clinic for surgery, many things will stress you. You will also be exposed to bacteria and viruses that your system is not used to. Infection will quickly use up your vitamin A stores. In this way, infection starts a vicious cycle, because not enough vitamin A is related to increased severity and likelihood of death from infectious disease. It is important to go into surgery with a good supply of vitamin A in your tissues. You will need to continue consuming enough vitamin A to keep those levels optimal. Vitamin A rich foods include: beef liver, carrots, sweet potato, kale, romaine lettuce, apricots, broccoli, butter, eggs, cantaloupe melon and red pepper. Vitamin E essential nutrition for recovery after surgery The main function of vitamin E in humans is as an antioxidant which are known to neutralizes toxic radicals in the cells. Vitamin E has been shown to improve immune system functions that decline as people age. It helps increase blood flow. It does this by preventing blood clots and relaxing blood vessel walls. These properties all shorten post surgery recovery time. Vitamin E rich foods include: sunflower seeds, almonds, hazelnuts, mango, avocado, butternut squash, broccoli, spinach, kiwi and tomatoes. Vitamin D – essential for recovery after surgery Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin needed for normal calcium metabolism. You make vitamin D in your skin when you are in the sun without clothing or sunscreen. Vitamin D regulates your immune system function during times of stress. Adequate vitamin D levels are important for decreasing the risk of high blood pressure. If you do not have enough vitamin D you can prolong your recovery time. With deficiency you will not absorb enough calcium. Then your body will steal calcium from your bones. This will increase complications and longer term your risk of osteoporosis and other health problems. Vitamin D deficiency causes muscle weakness and pain. Obesity increases the risk of vitamin D deficiency. Once vitamin D is made in the skin or ingested, it is deposited in body fat stores. Storage makes it less available especially to people with large amounts of body fat. Vitamin D rich foods include: halibut, mackerel, salmon, rainbow trout, cod liver oil, sardines, tuna and eggs. Iron – essential nutrient for recovery after surgery Iron is required for a number of vital functions, including growth, reproduction, healing, and immune function. You need the right amount of iron for hundreds of proteins and enzymes. Post-operative anaemia is associated with poorer surgical outcomes including infections, increased length of hospital stay, circulatory overload, and death. Iron rich foods include: spirulina, liver, beef, lentils, dark chocolate, spinach, sardines, black beans, pistachios and raisins. Copper – essential for recovery after surgery You must have enough copper in your system for normal iron metabolism and red blood cell formation. Anaemia is a sign of copper deficiency. Copper is required for you to be able to move iron to your bone marrow for red blood cell formation. Vitamin A deficiency will make iron deficiency anaemia worse. Taking a combination of vitamin A and iron will protect you from anaemia better than either iron or vitamin A alone. Copper rich foods include: beef liver, shitake mushrooms, cashews, chickpeas, kale, cocoa powder, sesame seeds, quinoa, almonds, lentils and chia seeds. Calcium essential nutrition for surgical recovery Calcium is the most common mineral in the human body. About 99 percent of the calcium in your body is found in your bones and teeth. The other one percent is found in your blood and soft tissue. The functions of calcium are so vital to survival that the body will steal calcium from your bones. It does this to keep blood calcium levels normal when your calcium intake is too low. Calcium plays many important roles. It is vital in controlling the constriction (closing) and relaxation (opening) of your blood vessels. It also aids proper nerve impulses, muscle contraction, and release of your hormones. Calcium is a key factor for good recovery from any surgery involving your bones. Only about 30 percent of the calcium in your food is actually absorbed in your digestive tract. You lose a certain amount of calcium in your urine every day. This depends on how much caffeine you drink. Too much or not enough protein in your diet will affect your calcium absorption and the strength of your bones. Calcium rich foods include: kale, sardines, yoghurt, broccoli, watercress, cheese, bok choy and almonds. Magnesium – essential nutrition for recovery after surgery Magnesium plays important roles in the structure and the function of the human body. Over 60 percent of all the magnesium in your body is found in your bones. About 27 percent is found in muscle, while six to seven percent is found in other cells. Magnesium is required by many other nutrients, like vitamin D and calcium, to function properly. Proper wound healing after surgery requires the right amounts of calcium and magnesium in the fluid around the cells involved in the injury. If you are having surgery that involves your bones, magnesium is very important for the best outcome. Magnesium rich foods include: spinach, dark chocolate, pumpkin seeds, almonds, black beans, avocado, yoghurt and banana. Zinc essential nutrition for surgical recovery Zinc is an essential trace element for all forms of life. Zinc deficiency has recently been recognized by a number of experts as an important public health issue.
