Tracking the flu via the internet
Posted by kathryn in Seasonal Health
A new website has been set up to track the spread of influenza around Sydney. Hunter New England Health are hoping to learn more about how the flu virus spreads geographically. Their aim is to both monitor seasonal flu outbreaks, but also prepare for possible future pandemics.
If you have the flu, all you need to do is logon and then spend 10 – 15 seconds each week, responding to an email about your symptoms. You have to live in Australia and be 18 years of age or over to take part.
So far about 600 people have signed up, but they’re hoping for tens of thousands before the study ends in October. For more information go to Flutracker.
Labor promise to banish junk food advertising to kids
Posted by kathryn in Kid's nutrition
Labor have announced wide ranging measures to curtail the advertising of unhealthy foods to children, if they win power. The policy details are still being finalised, however Nicola Roxon yesterday outlined the plan. Measures will include:
- stopping the advertising of junk food on free-to-air TV, during children’s prime viewing times
- preventing the use of cartoon and kids TV characters to promote food in supermarkets
- reviewing the guidelines for promotional campaigns and competitions in all forms of media, including pay TV, the internet and mobile phones
- inhibiting the use of toys as promotional tools
The Federal government has rejected all calls for banning advertising to kids, saying it is parents’ responsibility to regulate their children’s diet.
Limes & Lycopene's new monthly newsletter
Posted by kathryn in Blogging
Overnight Richard deployed some updates to Limes & Lycopene, including installing an email newsletter subscription button. You’ll find it in the right-hand sidebar, just above the “About Me” box. As the readership of Limes & Lycopene is growing in both size and involvement, I’ve been wanting to offer a free newsletter. Richard and I are working on a range of new features for the site, expanding both its content and usefullness. The newsletter is a way for you to keep up-to-date with Limes & Lycopene, as well as becoming more involved in the changes we’re making.
The newsletter is free and will be sent out to members only. It will include:
- a summary of the most popular posts and conversations over the last month
- advanced warning of Limes & Lycopene news, recipes and tips
- invitations to try-out new features before they “go live”
- special diet and health articles, and recipes that are available to subscribers only
To subscribe, simply click on the link in the right hand sidebar. Please note, your details will be kept private and your email address will only ever be used to send out the Limes & Lycopene newsletter. You can also unsubscribe at any time.
On submitting your details, you will be sent an email asking you to confirm your subscription. Let me know if you have any problems.
Quicklinks
Posted by rgh in Blogging, Vegetables, Eggs and Soups
- My favourite post of the week was by Crabby McSlacker, writing on the Diet Blog. Crabby’s post on 7 ways to deal with alarming new research is an absolute gem.
- I don’t want to alarm anyone, but you know how here in Australia we struggle to get those five servings of vegies a day? Well, Japan’s dietary guidelines recommend 17 portions per day. The Guardian blog explains the discrepancy.
- Lucy has been making Parsee scrambled eggs. Being a big fan of Indian-style eggs, I suspect this is a winner and an interesting change from bog-standard scrambed eggs.
- Ceviz at Only Turkish Food has also been making soups with rice – this time a tomato and rice soup.
- One of the blogs I’ve been reading recently is A Shot in the Dark. It’s written by a mum with two children, one of whom has type 1 diabetes. It’s not a medical blog, instead A Shot in the Dark is about the every day stuff of having a child with diabetes.
Bone health III: how to ensure you have strong, healthy bones
Posted by kathryn in The Micronutrients
In parts one and two of this series, I covered the basics on bones: what they are and why we need them. I also looked at calcium, why it’s important for our health and touched on the debate over how much we need.
Healthy bones are important as they allow us to continue leading active and healthy lives into old age. The weakening of bones that occurs with osteoporosis, is debilitating and something we all want to avoid.
1. The importance of exercise
The number one, most important thing for the health of your bones is to get regular exercise. Physical activity strains and stresses your bones. Cells within the bones react by making them stronger and denser. Regular physical activity makes it possible to retain and possibly even increase bone density. Exercise also improves balance, thereby reducing the risk of falls and resultant fractures.
For the activity to help your bones though, it must be weight-bearing and you must vary the activity. Different forms of exercise stress different bones, hence the need for variety. Good forms of exercise for bone health include jogging, yoga, jumping, stair climbing and weight training.
2. Getting enough calcium
It’s important your diet includes enough calcium. Inadequate calcium intake will prevent bones from becoming denser (in response to exercise) and will lead to calcium leaching from your bone stores to be put to other uses. The difficulty here though is, how much is enough?
