“Speak to a dietician – it can transform your life”
Patients across the NHS Lothian region have taken part in the world’s first trial which has successfully reversed the effects of type 2 diabetes. Continue reading Lothian patients in diabetes breakthrough
‘Ensure the only thing that gets really stuffed is the turkey!’ – BDA
The average person in the UK could consume around 6,000 calories on Christmas day alone (as against the guideline daily amount of 2,000 calories for women and 2,500 calories for men)!
In addition, over the festive period – which seems to kick off earlier and earlier each year – the average person could easily consume an extra 500 calories per day, equating to a possible weight gain of around 5lb by the time January the first comes around, assuming your festivities kick off at the start of December.
The British Dietetic Association (BDA) is on hand to highlight some handy tips to ensure the only thing that gets really stuffed this Christmas is the turkey!
The BDA, founded in 1936, is the professional association for dietitians in Great Britain and Northern Ireland. It is the nation’s largest organisation of food and nutrition professionals with over 7,500 members. The BDA is also an active trade union.
Best laid plan … If you’re eating out, eat smaller meals beforehand and cut out treats. Open one box of chocolates at a time rather than having a whole collection on the go and put unopened boxes away out of sight (out of mind)!
Buffet stalking … Don’t bother to hover by the buffet table and if you do indulge, visit only once using a smaller dessert sized plate, avoiding the high sat fat offerings like sausage rolls and quiche, in favour of fruit, skinless chicken and veggie crudités.
Office offerings … Avoid the office communal chocolate/mince pies etc, take festive fruit like satsumas into work. Also, remember to avoid the January chocolate amnesty when everybody brings in their leftover chocolates because they want to pass on the lbs to you! Give the chocs to charity as raffle prizes and start a fruit club.
Store wars … Make a list and check it twice, when going to the shops, and stick to it. Avoid those aisles of temptation, or at least, don’t go completely OTT. If you want some healthier festive snacks, try plain popcorn, pretzels, and veggie crudités with a low fat dip.
Big birdie … Turkey is a great source of protein and a low fat meat option. Most of the fat that is present in a cooked turkey will be found in the skin. Why not take the skin off before you tuck in?
Perfect portions … Around a third of your dinner plate should be veggies. Cook for the shortest length of time possible in the smallest amount of water necessary to keep all the nutrients in. Use the veggie water for your gravy and any leftover veggies for a winter soup. These make a great contribution to your 5-a-day.
Options open… If you want to go that extra step, try dry roasting potatoes on a non-stick baking sheet or use an oil spray instead of smothering them in goose fat. You can also make your gravy using veggie stock instead of meat juices, accompanied by a fruit-based stuffing with bread sauce made with low fat milk.
Bottoms down … Those who like to partake in a drink or two, tend to drink more over the Christmas period. It’s easy to forget the calories in alcohol which can tot up. Try avoiding sweet cocktails and creamy liqueurs. Alternate your drink with a glass of water or other calorie free drinks and if you do enjoy a short with a mixer, stock up on low calorie mixers and unsweetened fruit juices and beware the home measures (you know who you are)!
Pie-eyed … The average mince pie can contain about 250 calories and that’s before it’s covered in cream or brandy butter. Remove the lid to cut calories.
Sian Porter, consultant dietitian and spokesperson for the BDA, said: “Christmas is, of course, a time for lots of fun and special foods. The aim is not to make people feel guilty about indulging this time of year, it’s merely to outline the amount of calories that can get consumed and share a few tips people may want to take up to temper their Christmas eating and drinking.
“This time of year, it is so easy to unwittingly consume a lot more calories than normal. Make plans to get yourself and the family active – dancing, shopping and post-meal walks all will help to burn off some calories.
“Have a Very Happy and Healthy Christmas.”
Alison Johnstone, Green MSP for Lothian and health spokesperson for the Scottish Greens, has urged new Health Secretary Shona Robison to take a fresh approach to tackle obesity and make active lifestyles the norm.
New figures show that 65 per cent of adults in Scotland are overweight, with 27 per cent obese, a rate that has remained unchanged since 2008. The proportion of adults who are physically active to the recommended level has only increased by 2 per cent in a year.
One in eight children spends more than four hours a day watching TV or another screen, and there has been no change in the proportion of adults and children walking or cycling to work and school.
Alison Johnstone MSP said: “People are suffering from poor health and the cost to our NHS is climbing. You only have to look at the situation in Edinburgh where the public funding squeeze threatens cuts to leisure facilities and programmes that help young and old stay active.
“With the appointment of a new Health Secretary we have a chance to turn things around. I will be pushing for the forthcoming Scottish budget to prioritise preventative spending so we invest in walking and cycling infrastructure, leisure facilities and a healthy food culture, all of which will benefit our communities and the public finances.”
Is losing weight your New Year resolution? Here are some faddy diets to avoid, courtesy of the British Dietetic Association:
The BDA Announces the Results of its Annual Top 5 Worst Celebrity Diets to Avoid in the New Year
The annual and eagerly anticipated list of the 5 worst celebrity/fad diets to avoid in the New Year has been issued by the British Dietetic Association (BDA). When Christmas has come and gone, January signals a UK-wide dieting frenzy. People up and down the country will be scouring the internet, book shops and magazines searching for the magical quick fix, or even a long term solution to undo the damage of the festive season or to achieve their best body ever.
However, with so many diet books and celebrity-endorsed fitness DVDs on the market, it can be an absolute nightmare understanding who is giving good nutrition and diet advice and who, quite frankly, needs a good talking to!
The BDA has heard it all: the good, the bad, the weird and the whacky! The press office receives literally hundreds of calls from the media every year on this very subject. Here, in the opinion of the BDA, are the top 5 dodgy celeb diets to avoid in 2013.
