Nicole’s latest diary entries

The facts about organic food

A new campaign starts out this week to raise awareness of organic food. So what's the difference between organic and conventional produce and what are you paying for? Here's what we know so far...

NUTRIENTS AND HEALTH:

The Food Standard Agency commissioned research to look at differences using studies from 1958 to 2009. No significant differences were found for levels of vitamins and minerals when the best quality studies were assessed, with the exception of nitrogen and phosphorus, which aren't thought to have an impact on health at the levels found. No differences in health were found from eating organic or conventional produce, though in this case the number of studies was limited.

Weather organic or conventional produce, nutrient levels are far more effected by many other factors such as types of soil, weather conditions, storage type, length of storage and transport, crop variety and how the animal is fed. Consider these if nutrient levels are your priority. 

FOOD SAFETY

Both organic and conventional produce are under the same safety regulations. So no difference here

PESTICIDES AND ADDITIVES

Lower levels of pesticide residues have been found in organic, but all pesticides are tested for safe limits before being accepted for use and both conventional and organic are monitored to ensure levels are below the safety limits set. Therefore levels in conventional produce and organic should both be below safe limits. 

PRICE GAP

Organic food has traditionally been more expensive, but the gap is reducing. The latest price check found less than £5 difference on the total of a range of items purchased over a week. 

SO WHY ARE WE PAYING?

Organic food has plus points. It represents high standards in all areas. It has a high focus on the environment, sustainability, soil care using crop rotation, natural manuring methods for fertilisers, strict rules on which pesticides can be used and how, no genetic modification allowed, high animal welfare standards. All standards are governed by EU law for minimum standards, with a monitoring body to ensure these standards are met. You may be getting standards well above these minimums. Ultimately, you are paying for quality in all these areas. 

ON BALANCE?

Consumer choice is important, so you choose what's important to you. If the environment is your priority then consider organic, but be aware of all issues such as where the food is produced, are air miles and pollution involved from shipping long distances? 

MY OPINION: I'm all for organic farming and protection of our planet. Best of all for the environment and for fresh produce has to be growing your own wherever you can, but obviously that isn't possible for all. If cost or availability is an issue I'd rather you focus on having a healthy balance of food, quality lean cuts of meat and fish with lots of fruit and vegetables of any type, organic or standard. The facts are, the benefits of a vegetable and plant based diet is protective for health no matter which one you choose. 

 BBC Breakfast interview with Nick Coffer/p>

Some pre-packed salads have been found to have more fat and calories than eating a burger and fries or 6 crème eggs. A study by the consumer organisation Which? looked at a variety of supermarket off the self salads, taking a close look at the small print on the labels.

A 300g small prawn salad  sold in Morrisons topped the league packing in 855calories and 66.3g of fat.  That’s nearly all the fat for one day in the guideline daily amounts for a woman and more calories than in a  McDonald’s Big Mac and medium fries (820Kcals and 40g fat).  

Marks and Spencer’s pasta with tomato and basil chicken salad  came second for calories at 760Kcals and 46g of fat, with mayonnaise being the second highest ingredient at 27% of the meal.  Most of the fat from salads is due to the amount of high fat dressings, mayonnaise or oils used.

Asda’s Chicken Caesar Pasta Salad contained 683Kcals and 41g of fat, the same amount of fat as in 6 Cadbury’s crème eggs.  

When choosing salads pick from ones where you can see lots of colourful salad vegetables rather than just pasta or rice. Also look for those with salad dressing on the side so you can just add the little you need and drastically reduce the fat and calorie content.

A caution on cheese if you are watching the pounds and keep portions small. It’s a great source of calcium but it is also high in fat. Beans and pulses are another protein option and work well in salads.

As with anything shop bought, read the labels if you want to keep a check on what you are eating. The information is there, but it might be very small and misleading, often needing you to calculate the amount in the portion size you will be having.

Have a look at the salad trial we conducted to see what the public made of these salads <o:p>

25/6/2009

Alcohol - health boost or risk?