The current Australian RDI is 1,000mg for most adults and 1,300mg per day for menopausal women. In contrast, a 1991 British review found that 700mg per day was enough for healthy bones, while intake can be as low as 300mg per day in Japan, India and Peru. On the other hand, in randomised controlled trials individuals have benefitted from increasing their calcium intake from 500 – 900mg to 1,500mg per day.
There is no evidence that calcium alone stimulates bone growth. If you are physically active and your bones are regularly stressed, then calcium can be used to make stronger bone tissue. However simply eating bucketloads of calcium is not going to make your bones stronger.
In the absence of a definitive answer on how much calcium is enough, my best judgement is to aim for about 700mg per day. For non-vegans and the lactose tolerant, this can be achieved through one or two serves of dairy, in combination with a healthy diet. For non-dairy people, there are more sources here.
3. Getting enough vitamins A, D and K
Vitamin D encourages greater calcium absorption from your food and minimises the amount lost in urine. Vitamin K is involved in your body’s regulation of calcium and in bone formation, while Vitamin A directs the process of borrowing and then re-depositing calcium from bones.
Here in Australia vitamin D is rarely a problem, as your body manufactures it in response to sunlight. Vitamin K is found in green, leafy vegetables such as broccoli, spinach, silverbeet, Brussels sprouts, kale and dark green lettuces.
While adequate vitamin A is important for bone health, it’s equally as important not to have too much. Vitamin A can be found in liver, whole milk, cheese and butter. It can also be manufactured by our body from the carotenes from carrots, dark green leafy vegetables and orange coloured fruits, like mangoes and apricots.
4. Avoid too much protein
While the exact nature of the relationship between excess protein and bones is unclear, there is evidence that too much protein leads to calcium being leached from your bones. Animal protein seems to be cause more problems than vegetarian sources.
Protein intake is calciulated on an individual basis, with the generally recommended level for most people being 0.75g of protein per kilogram of body weight. Excess protein is considered to be more than 2g of protein per kilogram of body weight.
Bone health: the series
This is the final post in a three-part series on bone health. The other two can be found at:
Ending Q & A Thursday
Posted by kathryn in Q & A Thursday
That’s the end of Q & A Thursday for this week. Thanks to everyone for your questions and comments. Remember, if you have any food, nutrition or health dilemmas, let me know by sending an email or leaving a comment and I’ll include them in next week’s Q & A Thursday.
Q & A Thursday: what actually is gluten?
Posted by kathryn in Gluten-free and Q & A Thursday
Last question for this week:
I’ve just been told to eat a gluten-free diet, but what actually is gluten? I had assumed it just meant I needed to avoid wheat, but now I’ve been told there are a whole lot of other grains I also have to steer clear of – why is this?
Gluten is a protein – well technically it’s a mixture of proteins. The gluten in wheat is made up of gliadin and glutenin. It’s found in a number of different grains – wheat, rye and barley.
If you’re trying to avoid gluten, then you need to avoid these three and all their derivative products. Wheat, rye and barley are commonly used foodstuffs and crop up in a whole range of foods – which makes going gluten free that bit more challenging. So you need to start reading labels!
Note – there’s a whole lot of misleading information out there about gluten, mainly based on a confusion over the term. For more information on this, see Gluten-free Girl’s post.
For information here in Australia, have a look at the Coeliac Society website.
Q & A Thursday: does Codral's Immune Boost work against the common cold?
Posted by kathryn in Seasonal Health
The next question is, what’s in Codral’s new Immune Boost formula and does it actually work?
While I haven’t seen any TV ads for this product, it’s being heavily promoted in pharmacies at the moment. It’s winter, there seem to be some particularly bad colds going round this year and everyone’s looking for a way to keep healthy.
Lactoferrin
Codral’s new formula contains lactoferrin, which is a type of glycoprotein. Glycoproteins are molecules that are composed of both protein and carbohydrate. They are common in mammals and in humans, where they’re naturally found in bodily secretions, including breast milk, tears, mucus and saliva.
Lactoferrin is a multi-tasking glycoprotein. It’s involved in the transport of iron around our body, plus it also appears to have antibacterial, antiviral, and antifungal activities. Lactoferrin is anti-inflammatory and also acts on the immune system. Plus it’s an antioxidant – see what I mean about multi-tasking!
What’s Immune Boost made out of?
The lactoferrin in Immune Boost comes from cow’s milk, so it’s unsuitable for vegans. While it doesn’t contain lactose, lactoferrin should be used with caution by people with cow’s milk allergies.
Does it work?
Lactoferrin has been studied quite considerably in vitro, ie in a test tube, where it shows promise. However there’s scant information about it’s use in humans against the common cold.
I also haven’t used it personally, or with any clients, so I can’t even comment from my own experience.
Codral are not the only people using lactoferrin, for example Blackmore’s have a product called Immunodefence, which contains lactoferrin.