Essential Nutrition for Recovery after Surgery (Part 1)
In the first of a two-part series, Director and Principal Dietitian Gillian Killiner, discusses the relationship between good nutrition and surgery and how this can help your recovery process. Are you waiting for an operation? More and more people are spending months on waiting lists for minor and major surgery. Waiting when you are in pain or unable to function can have a devastating effect on your day to day abilities. If severe, your ailment can affect your job and income. These and many other issues related to surgery can negatively impact on your mood, your ability to eat, sleep, movement, your mental health and general well-being. Surgery is a deliberate, skillful injury to your body which following, may take you several weeks or months to heal. Infections and blood loss are two possible complications that you will want to avoid. While you are waiting for your procedure you can do your part to make sure you heal well without problems. You can do this by choosing the most nutritious diet well in advance of your hospital admission. Surgery is a big event. It makes sense to give yourself extra nutrition, so you can replace any blood loss and protect your immune system against infection. These same nutritional elements will repair your skin, nerves, blood vessels, muscle and bone and get you back on your feet again. What do vitamins and minerals do for you? The following are a snapshot of the major ones to assist your recovery: Vitamin B12 Vitamin B12 is the largest and most complex of all the vitamins. You need vitamin B12 so your body can create energy from your dietary fats and proteins. B12 is needed for you to make haemoglobin. It even helps your memory, mood and brain function. Vitamin B12 deficiency affects about 15 percent of people over the age of 60. There are several reasons people are low in B12: age, alcohol, bacteria infection and certain drugs. B12 rich foods include: beef, shellfish, cottage cheese, chicken, egg and nutritional yeast. Folate Folate plays a vital role in the work and growth of all your body cells. Not having enough folate causes problems in the cells. Some of your immune system white blood cells will be affected. If you do not take in enough folate you will experience fatigue, weakness, and shortness of breath. Never take a folate supplement without making sure you have enough Vitamin B12. Folate rich foods include: spinach, kale, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, broccoli, beans and legumes (e.g. peas, blackeye beans), yeast and beef extracts, oranges and orange juice, whole grain foods, poultry, pork, shellfish and liver. Vitamin B6 Vitamin B6 is needed for the proper function of about 100 essential chemical reactions in the human body. People who are low in vitamin B6 have impaired immune function. This is especially true for the elderly. Sleep, pain, mood, memory, and clear thinking are also affected by a shortage of Vitamin B6. The stress of hospitalisation for surgery causes many people to lose sleep. Increased pain and mood changes are also common. You may find your appetite is changed when you are in the hospital. Vitamin B6 is important at this time. B6 rich foods include: turkey, beef, pistachios, tuna, avocado, chicken, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds. Vitamin B1 (thiamine or thiamin) Vitamin B1 plays a critical role in making energy from food. It is needed for your heart, digestive system, and nervous system. Your muscles especially need vitamin B1 to work properly. Alcoholism is linked with a low intake of thiamine and other nutrients. If you drink large amounts of tea and coffee (even decaf), you may end up with not enough thiamine. This is because of the action of certain enzymes in these drinks. Vitamin B1 foods include: nutritional yeast, seaweed, sunflower seeds, blackbeans, lentils, white beans, asparagus, sprouts. Vitamin B2 (riboflavin) Riboflavin or Vitamin B2 is essential for changing the carbohydrates, fats, and proteins in your food into energy in your cells. It also helps manage drugs and toxins in your liver. If you do not have enough riboflavin you may not be able to absorb the iron, you need to make haemoglobin in your red blood cells. Riboflavin improves your ability to prevent or recover from iron-deficiency anaemia. Food rich in B2 include: liver, seaweed, feta, almonds, tempeh, mackerel, eggs, tahini. Vitamin B5 Pantothenic acid is essential to all forms of life. It is another of the vitamins you need in order to create energy from your food. Vitamin B5 will speed up wound healing. It can also increase the strength of scar tissue. Vitamin B5 rich foods include: beef liver, avocado, sunflower seeds, duck, portobella mushrooms, eggs, salmon, lentils, plain yoghurt, broccoli. Vitamin B3 (niacin) Vitamin B3 is also called nicotinamide or nicotinic acid. It is required for the proper function of more than 50 enzymes. Without it, your body would not be able to release energy