Just start eating better!! Can you trust the health profession?

I don't know how it is with you but it seems most people get stuck on the whole healthy eating thing when it comes to good nutrition.
There is so much misinformation (is that even a word?) out there that it's no wonder people are confused. To make matters worse, even the health profession / industry can't seem to get it right. I just read this the other day in the recently released NZ Primary Care Handbook 2012 under a section called "The NZ cardioprotective dietary pattern".

They recommend
- veges 3-4 servings per day,
- fruit 3-4 servings per day,
- breads, cereals, grains at least 6 servings per day,
- low-fat or fat-free milk products 2-3 servings a day,
- chicken or lean meat 1-1.5 servings a day
- peas, beans, soy products 4-5 servings weekly
- fish, seafood 1-2 servings weekly
- eggs 3 weekly
- liquid oils, unsaturated margarines and spreads 3 or more servings a day (and they even say to have products made from sunflower, soya bean, olive, canola, linseed, safflower, or nuts and seeds OTHER THAN COCONUT! - could not believe that since coconut is probably one of the BEST foods we could have and has many health related benefits.
and on and on it went....

here is the link in case you just can't believe it either...

http://www.nzgg.org.nz/library_resources/92_primary_care_handbook

If that isn't a diet aimed at fattening you up then I don't know what is. If people were to follow this 'cardioprotective' diet here then we would see an increase in cardiovascular disease - and what do you know that is exactly what has been happening the last 40-50 years since this type of diet came out and was promoted. Maybe next time I will go through and highlight WHY and HOW this type of diet actually makes things worse!

It makes you wonder does anyone really know what "healthy eating" is? What are the "right foods" that we are supposed to be eating. What is healthy eating for cardiac sufferers and what is healthy eating for diabetics? Is there even a difference?

Is the 'food' that we see these days full of chemicals and stuff we can't even pronounce properly actually even food?

Many of my clients ask me what they should be eating. Who am I to say what they should be eating? All I know is that I'm still learning about what the best foods are for me - far be it from me to start prescribing diets for others.

However what I find really handy is for people to start actually writing down what they eat each day. Try it for a week and then go back and look over it. You can probably pick out what stuff should not really be in there and so try the next week cutting it out or eating less of that stuff. Changing food / diet is a part of lifestyle change. It happens gradually if you are persistent and keep working at it.

There are a few principles of nutrition that I know have worked for many - and those are usually the things that I recommend to people that ask me about nutrition. Basic as stuff like;

1. eat REAL food (that means miss all the aisles in the supermarket pretty much if you shop there)
2. avoid the foods that have labels full of chemicals you can't pronounce - they usually come in boxes, bags, tins, containers and are stored for ages on the shelf
3. grow as much of your own food as you can
4. buy and eat as many organic vegetables as you can
5. eat meat sparingly (and make sure it is as clean / grass fed meat as possible)
6. reduce your intake of processed foods (that means any food that goes through lots of refinement and processing before you can eat it)
7. eat when hunger ensues naturally

Try doing that for a few weeks or go for the 21 day challenge of eating ONLY REAL foods and see how you feel. Most people find it tough for the first week or two as their bodies adjust but if you can make it through you will be happy with the rewards! I'm not going to tell you what they are cause that will spoil the fun - only those willing to DO will discover... as is the case with everything else in life...

FitPro visits the Cardiac Club

This week I was asked to come along to the recently formed Cardiac Club run by one of the local personal trainers in association with the National Heart Foundation.

They asked me to come along and talk about medicines that these people are on. And that is cool. I don't mind talking about the medicines that I have spent many years of my life learning about and dispensing out to lots of people. And I have done plenty of those talks before.... only difference was before I was more or less encouraging people to take their medicines according to prescribed instructions.

This time however I found that I was catching myself before saying things like "stick to the directions on the label" and "follow what the doctor has said to you". You see the difference is that now I have come to the point where I believe that there are many medicines that people do NOT need to be on and should NOT be taking. In fact there are many that I wish many people were OFF completely. The more I work in primary health care the more I realise that it just aint workin for so many people the way we have things set up currently.

We go to the doctor when we are not feeling well (likely because we are eating foods that our bodies cannot tolerate, or are stressed with all manner of work/family/psychological issues, or are not really moving around as much as we should) and expect that the doctor can somehow magically make all that stuff right in a 10-15 minute conversation with a prescription!! Does that make sense at all? We go in with symptoms of dis-ease (our body is not at ease for whatever reason), and come out with something to control or mask those symptoms.... without making any changes to or addressing the cause of the disease... that's messed up!! Yet that is exactly what most people do these days.

Sure there is not enough time to get through the waiting rooms full of people with acute symptoms when we spend more time with people actually trying to address the cause. Well that is the usual answer you would get anyway - but what is the point of spending even that small amount of time on only symptom control when you would save time in the long run by helping people understand WHY they have those symptoms and giving them something to go and try to change in their lifestyle that would help them long term.

Just like Paul Chek's "last 4 doctors you will ever need"
Dr Quiet
Dr Diet
Dr Movement
Dr Happiness

Start by addressing those 4 main areas and you will soon see that some symptoms will disappear as you address the root cause. You will start to feel much better generally and will likely do more with all the extra energy you will have.

Also I just read this the other day...

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/05/02/is-sugar-toxic.aspx

...which points to sugar being one of the main things causing some of the chronic conditions many face today. In fact I read in a local health article this week that over 80% of the health spend goes on people with chronic conditions. Imagine the savings if we just cut out the sugar! Problem is we are all so addicted to it! Don't believe me? Take the 3 week challenge and see if you can last 3 weeks without sugar. That would include anything that comes in the aisles of the supermarket as they all contain sugar in some form, any wheat based product as that breaks down rapidly into glucose and pretty much any processed food! So that leaves you with lots of vegetables and meat and nuts.

You're probably thinking 3 weeks is such a looooooonnnnngggggg time. So what you can do is wake up each morning and tell yourself that for just this ONE day, I will eat only REAL foods (so not any processed foods only veges and some meat and nuts). Do that each day for 21 days and you're done!

If you manage to do it you will find that you lose weight even though you are eating more and feel full for longer, see skin improvements, feel healthier and have more energy - and all that without even doing any exercise yet! You will probably feel so good that you WANT to go and get active!

Give it a go and see how you like it - maybe next time I will go into the biochem of how getting off the sugar will actually get your body burning fat for fuel instead of all the sugar you've been giving it.

Have an AWESOME week!!