Cautions and contraindications
- People with milk protein allergies should be cautious as lactoferrin is derived from cow’s milk.
- It can cause mild diarrhoea in some people.
- Women who are pregnant or breast-feeding should not use lactoferrin.
I’d be really interested to know if any of you have used lactoferrin this season?
Q & A Thursday: 7 ways to reduce PMS naturally
Posted by kathryn in A Balanced Diet and Q & A Thursday
One of the questions I needed to follow up from last week’s Q & A Thursday was about diet and PMS – are there any foods or dietary measures that can help reduce PMS symptoms?
There have been many myths, taboos, mistakes and just plain silliness thought and written about women and their menstrual cycle. Among my favourites are Pliny, who in the second century AD thought a menstruating woman would sour wine, make vines wither, kill bees, blunt knives and discolour mirrors – if only we had the power. PMS was first described in the medical literature in the 1930s, but wasn’t generally recognised until the 1980s.
Modern women menstruate for about three years of their total life and about 75% of women experience some form of PMS. Symptoms can include physical discomfort, mood swings, bloating, bowel changes, sugar cravings, headaches, tearfulness, water retention, fatigue, palpitations, dizziness, weight gain, forgetfullness, clumsiness, insomnia, anxiety, aggression, sore breasts, changes in appetite . . . and more. These symptoms can develop at any time from the first onset of menstruation, through to menopause.
What to do about PMS
1. Exercise
Regular exercise is an important part of managing PMS and will ease both your physical and also your emotional responses. Try to do something at least three times a week – walking, swimming and yoga are all excellent
2. Have more fibre
Boosting your fibre intake also helps with PMS. Include lots of fruit and vegetables in your diet, along with LSA (ground linseed, sunflower and almond meal), wholegrains and legumes.
3. Brassicas
The cabbage family are thought to improve the way your liver metabolises oestrogens. The brassica family includes cabbage, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, kohlrabi, swedes and turnips.
4. Cut back on the caffeine
If anxiety, sleeplessness or palpitations are part of your PMS, then caffeine isn’t helping. Cut back on caffeine containing foods and drinks from about a week before your period.
5. Stress management
Being stressed out can disrupt your menstrual cycle, delaying your period and making PMS worse. If stress is a problem then try to build some stress reducing time into your daily, or weekly life. Take up yoga or tai-chi, try some meditation or take some regular time-out for yourself.
6. Magnesium containing foods
Magnesium helps reduce many of the symptoms of PMS, including breast tenderness, weight gain, fatigue, anxiety, cramping and nervous tension. Include plenty of magnesium foods in your diet throughout the month, eg oats, muesli, rye, brazil nuts, almonds, walnuts, green leafy vegies, dried figs and dried apricots.
7. Essential fatty acids
Essential fatty acids are very useful in relieving the symptoms of PMS. In the body they convert to hormone-regulating prostaglandins and counter-act the pain-producing prostaglandins. Sources of essential fatty acids include evening primrose oil, linseeds, nuts, deep sea fish. There are more vegetarian sources of Omega 3s in this post
How long before you see changes?
Natural therapies are very good at addressing hormonal problems and it’s one of the most frequent health issues I treat in clinic. Note that when trying to improve PMS, it can take at least three months before you see a change. Therefore, you need to persist with diet changes and supplements for a good 3 – 4 months before you can assess whether they’re working or not.
Q & A Thursday: does cutting fruit and vegetables lead to nutrient losses?
Posted by kathryn in Fruit, Vegetables and Q & A Thursday
The first reader question in this week’s Q & A Thursday is from Joanne:
How much truth is there to the common idea that fruits and vegetables begin to lose some nutrition value after being cut up? For example, if I cut up fruits and vegetables and carried them around in a lunch box for a few hours before eating them? What if they sat in the fridge for more than a day, cut up?
The best study on this topic was published in 2006 by a group from the University of California. The researchers compared fresh fruit, with cut and refrigerated fruit – running tests on pineapples, watermelon, rockmelon, strawberries, mangoes and kiwifruit.
Their research showed that while nutrient losses did occur, it wasn’t until the cut fruit had been stored for about six days. In fact the fruit went off before any significant nutrient reduction occurred. After six days of being stored at 5°C the following losses had occurred:
- the amount of vitamin C lost was 5% in mangoes, strawberries and watermelon, 10% in pineapple, 12% in kiwifruit; and 25% in rockmelon
- there were no losses in the carotenoid levels of kiwifruit and watermelon, while 10-15% was lost in rockmelon, mango and strawberry and 25% in pineapple
- total carotenoid content increased in cut mango and watermelon in response to light exposure.