The department of health recently carried out research showing beer drinkers having five pints a week loaded up the same calories as having hundreds of high fat cakes and doughnuts in a year.  A similar picture emerges for other alcoholic drinks including wine, spirits, cider and liquor. 

For a long time alcohol has been noted for heart protective qualities when taken in moderation in heart disease and this is still the case. However it has also been found to raise blood pressure and raise levels of triglyceride fats in the blood, so contrary to popular belief it may not be ideal for all cases. For women even a glass a day has been linked to an increase in breast cancer and there are other cancers that alcohol may raise the risk of such as mouth and stomach. 

But looking at the more immediate health factors, many do not realise that alcohol contains more calories weight for weight than the food components of protein and carbohydrate. In fact it contains nearly double and a little less than fat.

That means that alcohol adds up the calorie count in your day very quickly. 

But it's not only the calories in alcohol that can lead to weight gain but the effect alcohol has on our body function. 

In the first instance alcohol causes a drop in blood sugar levels as it suppresses the function of the liver and its release of glycogen stores so hunger cravings go up, making you much more likely to eat excessive amounts or to go for unhealthy snacks that are at hand.

Over a longer period of time and excess use the blood sugar mechanisms may be effected permanently with a high blood sugar hyperglycaemic state leading to insulin resistance, which is linked to many healthy conditions, notably heart disease, weight gain and obesity, cancer and diabetes.

Alcohol is a diuretic, leading to dehydration and thirst, so we tend to drink more alcohol and compound the situation. 

Finally, even though alcohol is a dense source of calories, it does not compensate for food in the same way. It does not contain all the nutrients of food and it doesn't keep you full as food does. Drinks, whatever they be, do not trigger the bodies satiety mechanisms, the signals that tell your body it is full. That means that when you drink you don't feel full in the same way you do with food and within a short time, even though you may have had more calories than a whole meal, you soon feel hungry. 

My advice: you don't need to avoid alcohol if you enjoy it, but have just a glass with a meal occasionally rather than daily and keep a large glass of water near by to combat dehydration.

If you go out socially regularly then the same applies. Keep to one glass and make it last and get used to being able to go out without having alcohol at all in social situations so that you are not tied to it when you want to be alcohol free.

A better swap for these days would be a glass of orange juice to sip slowly, a virgin mary and a glass of mineral water - giving you plenty of fluid with added vitamins and minerals too.

If you are drinking look out for small 120ml glasses of wine rather than the more common large 175ml glasses, mix with sparkling mineral water if you wish but take care with mixers as the alcohol may then not be noticed and there is a tendency to drink up quicker; a bloody mary cocktail which has lemon, lime and tomato juice to boost the nutrient count rather than creamy cocktails; half a pint of beer or lager rather than pints. 

Calorie counts:

1 pint lager: 230Kcals   Low alchohol lager: 57Kcals

1 pint bitter: 190Kcals

1 pint cider: 240Kals

1 shot/25ml spirit: 50 Kcals

1 bottle alcopops: 200Kcals

1 SMALL glass 120ml wine: 80-100Kcals...  Sauvignon blanc 80Kcals; Chablis 85Kcals, Chardonnay/Burgundy white 90kcals; Rose/Burgundy red/Beaujolais/Bordeaux 95Kcals; Chianti/Sangiovese 100Kcals; Madiera/Muscatel 160Kcals

But typically many wine glasses are now 175ml or larger! 130Kcals per glass 300Kcals in half a bottle wine

1 glass 50ml sherry: 70Kcals

Mixers:

1 glass 250ml glass tonic water: 83Kcals

1 glass 250ml cola: 105Kcals

1 glass 250ml lemonade: 53Kcals

1 glass 200ml orange juice: 72 Kcals

1 shot 25ml  lime cordial: 28Kcals

 A GP recently put forward a recommendation to put an increased tax on chocolate with the aim of curbing consumption of one of the nation's favorite treats. The proposal set before GPs in Scotland was defeated by just two votes, much to the relief of chocolate lovers.  But what is the basis for this debate?

