Nutrition

Sugar Awareness Week 2021 What you need to know about sugar….

January 15, 2021 by 121dietitian

It is Sugar awareness week 18th – 24th January 2021 so I thought I would take a look at this in more detail for you as it is one of the biggest concerns my patients have when I see them at my clinics.

What is sugar?
The term ‘sugar’ usually refers to what we know as table or granulated sugar – the type of sugar that we add to our tea or coffee. We also are familiar to the different variations which include caster sugar, icing sugar, brown sugar, demerara sugar, these are types mostly used in baking.
These, you may already know, are not the only sugars around. Sugar occurs naturally in all foods that contain carbohydrates, such as fruits and vegetables, grains, and dairy.
All ‘sugars’ are carbohydrates and along with starch they one of our body’s main source of energy. Carbohydrates are required for our brains, bodies and nervous system. In fact it has been part of our diets for thousands of years. Sugar is found naturally in most foods like fruits, vegetables and milk as well as being an ingredient used in a wide range of foods and drinks.

Great, so what is all the fuss about?
Consuming whole foods that contain natural sugar is acceptable as part of a healthy intake when you have a healthy metabolism. Plant foods have high amounts of fibre, essential minerals, and antioxidants alongside smaller amounts of carbs, and dairy foods contain protein, fats and calcium which are important for the body.
Because of these extra components your body digests these foods slowly allowing the sugar in them to provide a steady supply of energy to your cells. A sufficient intake of fruits, vegetables, and fibre rich foods have been shown to reduce the risk of many chronic diseases, such as diabetes, heart disease, and some cancers.

So what’s the problem?
Increasing technology has brought many changes to our food production. More and more convenience foods are available that taste good, are very addictive and can be eaten 24/7.
Problems occur when regularly eating these processed foods leads you to consume too much “added sugar”. The food manufacturers add this to enhance the flavour or extend shelf life and this can often be hidden in foods you would never imagine.
In the modern diet, the top sources of sugar are soft drinks, fruit drinks, flavoured yogurts, cereals, biscuits, cakes, sweets and most processed foods. But added sugar is also present in items that you may not think of as sweetened, like soups, bread, processed meats, and condiments like ketchup.

How much sugar are we allowed?
Our recommended dietary intake of sugar per day:

Adults should have no more than 30g of free sugars a day, (roughly equivalent to 7 tsps/sugar cubes).

Children aged 7 to 10 should have no more than 24g of free sugars a day (6 tsps/sugar cubes).

Children aged 4 to 6 should have no more than 19g of free sugars a day (5 tsps/sugar cubes).

What we consume
Adults in the UK take in 3 times the recommended amount at an average of 22 teaspoons/cubes of added sugar per day, according to the NHS website.
Four to 10-year-olds are eating more than twice as much sugar as they should per day, equivalent to 13 tsps/sugar cubes (PHE 2018).

“Excess sugar’s impact on obesity, Blood pressure, inflammation, weight gain, fatty liver and diabetes and this is well documented, but one area that may surprise many is how their taste for sugar can have a serious impact on their heart health and increase risk of stroke,” says Dr. Frank Hu, professor of nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Impact on your heart
In a study published in 2014 in JAMA Internal Medicine, Dr. Hu and his colleagues found an association between a high-sugar diet and a greater risk of dying from heart disease. Over the course of the 15-year study, people who are 17% to 21% of their calories from added sugar had a 38% higher risk of dying from cardiovascular disease compared with those who consumed 8% of their calories as added sugar.

“Basically, the higher the intake of added sugar, the higher the risk for heart disease,” says Dr. Hu.

Sugar has several indirect connections to affecting heart health:
1) high amounts of sugar overload the liver. “Your liver metabolizes sugar the same way as alcohol, and converts dietary carbohydrates to fat,” says Dr. Hu. Over time, this can lead to a greater accumulation of fat, which may turn into fatty liver disease, a contributor to diabetes, which raises your risk for heart disease.
2) Consuming too much added sugar can raise blood pressure and increase chronic inflammation, both of which are pathological pathways to heart disease.
3) Excess consumption of sugar, especially sugary drinks, also contributes to weight gain by tricking your body into turning off its appetite-control system because liquid calories are not as satisfying as calories from solid foods. This is why it is easier for people to add more calories to their regular diet when consuming sugary drinks.