While this research only tested a limited number of fruits, it’s the best indication we have so far of the rate at which cut produce loses nutrients.
The best way to store fruit and vegies
- The best way to store fruits and vegetables is with the skin, rinds, and peelings intact.
- If you do cut up fruit and vegetables, store them in the fridge as much as possible before eating
- The nutrients in fruit and veg don’t start degrading until six days after being chopped up, however the produce will spoil before then. Use cut fruit and veg within 3-4 days.
- This post contains a link to information on the fastest and slowest fruit and vegetable spoilers.
Further information
For further information, see the ABC’s health site and WebMD.
What do you want from Limes & Lycopene?
Posted by kathryn in Blogging and Q & A Thursday
I’m starting Q & A Thursday this week by sending a question out to you. I’ve always wanted Limes & Lycopene to be a useful resource, but I’m conscious that what I blog about may not be what you want to hear about. So I’m throwing the question out: what would make Limes & Lycopene more useful for you?
We’re working on some big changes to Limes & Lycopene over the next few months and I’d really like to hear what you want from this site. I’m interested to hear all perspectives, but some areas you might like to think about:
- Topics: am I covering the topics you want to hear about? What about the variety of subjects – too many or too few? Is there anything I’m missing out?
- Types of posts: which style of posts do you like the best? Do you want more longer, in-depth articles, or are the quicktips and how to cook posts more useful? What about the health and food news I post about?
- Recipes: do you use the recipes? Do you want me to continue including recipes, or are there enough other sites providing good food ideas?
- Q & A Thursday: are you enjoying Q & A Thursday? Does it work being on one day, or would you prefer readers’ questions to be sprinkled among my posts over the rest of the week?
- Blog features: are there any features I could add to Limes & Lycopene to make it more useful for you?
- Posting frequency: I try to post at least once or twice a day – is this enough, too little or too much?
- Look and feel: what do you think of the new look and feel? What about the font? Is it easy to find the information you’re looking for? At the moment I’m considering changing the categories I use – I don’t thinkthey’re as helpful as they could be – do you agree?
The Rules: I’m borrowing a bit from Problogger here, but you’re welcome to leave any thoughts, wishes, questions and opinions – all are appreciated. However, I would ask you to be constructive in your feedback and criticism.
While I don’t promise that every suggestion will be acted on, I will definitely read and consider everything. Thanks in advance, I’m looking forward to reading our responses!
What's the real story on food, diet and health?
Posted by kathryn in Q & A Thursday
Over the past few months I’ve read that even diet soft drinks can give you diabetes; Australia’s childhood obesity problem is both getting profoundly worse, while also improving and that losing weight is either about eating foods that fill you up, or tricking your tastebuds into thinking carrots are a burger or possibly eating dangerously small amounts of food.
So much information is available and yet, it’s contradicting, confusing and sometimes just plain silly. If you’re a normal person, trying to eat well and live a healthy life, it’s easy to be confused and give up in disgust.
Each week here on Limes & Lycopene I run a question and answer forum: snappily (?) titled Q & A Thursday. It’s a day when this blog is thrown open to you, with the goal of providing simple, practical answers to the food and health questions that bother you.
You’re welcome to ask anything. In previous weeks, among the many topics, we’ve covered the best surface for a chopping board, the health benefits of nuts, how vegetarians can get enough protein and trans fat free margarines.
Q & A Thursday is on tomorrow, so start sending your questions now, either by leaving a comment or sending me an email.
Five ways to . . .
Posted by kathryn in Health News and Work life integration
The Guardian has a regular feature, that I think’s quite neat – Five Ways To. These quick articles provide simple, practical was to manage a health problem. The most recent include:
Workout at your desk?
Posted by kathryn in Health News
If you’ve been sat at your desk all morning, you’re probably starting to feel a bit stiff and lethargic? It’s lunch-time, and while I’m a big fan of going outside during your lunchbreak to move around and clear your head, I do realise not everyone does this.
The SMH has put together a list of exercises and stretches you can do at your desk. While they’re not the perfect solution, these simple moves should help to keep you supple, mobile and at least add a smidgeon of activity to your day.
The workout includes the “chair twist”, “cushion squeeze” and “chin tuck”, to both work a wide range of muscles and reduce tension. Take a look at the list and why not add some activity to your life today.
How the Food Dudes are saving kid's health
Posted by kathryn in Kid's nutrition
Over the weekend I read about the Food Dudes: Charlie, Tom, Raz and Rocco. These four superheroes battle the Junk Punks, who are plotting to take away the energy of the world, by depriving everyone of fruit and veg. The leader of the Junk Punks is General Junk, an evil, grumpy man who is as unhealthy as he is miserable. The Food Dudes get their special powers from eating lots of fruit and veg!