or make fats from carbohydrates. It’s important for insulin-dependent diabetes. Vitamin B3 rich foods include: beef liver, chicken, tuna, lamb, salmon, sardines, turkey, white mushrooms. Biotin Biotin is one of the B-complex vitamins. It is needed for four important enzyme reactions in your body allowing cell growth and immune system protection against bacterial and fungal infections. If you do not have enough biotin it can lead to depression, a sense of tiredness, and weakness. You may also notice a rash on your face and numbness and tingling of your hands or feet. If you have brittle fingernails or notice increased hair loss, you may be low in biotin. Biotin rich foods include: liver, eggs, yeast, salmon, cheese, avocado, raspberries, cauliflower. Vitamin C Vitamin C is a water-soluble vitamin. Unlike most mammals, humans do not have the ability to make their own vitamin C. You have to get the vitamin C you need through what you eat and in supplements. (These are not all the same and can do more harm than good.) Vitamin C is a powerful antioxidant required to
Could fitness technology be causing you to gain weight?
Are you one of the many thousands of people who has invested in a piece of fitness technology or fitness tracker app in recent years? If so, you might want to read on… I have been a Dietitian for over 20 years and have observed the many nutritional changes and fads (fitness technology) that come and go. However, over the past two years, I have noticed an increasing but new reason as to why my clients are requesting advice for weight loss and healthy eating. They are coming to me totally confused and despondent. After originally embarking on a positive health change themselves, making a conscious effort to track their food and exercise, they have found instead of weight loss and health; additional weight gain and sluggishness from the commencement of using the gadget or app they purchased one to two years previous. Doing a little investigation, I am not alone in these findings and a research paper from JAMA September 20, 2016, entitled: ‘Effect of Wearable Technology Combined With a Lifestyle Intervention on Long-term Weight Loss: The IDEA Randomized Clinical Trial‘, found that the group selected to wear technology did not lose as much weight as the group who followed regular advice and exercise. Interesting indeed. As always, there are various factors involved behind research findings and as expected, limitations. However, what I took from this study in particular was the time factor: it was monitored for a full 24 months. Other studies have shown different results with 9 months or 6 months but when looking at a full two years, the study highlights that using technology doesn’t provide all the answers and the results are disappointing. So what now with fitness technology? Well, it is not time to throw out the technology just yet! What is however important to focus on – and what I feel is the most important element – is support. I know with my own personal health and well-being, if I did not belong to a running group I would not run the length of myself!! I do believe that support is still the foundation to success and people benefit from either individual or group support when needing advice and change. I’m sure like me you have all tried to do something new or different; from watching cooking shows, to learning an instrument. If teaching yourself, it is a really big challenge and commitment. Our self-doubt and often our over ambitious desires can derail our smallest but valid attempts and efforts. Putting this into something useful for you going forward…. Support is important, and one size does not fit all. Technology can only contribute to a portion of the puzzle when it comes to health. The watch may say ‘500 kcals burned’ but has your body the capability to metabolise at the rate the watch is set at? If you are not getting results you need to seek a personalised assessment and plan. For me the bottom line is this… whatever group or individual you choose, you need to know they have evidence to back up what they are providing. The support needs to be realistic, enjoyable and you need to be comfortable to see this advice through for the rest of your life. Knowing you are not alone and that you have expert support as required is golden. If you are unsure of how to change your eating habits, or need help optimising the foods you eat please do contact us. We would love to help you or your family and friends with any nutrition related queries big or small. In the meantime do please check out our 121Dietitian Shop If you have enjoyed this blog we would love you to share this with your family and friends on your social media channels. Why not visit our YouTube Channel for more on keeping your health optimal. How can a Dietitian help Book a consultation via our Online Portal About Gillian Killiner Check out our tailored dietary programmes Gillian x [instagram-feed] Information checked & correct on 16th May 2018 and Jan 2021.