What can you do??
Reading food labels is one of the best ways to monitor your intake of added sugar. Look for the following names for added sugar and try to either avoid, or cut back on the amount or frequency of the foods where they are found:

• brown sugar
• corn sweetener
• corn syrup
• fruit juice concentrates
• high-fructose corn syrup
• honey
• invert sugar
• malt sugar
• molasses

Also syrup sugar molecules ending in “ose” (dextrose, fructose, glucose, lactose, maltose, sucrose).

Check the total sugar of the product, which includes added sugar, this is usually listed in grams.
If it says 5 grams of sugar per serving, but the normal amount you would eat is three or four servings, you will easily consume 20 grams of sugar which is way too much.
Also, watch the amount of sugar or syrups you add to your food or drinks. About half of added sugar comes from adding it to coffee and tea. A study in the May 2017 Public Health found that about two-thirds of coffee drinkers and one-third of tea drinkers put sugar or sugary flavourings in their drinks. The researchers also noted that more than 60% of the calories in their beverages came from added sugar.

Planning to make sugar cuts?????
Be careful when cutting back on added sugar as you may find yourself filling up on other foods to satisfy your sweet cravings. Foods like white bread, white rice and pasta can also increase glucose levels in addition to providing more sodium than you need so not ideal.

Really work at making healthy swaps:

If you take sugar in your hot drinks cut down little by little to allow your taste buds to adjust.
Don’t add jam ever day to your toast – if you are at increased health risk then think about choices that won’t spike your blood glucose, eggs are a good alternative and ditch the toast too.

If you are not sure how to make safe and healthy swaps, please do get in touch, we are experts in all areas of nutrition and health and we would love to help you.

Gillian x

Please do feel free to share our blogs to help others.

Call 07717392306
Email: info@121dietitian.com

COVID -19

March 16, 2020 by 121dietitian

IMPORTANT MESSAGE:

As per government recommendations on 16th March 2020 our clinics will now be held on – line using SKYPE or Zoom.

Please do not hesitate to contact us as it is business as usual. We are here to assist you with keeping your immune system and health optimal while we all fight this together.

Stay safe from the 121 Dietitian team

Essential Nutrition for Recovery after Surgery (Part 1)

April 26, 2018 by 121dietitian

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 make collagen. Collagen is an important part of your blood vessels, tendons, ligaments, and bone. Vitamin C also plays an important role in making up your brain chemistry and is also needed to carry fat into cells for use as energy.

Your ability to heal after surgery will depend on having proper blood flow to the surgical site. Vitamin C will help you heal from the trauma that is part of your surgery. Vitamin C allows blood vessels to be relaxed and open. You will deliver the most amount of blood to your injured tissues if you have enough vitamin C. Blood flow to injured areas is central to how well we heal. After surgery your circulation will be slowed by inactivity. If you have atherosclerosis or hardening of the arteries, your blood vessels are less able to relax. This adds to the challenge of recovering after an operation.

Vitamin C rich foods include: kiwi, peppers, oranges, strawberries, pineapple, broccoli, sprouts, mango, tomatoes, spinach.

Check back next month when we’ll be sharing part 2 of Nutrition and Surgery series.

If you need help, then please get in touch here for a free pre-consultation assessment. You can then come and visit us at one of our many clinics and we can create a personalised programme for you to get your dietary health back on track.

Gillian Killiner – Lead Dietitian and Director at 121 Dietitian. 121 Dietitian is an award winning nutritional consultancy company based in Belfast. Clinics are available in Belfast and worldwide via Zoom, Google, Skype.