True it’s a bit cheesy, but the Food Dudes are shaping up to be one of the most successful children’s nutritional programme of the moment. With the rise in childhood health problems, governments, health authorities and health professionals are casting around for solutions to the problem. As ABC News in the US reports, many of these just don’t work:
The federal government will spend more than $1 billion this year on nutrition education fresh carrot and celery snacks, videos of dancing fruit, hundreds of hours of lively lessons about how great you will feel if you eat well.
But an Associated Press review of scientific studies examining 57 such programs found mostly failure. Just four showed any real success in changing the way kids eat or any promise as weapons against the growing epidemic of childhood obesity.
The Food Dudes programme has been run in a number of UK schools. Fruit and veg consumption not only increased during the programme, but remained significantly higher than the base level, six months afterwards. Most significantly, the biggest gains were seen in the most socially disadvantaged areas; and among kids who, at the outset, had eaten the least fruit and veg.
Developed by psychologists at the University of Wales, the Food Dudes programme includes:
- six videos of the Dudes in action
- a rewards programme including stickers, pens, pencil cases, certificates and letters from the Dudes
- a homepack, to encourage kids to eat more fruit and veg at home
- resources and worksheets for teachers
- further stories on the Food Dudes adventures
As well as increasing children’s fruit and veg intake, the special benefits of this programme include:
- It encourages and supports children through the first few weeks of dietary change. They are encouraged to repeatedly try different fruit and vegetables, giving them to time to develop the taste for these foods.
- Promotion of a culture that supports and normalises eating fruit and vegetables, eg children come to see themselves as “fruit and vegetable eaters”
- It can improve child attendance and behaviour at school and home.
- The Food Dudes also encourage increased fruit and veg consumption at home, which can benefit the whole family.
Governments in Europe, the US and Canada are currently looking at this programme. Ireland have been so impressed with the results of a two-year 150 school trial, that they are now rolling it out nationwide. Canada, Italy, California and the UK are all conducting pilot trials.
Quicklinks: how to cook kangaroo
Posted by kathryn in Sustainablity and Main courses
Today’s quicklinks is for the omnivores out there. I’ve just been responding to comments and in one answer I mentioned that one of the best meats to eat, here in Australia, is kangaroo.
Kangaroo is low in fat, plus they’re adapted to living in our harsh environment and cause much less damage to top soil than cows and sheep. However, it’s still not a popular meat and I think most people just don’t know what to do with it. So today’s quicklinks are all about how to cook kangaroo.
- The basics: the kangaroo industry body has some useful basic information about choosing and cooking kangaroo. Plus they have a number of recipes including Thai kangaroo salad and herb and caraway crusted kangaroo with polenta.
- Coriander chilli kangaroo: this is a quick meal that could be cooked on the barbecue. Kangaroo fillet, slices of eggplant topped off with tabbouleh and lemon wedges.
- Ginger red curry with kangaroo: this curry is made with a shop-bought red curry paste, so it’s quick to cook. To make it a better balanced meal, I’d suggest it needs a few vegies – for example, add in some thin slices of carrot, broccoli and sugar snap peas.
- Spicy crusted kangaroo: this is a beautiful recipe, coupling kangaroo with native spices. You can get most of these from Herbies, or simply use this as inspiration for your own spice crust.
- Kangaroo meat pie: a super-classic Aussie dish from Cook Almost Anything. Haalo matches this with corn mash and you could also serve with some steamed vegies.
- Kangaroo mash with quandong glaze, potato mash and enoki bundles: a wonderfully luxurious dish from Anna at Morsels & Musings.
Kangaroo is easy and quick to cook. It’s available from most supermarkets, as well as butchers, so why not give it a go this weekend?
Ending Q & A Thursday
Posted by kathryn in Q & A Thursday
That’s the end of Q & A Thursday for this week. Thanks to everyone for your excellent questions as usual. If you have something you’d like to ask for next week, then leave a comment, or drop me an email.
Q & A Thursday: do low carb beers help with weight loss?
Posted by kathryn in Carbohydrates and Q & A Thursday
One reader asks:
I’m trying to lose some weight. Recently I’ve started drinking low carb been, instead of full strength. But am I just wasting my money?
Low carb beer has rapidly gained in popularity over the last year, here in Australia. They’ve been cleverly marketed, but unfortunately I don’t think they’re a lot of help when trying to lose weight.
While they do contain less carbohydrate than normal beer, most of the kilojoules in Australian beers comes from they’re alcohol content. Therefore, the low carb beers only contain about 25 fewer kilojoules per 100ml than normal full strength beer:
- full strength beer: 150kJ per 100ml
- low carb beer: 123kJ per 100ml
- light beer: 100-ish kJ per 100ml
The best choice for weight loss and also general health is light beer.
