A Healthy Eating Revolution

Do you plan tomorrow’s food today?

Do you sacrifice experiences you once enjoyed to eat the food you believe is right?

When you are eating the way you are supposed to, do you feel a peaceful sense of total control?

If the answer was yes to the above it seems you might be suffering from a ‘touch’ of Orthorexia!

Featured in the guardian last week, Orthorexia Nervosa is described as a "fixation on righteous eating". The condition was named by a Californian doctor, Steven Bratman, in 1997, to reflect the increasing number of people presenting with this condition.

Figures from the National Centre for Eating Disorders suggest the condition affects equal numbers of men and women, but sufferers tend to be aged over 30, middle-class and well-educated. They are solely concerned with the quality of the food they put in their bodies, refining and restricting their diets according to their personal understanding of which foods are truly 'pure'.

I do agree some people take healthy eating too far. And if badly advised it can be to the detriment of their health. However, the fact remains that restricting sugar, salt, caffeine, alcohol, wheat, gluten, yeast, soya, corn and dairy foods from your diet at certain times can lead to far greater sense of wellbeing. Furthermore, eliminating pesticides, herbicides or foods that contain artificial additives that’s just common sense right?!?

I commonly get chastised for selecting a healthy food or drink. Its not a major issue for me as I like to feel good and understand what I’m doing. But havent society got it all wrong???

The foods that cause many people issues with health and wellness are all present and correct in the aforementioned lists. Sure, if a person develops overly obsessive behaviours surrounding foods to the point where it causes them become obsessed and causes severe psychological stress they need help. So where is the line between healthy eating and obsession? Steve Bratman has made a quiz!?! (http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/08.02.01/eating3-0131.html)

Based on the questionairre, I have a touch Orthorexia Nervosa. I suppose along with anyone who has aspirations to to achieve a desired bodyshape, optimum performance or achieve good health. How can planning your food be an indication of an eating disorder?!?

It is common for me to experience hostillity when I choose to eat better than someone. It is common for me to experience a voice of concern when I decline a bit of cake. The truth I feel is that those people feel threatened and recognise the shortfalls in their diet. This I feel is there problem.

I don’t feel socially isolated. I feel liberated. The foods I choose to consume make me feel good.

It does cause some friction on occasion. However this I feel is where to quote Deanne Jade, founder of the National Centre for Eating Disorders, "modern society has lost its way with food". (http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/aug/16/orthorexia-mental-health-eating-disorder)

I recognise restricting foods to the point of malnorishment and socially isolating yourself to avoid being compromised is a psychological illness. However, restricting certain foods to achieve a desired goal is not. Surely the time has come for those who constantly select sugary refined foods to experience the hostility. They are the ones with the issues.

Calories Do Count - but Don't Count Calories

For years, those in the know have endorsed what is called the energy balance equation. This theory dictates that weight stays the same when calories in equals calories out. On the other hand, if you create an energy deficit by reducing ones calories in, a persons weight will decrease.

The problem with this is that the human body is not quite so straightforward. Sure most of us are greedy and could probably stand to reduce our portions a little. However, as research indicates much of the weight-loss from a calorie-reduced diet comes from muscle as opposed to the fat, which in turn lowers a person’s metabolic rate, the very engine on which the human requires for burning fat and maintaining a healthy weight.

Again, we come back to the same arguments again regarding bad science - Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts. Men in white coats (chemists) will claim that by quantifying the calorie we have an energy value for food.

However, what they fail to take into account is the complicated nature of the human body. There are various aspects of the human metabolism from enzymes, hormones, neurotransmitter and other compounds that affect change on the nature of food from its entry to exit. To assume this pathway is exactly the same has been the shortfall of many a dieter over the years.

You may think that from what I have suggested that calories have nothing important to enlighten us with regards to weightloss. However, this cannot be further from the truth. They are simply one factor to consider when trying losing weight.

All over Britain you will find people who could rattle off the caloric value of absolutely any food. As the old adage says this is like knowing the price of everything and the value of nothing. By understanding the composition of your calories you will start to recognise the shortfalls of this old fashioned approach to nutrition.

The smart people today will look at what happens to the foods once they are consumed. Don’t be consumed by the energy balance equation. It is not as straightforward as it seems!!!

What You Think Is What You Are.

All the great thinkers have disagreed over many things but they have agreed collectively on one major truth… we become what we think about.

For example the prophet Solomon is documented to say:

As a man thinketh in his heart, so he is.

The Buddha recognized similarly and said:

All that we are is the result of what we have thought.

Marcus Aurelius wrote:

A man’s life is what his thoughts make of it.

And the American poet and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson said:

A man is what he thinks about all day long.

So we become what we think about.

The reason this is important is this. If you see yourself as fat you will probably be fat. If you want to be slimmer and fitter, you need to act lean, feel lean and do things a fitter person does. The more you feel, experience and act as if you have already achieved your goals, the more likely your goals will become your reality. I understand that it’s not easy, but evidence suggests if you don’t have the right attitude for fat loss, you wont achieve fat loss.

Its important to understand our physiology follows our psychology. In other words our mind creates our reality. Take, for example, the last time you felt embarrassed. Did you blush? If so, that is a case of a thought or emotion (embarrassment) manifesting a physical change (blushing). Another example is when a person gets nervous (thought), their stomach feels queasy (body). Physiology follows psychology.

So if you want to change body shape, you must change the way you think today!

Proven Fat-Loss Tips

Eat half of your normal food and drink intake and you will lose weight. But going hungry is a horrible feeling, so it’s not something I recommend to my clients. In fact, going hungry to lose weight or in other words cutting calories has been a rather divisive issue of late, but the fact remains that in general we do overeat! Here are my top tips to limit your total calories consumed without the negative sideeffects…

1. Don’t skip breakfast
Starting the day with a healthy, filling breakfast has been proven to increase the chances of you eating healthily throughout the day. It also provides the body with fuel so that you are less likely to snack during the morning. By combining a portion of protein at breakfast time my fat-loss clients report more even energy supply throughout the morning and are happy to eat a smaller lunch.

2. Start with a soup or a salad
Research suggests that by starting your meal with a bowl of chunky soup or a salad you will cut the percentage of food eaten during the main meal by 15 to 20%. Eating a portion of high-density low-energy food, will take the edge off hunger causing you to eat less of the higher calorie foods that follow.

3. Limit your food choices
Evidence suggests that when people scoff a wide variety of foods they eat more. Furthermore, when people eat a single type of food, the persons eating rates slow down. The reason being by eating a variety of different foods you prolong the sensory pleasure, which stops you feeling full. If you simplify the majority of your diet to perhaps only 3 or 4 different types of food you will naturally eat less and be easily satiated by the food you eat.

4. Drink water
Both thirst and hunger are initiated at the same time to indicate the brains need. When you feel hungry at a peculiar time it is more than likely you are dehydrated. Have a glass of water instead of eating and go for a 5 minutes walk to distract yourself. When you return there will be a good chance you are not hungry.

5. Don’t get distracted
Avoid eating in front of the TV or whilst you are working and you will recognise when you are full. Studies suggest that those that do fail to recognise when they are full and go on to eat between 12 to 15% more than those that don’t. Instead eat slowly and eat with friends or family this has been shown to reduce the amount you eat by up to 30%.

So there you have it! Implement these strategies today and achieve the bodyshape you want. Let me know how you are getting on.