If wish to chat about this : Call 07717392306 or email: info@121dietitian.com

Please feel free to share our blogs to help others

Information checked & correct on 16th May 2018 and Jan 2021.

Eat right for mental health and overall wellbeing

January 29, 2015 by 121dietitian Leave a Comment

How and what we eat has an overarching effect on the mind and body.

We all know that, don’t we? But really have you been doing anything about it? If you are in the camp of the invincible guts of steel, or “never taken a day off in my life” type person then you are either in luck, on borrowed time or in a minority! More and more people we find are attending 121 Dietitian’s clinics with symptoms they just can’t get answers/pills or potions for, and its having a detrimental effect on their mind and body so I thought I would write a little about it and how we have been able to help.

For some people it may not have been an overnight change but crept up over a few years, or for others it may have been a bolt out of the blue. Everyone and their circumstances are different, however the symptoms are often similar, or cross over with other illnesses making diagnosis vague and frustrating. But ultimately the most detrimental outcome for each person sitting beside me is that the problem is ongoing and impacting on their quality of life. Work suffers, family life is stressed, holidays become an idea of hell than heaven….

One recent example: Jen, she attended our clinic Jan 2014, a woman in her 30’s, busy life, young family and working a full-time job, full of life, shopping wasn’t always a priority and food was from ready-made meals for her and her partner. She started out in March 2012 with some episodes of feeling tired, low in mood, then progressed to feeling very low all the time coupled with some aches and pains, loss of appetite, change in bowel habits, unable to sleep well, feeling real fatigue, colder than others, weight gain, brain fog, forgetfulness, hair thinning……. She felt alone, worried and isolated. She had been for some tests and told she had fibromyalgia, Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) and needed to exercise more. She didn’t get the answers she needed so attended our clinic. She had a life before this and wanted it back.

We requested a series of blood tests for her re: her nutritional status, full thyroid function and antibodies, cholesterol profile, etc, we took her body composition and waist circumference. Jen also completed our questionnaire and 7 day food diary.

Tests showed that Jen was in poor nutritional health, she had multiple low levels (not out of range but very low levels sub-optimal for health) of essential nutrients in her blood. She had an elevated glucose and triglyceride level. Her macro and micro vitamins intake were minimal with a high sugar/salt, sat fat intake. These problems, you may be surprised to read, however were not addressed at this stage. This was not until we got her GUT working again, if the gut isn’t absorbing then those expensive vitamins and minerals pills and potions that you are encouraged to buy (and Jen had stack loads in her bathroom cabinet) would be a waste of time. Having a poor gut function like IBS impacts on more than the GUT and as mentioned above it has a negative effect on overall health, with prescribed antidepressants, antacids, laxatives…..being common.

To fix this we guided Jen through our excellent Low FODMAP elimination programme. 8 weeks later with full support she came back a changed lady her IBS symptoms had improved significantly. Next we were ready to address the diet for her mood, total health and for her life back.

As Jen was carrying extra weight she decided to enrol in our Counterweight Weight management programme, a 12 month fully supported evidence based programme. Returning for the last appointment she has now lost the weight she had been so desperate to shift, she had fixed her GUT, and is now eating a nutrient rich diet. This in turn has helped her low mood, her family life, energy levels and is now looking forward to a holiday abroad with her family, something she feared greatly when we first met her. Jen is one of many we see men, women and children are all reporting problems.

So why is this happening?

Many factors can play a part here but certainly modernisation is a big one. We are living faster lives with fast foods and less down time to relax. We have over recent centuries moved from a whole foods diet to one that is based on processed and refined foods. These processed foods are leading not only to greater ill health: obesity, heart disease and inflammatory diseases, they are also leading to greater emotional distress in the form of depression, anxiety and insomnia. Eating a diet filled with chips, fast food and fizzy drinks is leading to an epidemic of “mental illness.” We also eat too quickly, chewing food has declined and food is beige, soft and gulped down, not allowing our mouth enzymes a look in.