Q & A Thursday: nutrition tips for women
Posted by kathryn in A Balanced Diet
Lindsey asks a large question:
I’d be interested to know any tips on nutrition for women. e.g. specific foods that are good for women, perhaps herbs/vitamins that help with PMS symptoms, things that in your opinion are helpful for general women’s wellbeing . . . sorry is that too broad??
Lindsey, yes that is a little broad! So I’m going to leave the PMS stuff for the moment, as that’s almost certainly a whole seperate series of posts.
The main nutritional issues for women are in fact the main nutritional and health issues for everyone:
- maintaining a healthy weight
- regular exercise
- not smoking
- cutting back on the saturated and trans fats
- eating plenty of fruit and vegies
- managing stress
These are the fundamentals of good health for all of us, men and women alike. If you can do these six, then your diet and your health are under control.
However, specific nutritional issues for women can include:
- Iron: the monthly period and subsequent blood loss means that women have a higher iron requirement than men. If you’re feeling tired, regularly out of breath or dizzy, then you may well be anaemic. Your doctor can do a blood test to confirm this. As well as red meat, there are a number of vegetarian sources of iron.
- Bone Health: post-menopause women are at an increased risk of bone fractures, meaning that building up strong and healthy bones NOW is extremely important. I’ve been writing a series of posts on bone health (the first two are here and here), which I’ll be finishing off in the next week.
- Folate: is extremely important for women who want to or might fall pregnant, to prevent neural tube defects. How much folate we need and the sources are here.
Q & A Thursday: vegetarian sources of Omega 3s
Posted by kathryn in Fat and Q & A Thursday
Next question is from Lucy – how to get Omega 3s in a completely vegetarian diet?
The Omega 3 essential fatty acids are very important to our health. While some fish are high in Omega 3s there are a number of other foods that contain these lovely nutrients.
If you want to avoid fish, then the main other sources of Omega 3s are:
- flaxseeds
- nuts, especially walnuts, hazelnuts and brazil nuts
- soybeans
- green vegies
There’s some debate about how much we need of these fats and even the most recent Australian nutrient reference values are somewhat confusing. While they set an average intake of 160mg for men and 90mg for women, they also recommend a much higher intake to reduce the risk of chronic disease. These suggested dietary targets are 610mg for men and 430mg for women.
As we are able to store Omega 3s, you don’t need to have this amount every day, but your intake over the week should average out at this higher level.
It’s quite possible to get enough Omega 3s in your diet from vegetarian sources:
- 20g of flaxseeds contains 4,500mg Omega 3s
- 20g of walnuts contains 1,800mg Omega 3s
- 100g tofu contains 181mg Omega 3s
- 50g raw spinach contains 70mg Omega 3s
- 100g hazelnuts contains 87mg Omega 3s
One note, there is some concern that the take-up of Omega 3s from vegetable sources is not as good as from fish. You would be wise therefore, to aim for a higher intake than the suggested dietary target.
If you are vegetarian, or don’t eat fish, then include the above foods in your diet on a regular basis. Omega 3 intake is one of the reasons I started making muffins regularly (eg peach, walnut and ginger muffins and pear, maple and walnut muffins). You could also add walnut oil to salad dressings and sprinkle flaxseed meal (available from health food shops) over your morning cereal.
Q & A: gaining muscle mass
Posted by kathryn in A Balanced Diet, Protein and Q & A Thursday
The first question in this week’s Q & A Thursday is about gaining muscle mass:
I’m a person of slight build, but do a reasonable amount of physical exercise, including some moderate weight training. I am looking to increase my muscle mass but I think my diet may be keeping me back. I was wondering if you could suggest some good foods to promote muscle growth.
To a certain extent your build is dictated by your genes – blame your parents, but if they were thin, then it’s likely you will be as well. It can be quite difficult for a naturally thin person to gain weight and I’m afraid it doesn’t happen overnight. Gaining muscle mass is a process that takes months and years, rather than days and weeks.
If you do want to increase muscle mass, then resistance training is vital. Muscles only grow if they are worked and put under some strain. Aim for two or three sessions per week. It’s important not to train too often, as your muscles need time to recover (and grow!) in between each session.
In terms of diet, when trying to gain muscle mass you need to increase your nutrient intake in general. While protein is important, so are carbohydrates, as they provide energy to the growing muscle.
It’s good to start by checking what you’re currently eating and whether you’re having enough food. Keep a diet diary for a few days, recording everything you eat. You can enter this information into one of the many online kilojoule counters, which will give you an idea of whether you’re eating enough for your height and weight.