Current figures on obesity show the UK is steadily following the US. Figures for 2007 put just under a quarter of all adults as obese and just under half as overweight. A quarter of children are overweight with 14% of under 11's obese. (Foresight Report 2007). Heart disease, diabetes, cancers, blood pressure, strokes and many other related conditions all rise as these figures climb. The UK is near the top in the world obesity rankings. 

Chocolate, once a special treat, is now part of the daily diet of many. It's often reported to be good for health, confusing health messages further.

The truth is chocolate is a high fat and high sugar food. Even high quality, high cocoa chocolate has 40% fat and 30% sugar. But as with everything, it will also provide some good things too. The cocoa bean is a rich source of antioxidants in the form of catechins and phenols that do have some protective effects. 

On balance I would say the bad outweighs any good if you are having the large quantities needed to give the positive effects seen in studies. With obesity figures rising and heart disease still in full focus, bringing chocolate, along with all the other treat foods, back into occasional rather than daily intake is the way to go.

Once or twice a week, a couple of small squares rather than bars at a time, is unlikely to cause problems and it still remains the enjoyable pleasure it should be.

Maybe taxation won't work, but this story at least highlights a need to look at all avenues to help us help ourselves and give us another kick at eating everything in balance. 

No I don’t believe in these. They are everywhere and I don’t believe that they are the way to boost your health.

Your main detoxing organ is the liver. It has various chemical pathways to break down both the toxins formed as by products of metabolism of your body and toxins from what you put into your body. These chemical pathways do need vitamins and minerals to do the job, but we get all of these in the foods we are eating and in a form that is likely to help the body to do even this job better.

This way you’ll be eating lots of natural fibres too without realising it. These fibres speed up the movement of food in your gut, binding toxins too and helping to carry them out the body.

Drop the detox pills and packages. Just give your body what it needs and cut out what it doesn’t. You’ll soon be on your way to a fitter, slimmer, healthier you.
 

After the festive season take a break on the treat foods and alcohol, and of course cut out smoking. So that’s chocolate, sweets, puddings, crisps, chips, fried foods, all the processed ready foods, cocktails, wine, beer and spirits. All these foods are either high calorie or put an extra load on the liver which has to break down the toxins we put in us.

Fresh food! Get back to all the fresh fruit and vegetables bursting with nutrients, freshly chopped up and put into meals and eaten as snacks and dessert. Onions (a great liver detox food), sweet peppers (packed with vitamin C), the detoxifying cruciferous vegetables broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, watercress, the high fibre beans and pulses and other good quality lean proteins including fish and chicken. These foods are packed full of nutrients that help the liver do its job.

Cook up fresh meals again, breakfast of oats or cereal topped with fruit and low fat plain yoghurt, sandwiches with lots of fresh salad ingredients and lean proteins, dinners of hearty winter bean and vegetable soups or fish, chicken with steamed vegetables, wholegrain pasta, brown basmati rice or sweet potato. For dessert or snacks, drop the crisps and chocolate and have your choice of fresh fruit - apples, oranges, clementines, grapes, mangos, fresh lychees – the list goes on and they are all good.

Regular is more important than the one off heavy sessions that can’t be sustained. . If it doesn’t fit in it won’t happen. So find something that fits in with your weekly routine, be it at the gym, weight training at home, in studio classes, swimming, running, cycling, dancing, work-out videos in the front lounge. Just do something, anything, each day, so you haven’t sat around all day on any one day. Aim to get an hour of heart raising activity a day, or build up to that starting with 30 mins a day. That may sound a lot to fit in, but it could be as simple as taking a lunch break to walk or parking the car further than normal and have a 20 minute walk at a fast pace in one direction and 20 minutes back.

After all the long late nights staying up over the festive season and long lie ins, it is important to get the body back into a good sleep routine. This is the time the body recovers and renews. The sleep cycle is programmed into our bodies and erratic bed times and routines can affect the quality of sleep and so also the recovery and energizing processes taking place at this time. So get your routine going again so your body is ready to wind down at the same time each night and get you started up and set up the with fresh energy for the new day .