Good Nutrition is vital for your mind and body. This does not have to be difficult, so many people are confused with all the shouting and pushing of some extremes. Adhering to veganism, vegetarianism, Low carbs or paleo is not required. If the first changes you make are by concentrating on cutting out industrial based processed foods and eating more from scratch, cooking meals in the kitchen, focusing on a whole foods diet filled with wholesome prepared meals then you are doing well. Sitting and savouring food with family and friends is a part of life and its importance should not be overlooked for total happiness and health.

At 121 Dietitian we look at the full person. We spend a large amount of our time building a profile of the individual’s health by using blood results, checking symptoms, assessing the diet and body composition and most importantly discussing with the patient how they feel. Our programmes are detailed but we get the results to get people’s lives back.

If your GUT is down so are you.

Information checked & correct on 16th May 2018.

Make October YOUR New Year!

October 2, 2012 by 121dietitian Leave a Comment

A lovely lady recently came to me in August 2012 looking for help with her main 2011 New Year’s resolutions!

She wont mind me sharing this as the progress she has made has been outstanding since she started!

Her main problem was her disappointment that she had not come near to achieving her personal goal of “being as healthy as possible.”

Despite her good intentions she had made disappointing progress and it was 8 months into the year. She was panicking.

Many of us can relate to this. We have expectations for great changes and we feel motivated at the start, but events and responsibilities seem to work against us and we are left feeling frustrated and sometimes discouraged that the changes we want to see will never be accomplished.

With this lady, and others, a few simple strategies can help make significant changes promoting health, fitness, and control.

I advised this client that September through to October would be the perfect time to make her changes. The kids are back in school, the home routine is in place, and it is a long time till the Christmas rush!

My Client was raring to get started, she focused, made the time and energy to commit to her new plan.

The following are some of the goals we decided to focus on:

Step 1: Start small.

In the case of my client, instead of encouraging her to become a slave to the gym, we started with two 30-minute walks per week. Over the past three weeks, these have lengthened and she now looks forward to her evening walks most nights of the week. This simple change may add years to her life.

Step 2: Be ‘SMART’

Identify specific, measurable goals. They must be realistic and linked to a period of time so you can assess your achievements. These goals are “SMART” goals (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely.)

My client’s goals were similar to many; ‘eat better and be more active’, but how do we measure success with a goal like this?

As a starting point, we broke down her goals into three straightforward, but significant, changes:

1) Begin to eat breakfast within 30 minutes of waking five out of seven days per week.

2) Eat a portion of vegetables with both lunch and dinner six out of seven days per week.

3) Keep records of your food intake and exercise for five days to promote self-awareness of your eating and activity patterns.

Step 3: Get Support

Obtain support from a friend, spouse or family member. In this case of this client, her husband has been a great supporter. He reminds her to sit down and eat breakfast with him instead of running around after the kids and he provides the motivation for her to be fit by walking with her in the evenings. He and the kids are enjoying the health changes too, they are eating better and their mum is happier and healthier.

In addition to her family support, my client has benefited from professional support. In working with a dietitian it has had help her make appropriate goals, identify obstacles and help overcome challenges.

Professionals are trained to help provide creative ideas to make it a fun and interactive experience. My client laughs with pleasure as she informs others of her fears of making that initial contact. She expected I would whip her into shape and she would be mortified, but now instead she admits she enjoys the one to one webcam consultations, coming to the clinic weight session and the programme she is following. She says she does not feel deprived or different to anyone else only that she is already feeling much healthier and fitter.

Step 4: Get accurate information

As a Dietitian I spend a lot of time correcting people’s myths. Most of my clients come in expecting they will be told to eat salads, cut carbohydrates, and slave away on a treadmill seven days a week. We know from countless studies, that healthy eating does not mean dieting. While there are specific dietary requirements for many conditions, such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and cholesterol problems, most people do not have to cut anything out, they just need assistance in finding the right balance. Obtaining professional guidance ensures you learn which strategies are appropriate for you.

If you have struggled with getting healthy this year, why not click on the contacts page and get your diet assessed by the professionals!