Is coffee good or bad for you? All you need to know
Coffee has been researched over and over and over, and why not! A universally consumed drink, it is complex, with over a thousand different substances present. So is it actually good for you, or should we avoid it completely? Here, we separate the facts from the fiction so that you can make an informed decision on its consumption. For years, researchers have warned us to avoid coffee because it might increase the risk of heart disease and affect growth. They worried that people could become addicted to the energy that high amounts of caffeine provided, leading them to crave more and more coffee as they became tolerant to higher amounts of caffeine. Experts also worried that coffee had damaging effects on the digestive tract, which could lead to stomach ulcers, heartburn and other ills. All of this concern stems from studies carried out decades ago that compared coffee drinkers to non-drinkers on a number of health measures, including heart problems and mortality. Coffee drinkers, it seemed, were always worse off. But it turns out that coffee drinkers were not compared fairly. Those studies didn’t always check for other factors that could account for poor health, such as smoking, drinking and a lack of physical activity. If people who drank a lot of coffee also happened to have some other unhealthy habits, then it’s not clear that coffee is responsible for their heart problems or higher mortality. That understanding has led to a rehabilitated reputation for the drink. Recent research reveals that once the proper adjustments are made for confounding factors, coffee drinkers don’t seem to have a higher risk for heart problems or cancer than people who don’t drink coffee. Recent studies also found no significant link between the caffeine in coffee and heart-related issues such as high cholesterol, irregular heartbeats, stroke or heart attack. Is coffee actually good for you? Studies show that people who drink coffee regularly may have an 11% lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes than non-drinkers, thanks to ingredients in coffee that can affect levels of hormones involved in metabolism. In a large study involving tens of thousands of people, researchers found that people who drank several cups a day—anywhere from two to four cups—actually had a lower risk of stroke. Heart experts say the benefits may come from coffee’s effect on the blood vessels; by keeping vessels flexible and healthy, it may reduce the risk of atherosclerosis, which can cause heart attacks. Some studies now suggest that decaf and caffeinated coffee may have the same health effects and suggest that it’s not just the caffeine that is responsible for coffee’s health benefits. Coffee is high in antioxidants, which are known to fight the oxidative damage that can cause cancer. That may explain why some studies have found a lower risk of liver cancer among coffee drinkers. Coffee has also been suggested to help you live longer. A recent study involving more than 208,000 men and women found that people who drank coffee regularly were less likely to die prematurely than those who didn’t drink coffee. Researchers believe that some of the chemicals in coffee may help reduce inflammation, which has been found to play a role in a number of ageing-related health problems, including dementia and Alzheimer’s. Some evidence also suggests that coffee may slow down some of the metabolic processes that drive ageing. One negative is that people may become dependent on caffeine and if stopped will cause withdrawal symptoms. The symptoms—headaches, irritability and fatigue—can mimic those of people coming off addictive drugs. Yet fortunately the dependence is nothing close to or as worrisome as addictions to habit-forming drugs like opiates. While unpleasant, caffeine “withdrawal” symptoms are tolerable and tend to go away after a day or so. How much coffee is safe? Like so many foods and nutrients, too much coffee can cause problems, especially in the digestive tract. But studies have shown that drinking up to four cups of coffee per day is safe. Moderation is key. For now, sipping coffee in reasonable amounts just might be one of the healthiest things you can do. If you have side effects however do reduce your intake to a level that is comfortable for you. If you have any concerns about how to get healthier please get in touch. We are experts in nutrition and able to assist you with all health issues. If you are unsure of how to change your eating habits, or need help optimising the foods you eat please do contact us. We would love to help you or your family and friends with any nutrition related queries big or small. In the meantime do please check out our 121Dietitian Shop If you have enjoyed this blog we would love you to share this with your family and friends on your social media channels. Why not visit our YouTube Channel for more on keeping your health optimal. How can a Dietitian help Book a consultation via our Online Portal About Gillian Killiner Check out our tailored dietary programmes Gillian x [instagram-feed] Information checked & correct on 16th May 2018.