Then you need to start increasing your food intake slightly. Don’t go crazy and eat massive amounts of extra food. You want to be eating good quality, nutritious foods and avoiding junk food and high kilojoule snacks. Aim for three good meals and two or three snacks each day. For example:
- breakfast: muesli with skim milk and fruit; or poached egg with toast and tomato
- lunch: salad with fish, egg and a bread roll; tofu stir fry with noodles; sandwich with chicken, avocado and salad
- dinner: grilled fish with potatoes and salad; stir fried beef with lots of vegies and rice
- snacks: fruit, yoghurt, crackers and hummous, skim milk smoothie, nuts and dried fruit
Forget about all the pills, potions and powder – for most people they are a complete waste of money. You’re better off getting your nutrition from actual food.
Reminder: Q & A Thursday
Posted by kathryn in Q & A Thursday
Remember it’s Q & A Thursday tomorrow. This is your chance to get a straight answer to any diet, food and nutrition questions you might have. Previous Q & A Thursday’s have covered a wide range of topics, including::
If you have any food, health or diet dilemmas for this week, then let me know by leaving a comment or sending an email.
White bean & broccoli soup
Posted by kathryn in Soups and Legumes
This is an easy, quick soup recipe that I made on Sunday night. It’s based on this recipe, with a few changes and it’s definitely a soup for garlic lovers.
I wanted to include more vegetable in my soup, hence the addition of broccoli. While the original recipe contained risoni pasta, I had some leftover rice and used that instead. I’ve also reduced the amount of olive oil.
The combination of beans, rice and cheese give this soup a high protein content and makes it a meal in itself. These proportions would serve four people as a meal and the soup also freezes well, if you leave out the cheese.
White bean & broccoli soup
Serves 4
2 tablespoons olive oil
10 cloves of garlic
1 small head of broccoli
2 cups of cooked or canned white beans (I used lima / butter beans)
1 cup cooked rice
Parmesan cheese to serve
To prepare the ingredients: Crush and finely chop the garlic. Cut off the bottom of the broccoli stem and then cut the whole head up into small pieces – no more than 1cm. Don’t worry about removing the florets, just chop the whole lot up.
To cook the soup: Pour the olive oil into a pan, put on a medium-low heat and add the garlic immediately. As the oil heats up, the garlic will start cooking and gently release it’s flavours into the oil. After about a minute, the garlic will start to change colour and brown. At this point, add the broccoli and stir to coat with oil and garlic.
Cook for about 30 seconds and then add the white beans and 1 litre of water. Bring to the boil and simmer gently for 3 – 4 minutes. Remove from the heat and blend the soup together (I just used a hand / stick blender) and then add the rice. Return to the hot plate and simmer for 2 more minutes.
To finish the soup: serve with a sprinkle of parmesan cheese.
Oh yes, and it’s even better the next day!
Reminder
Q & A Thursday is tomorrow – let me know if you have any questions about food, nutrition and health, either by sending an email or leaving a comment.
5 ways to improve your health TODAY
Posted by kathryn in A Balanced Diet
It’s too easy to put off making diet and lifestyle changes. As I wrote in my post on how to change your diet, we tend to concentrate on the obstacles to eating well and being more active, but you can make changes today.
Here are five things you can do this lunch-time or this afternoon. Five steps you can take, to make your health better.
Do them all, or pick just one. But do something today for yourself and for your health.
1. Take a break at lunch-time:
Instead of eating your lunch at your desk, get away from the office during your lunch break. Walk around for 15 minutes, enjoy being outside, clear your head.
2. Put down the chocolate:
Try having a piece of fruit and a handful of almonds, instead of snacking on chips, lollies or chocolate this afternoon. You can pick these up during your lunch-time walk. Fruit is high in fibre, antioxidants, as well as vitamins, while almonds have essential fatty acids, minerals and protein. They’re much better for your health than the junk.
3. Have a cup of tea
Not only is tea full of antioxidants, but the process of making a cuppa gets you away from your desk, phone and inbox – even if it’s only for a few minutes. While boiling the kettle, take the opportunity to stand still and take a few long slow breaths.
4. Eat slowly
In the rush, rush, rush of the day, there’s a tendency to gobble down your food, so you can move onto the next thing. This evening, eat your dinner more slowly. Put down your knife and fork between each mouthful. Chew and savour your food.
5. Go to bed early
We all benefit from a good night’s sleep. The tendency to pack as much into our day, means many people delay going to bed. Why not get an early night tonight, so you can wake refreshed tomorrow?
Improving your health doesn’t have to cost money and it doesn’t have to take up lots of your time. Little things, small changes, the stuff you can do on a regular basis – this is the way to make long-term improvements. This is the way to make your health better.