5. The 6 Weeks to OMG Diet (new entry)
Celebrity Fans: A-list celebrities, according to the diet’s author Venice A Fulton
What’s it all about?
To be the envy of all your friends you are told to exercise first thing in the morning after drinking black coffee, then sit in a cold bath to encourage the body to burn stored fat as it tries to keep warm and delay breakfast til 10am (which for most people would mean skipping breakfast). Fruit should be ditched, snacks are off limits and whilst your plate is loaded with protein, it doesn’t matter if carbs come from broccoli or cola.
BDA Verdict:
OMG indeed! Six weeks of hell and isolation more like it. Seriously, who has the time, let alone the energy to follow this diet? Guilty of being selective with research rather than a balanced view many people’s routine could not accommodate this and a healthy breakfast and exercise should be encouraged to fit in. The ‘rules’ and competitive dieting element encourage extreme behaviour. Support from friends and family is an important part of weight loss as is taking a long term approach. And what about the other 46 weeks of the year?
4. Alcorexia / Drunkorexia Diet (last year number 2)
Celebrity Fans: It is widely thought that many top models and other red carpet celebrities are fans of this diet.
What’s it all about?
It’s when people eat very few calories during the day/week and ‘save’ all the calories they have not eaten then use them to binge drink alcohol.
For example, if you favour a VLC diet (very low calorie) to follow the Alcorexia Diet, you could be banking around 1,500 calories a day, which then gives you 10,500 calories to drink during the week. This amounts to:
To put this in context, the safe weekly alcohol unit intake is 28 units for men and 21 units for women.
BDA Verdict:
Don’t have a few too many! Following a VLC diet alone is madness, as you will most certainly not be getting the calories, vitamins and nutrients your body needs to survive and function. In addition, you will feel weak, tired, have no energy and could become very irritable. Alcohol has little nutrition other than calories. To avoid food in order to ‘bank’ your calories so you can go a use them on alcohol is absolutely stupid and could easily result in alcohol poisoning and even death.
3. ‘Party Girl’ IV Drip Diet (new entry)
Celebrity Fans: Rihanna and Simon Cowell are reportedly fans of this diet.
What’s it all about?
These kinds of IV drips were originally used to treat severely malnourished and clinically ill patients. However, people who are feeling run down are paying hundreds of pounds to have a bag of solution (usually around 250ml) injected, usually including vitamins B and C, magnesium and calcium.
BDA Verdict:
You must be a bit of a drip to do this. There is very little evidence that this even works in well people. Even if it did, as food and drink contains packages of nutrients then eating food and drinking water or other healthy drinks is preferable to having an IV drip inserted into your body? This also carries possible side effects to such as dizziness, infection, inflammation of veins and, ultimately, anaphylactic shock!
2. The KEN (Ketogenic Enteral Nutrition) Diet (new entry)
Celebrity Fans: It is widely thought that many top models and other celebrities are fans of this diet.
What’s it all about?
The KEN involves eating absolutely nothing at all. Instead, for ten days per cycle a liquid formula is dripped directly into the stomach via a plastic tube that goes up the patient’s nose and is taped on to their face. At the other end of the tube is an electric pump, which works day and night to deliver two litres of the formula over 24 hours. While on the KEN, dieters can go about their lives as normal but must carry the pump and liquid in a bag or backpack and hang it by their bed at night. They are allowed to unhook themselves from the pump for one hour a day and can drink water, tea, coffee (with no milk, sugar or sweeteners) or sugar-free herb teas with the tube in.
BDA Verdict:
You KEN not be serious! It is shocking that people are electing to have naso-gastric (NG) tubes inserted in order to lose weight, usually reserved to sick or chronically ill people. Not only that but one of the side effects is having to take laxatives because this diet provides absolutely no fibre! Nice touch!
1. Dukan Diet (last year number 1)
Celebrity Fans: Carole Middleton, Jennifer Lopez and Gisele Bundchen are reportedly fans of this diet.
What’s it all about?
A complicated four-phase diet that starts off with a ‘no carb/protein only’ approach that promotes rapid weight loss.
BDA Verdict:
Dukan not sustain this! There is little solid science behind this. The diet works on restricting foods, calories and portion control. Cutting out food groups is not advisable. This diet is so confusing, time consuming, very rigid and, in our opinion, so very hard to sustain. Even ex Dr (as of 2012) Dukan himself warns of the associated problems like lack of energy, constipation and bad breath. That sounds lovely!
Speaking about these and other fad diets, Sian Porter, consultant dietician and Spokesperson for the BDA, said:
“As much as we all would love it to be the case, there is no magic solution to losing weight and keeping it off long term. There is no wonder diet you can follow without some associated nutritional or health risk and most are offering a short-term fix to a long term problem. It may be obvious, but if you want to lose weight you need to make healthier choices, eat a nutritionally balanced and varied diet with appropriately sized portions, and be physically active. In a nutshell the solution for most is to, eat fewer calories, make better choices and move a bit more!
“On a serious note, glamorous images of celebrities saturate our daily media in all forms. These celebs have an army of people to help them to keep looking good, which is essential to their livelihood and plenty of money to do whatever they think it takes. You need to remember too, a lot of these images are airbrushed and retouched to give celebrities an unachievable body image that does not exist in real life, yet many aspire to. Some people look at these images and will try anything they think will help them achieve the ‘perfect’ body. If you have some weight you need to lose, then do it in a healthy, enjoyable and sustainable way. In the long term this will achieve the results you are after.”
For more information and tips about healthy weight loss, please visit www.bdaweightwise.com.