Ginger, lemon and . . . garlic tea
Posted by kathryn in Seasonal Health
A couple of weeks ago I posted about a cold and flu brew mentioned on the Chew On This blog. I’ve long been a fan of ginger tea at this time of year, for keeping the winter lurgies at bay. However Professor Marc Cohen at RMIT takes it one step further:
He heats about five cups of water with two to three large cloves of chopped garlic, an equivalent amount of fresh ginger, half a lemon and one tablespoon of echinacea root, adds honey and keeps it in a vacuum flask to drink through the day.
Garlic is a wonderful anti-microbial, so very useful in treating coughs, mild chest infections and sinus problems. It’s a great addition to ginger tea, as long as the flavour isn’t unbearable.
In the interest of experimentation, this morning I added a couple of cloves of crushed garlic to my usual pot of ginger tea. However, results on the flavour are so far inconclusive! I don’t mind the taste. Yes, it is slightly garlicky, but not over-powering and softened by the ginger and lemon. Richard however thinks it’s foul.
I’d love to know if any of you have tried this brew and what you thought?
How to change your diet
Posted by kathryn in A Balanced Diet
Changing your diet is difficult and large-scale changes are especially hard. Most people want to do the right thing, they want to eat well. However for too often we see obstacles to this: work, life, lack of knowledge, inability to cook, tiredness – all these things can get in the way of leading a healthy life.
It’s easy to put off eating well. It’s easy to think – when I’m less tired, have more time, have a bit more money . . . then I’ll eat well.
If this is you, you’re certainly not alone. In fact, it’s one of the problems I face in clinic every day. It’s why my job is not just about the food, but it’s also about time-management, shopping skills, psychology, child-wranging, partner peace-making, coaxing and prodding.
BUT, this is your life, here, NOW. Don’t put off being healthy until some future date. It’s too important.
My basic view is that eating is a continuum. At one end is the TERRIBLE diet – KFC 24/7, oodles of coke, topped up with chocolate, chips. Everything full of trans and saturated fat and not a gram of fresh fruit or veg in sight. At the other end is the 100% organic, grown in the garden, perfectly balanced diet.
Most of us are not at the extremes, but somewhere along that continuum.
Improving your diet is about pushing yourself along that line. If at the moment you don’t eat any vegies and aiming for the full five serves is too hard, don’t give up. By adding in one serve a day, you’ve made your diet better and improved your health.
Large dietary flourishes are unrealistic for most people. But small and steady changes will ensure you keep on pushing and prodding your diets along the continuum. Small and steady changes will ensure you keep on making your diet better.
Fructose follow up
Posted by kathryn in A Balanced Diet and Weight loss
A follow up from last week’s Q & A Thursday post about fructose. A reader notified me of an excellent transcript on the ABC’s website. It’s from Norman Swan’s Health Report and is an interview with Dr Robert Lustig, Professor of Pediatric Endocrinology at the University of California.
They’re talking about obesity and the changes to our diet and lifestyle that have occurred in the last 30 years. As part of this they discuss the problems with fructose in detail.
It also contains a great explanation on why exercise is so important in weight loss.
You can also download this as a podcast
We're go for launch
Posted by kathryn in Blogging
And here it is, the new improved Limes & Lycopene. Welcome.
While the migration took us slightly longer than expected, it’s wonderful and exciting to be up and running with the spiffy new look.
All the old posts and comments are there, but a couple of new bits have been added.
For starters, I have a new, more comprehensive About page. You can get there, either by clicking the “About” button in the top right hand corner, or going to the “About Me” box in the sidebar, just above the Categories.
Plus, if you’re interested in the discussion on a particular topic, it’s now easy to subscribe to the comments on that post. When you leave a comment, simply tick the receive email updates box. You’ll then be sent an email when further comments are made on that post.
I have to say a big, BIG thank you to Richard for his hard work, patience and brilliant brain. He’s written the blogging engine that runs Limes & Lycopene. Plus, his enthusiasm for my ideas and what I do, never fails to surprise and enrich me. Thanks Ritchie.
There are still a few tweaks we need to make, and some of the formatting on old posts is a bit strange. We’ll be working on those over the next couple of weeks. In the meantime, I hope you like the new look and I’d love to receive your feedback and comments.
Changes to Limes & Lycopene
Posted by kathryn in Blogging
Limes & Lycopene may seem very quiet today, but there’s a flurry of activity behind the scenes. I’ve a number of exciting things planned for this blog, and we’re taking the first step today.
I’m migrating over to a brand, spanking new blogging engine, plus Limes & Lycopene is getting a face-lift.
It should be a seamless transition, with (all going well) the new site up later this afternoon.
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31 July, 2007