About The Author:

Angela is a qualified individual and sports nutritionist.  Passionate about optimal health, Angela currently runs the Nutri-Style Weight Management Group (WMG) every Tuesday evening at 7 pm at the Nutri-Style Office.

Angela writes a nutrition newsletter each month with lots of helpful diet tips, restaurant reviews and healthy food choices in Singapore. 

Send questions and comments to angela@nutri-style.com. 

You can also check out her blog at www.angelalockenutrition.blogspot.com

H1N1 and Nutrition

I have been asked by many people whether or not there are nutritional strategies that can help prevent H1N1.  My answer is a big Yes!... keeping your body functioning at an optimal level will help prevent many flu and flu like symptoms from occurring.

A basic, healthy eating plan should include as many fruits and vegetables, nuts and whole grains as possible.  Try to stay away from anything that is pre-packaged, refined or processed.

Foods like apples, broccoli, tea and red onions are rich in a flavonoid called quercetin, which has been shown to keep immunity running high even when your body is tire.  A supplement of vitamin C, though has no conclusive evidence of keeping the flu bug away, certainly never hurts.

Adequate sleep also helps guard against infection. Sleep deprivation disrupts immune function and increases levels of proteins in the body associated with inflammation. Aim for seven to eight hours of sleep each night; children and teenagers need nine to 10 hours.  Stay away from stress as much as possible as that will also weaken your immune system.  An opportunity to go to the spa!

A healthy immune system also needs regular exercise. Studies show that physically active people get fewer colds each year than do their sedentary peers. But don't overdo it. Intense workouts or prolonged endurance exercise steps up the production of stress hormones, which can hinder the body's ability to fight infection. Aim to get 30 to 60 minutes of light to moderate activity most days of the week.

Dietary Assessment

This 2 session individual dietary assessment will provide you with the knowledge of how healthy your diet is for you and if you are meeting your nutrient requirements.

• A personalised dietary assessment will be conducted.
• A printed report highlighting any nutritional deficiencies will be produced.
• Learn how to make big nutritional differences with small changes.
• How to read a food label.
• Eating out, the healthier options.
• Fad diets and food scares. 

New dietary analysis software now being used at Nutri-Style!

Place: 30 Bideford Road, Orchard, #18-02 Thong Sia Building, Singapore, 229922

For more details on the workshop please contact Nutri-Style on 68875220

or Email: Nicola@nutri-style.com

Goals and Weight Loss

How many times have you heard from people, “I am going to lose 10 lbs or 10 kg this year?”  The following year rolls around and when you see them again, they look exactly the same.  What happened?!  For most people, saying they will do something and actually executing are 2 entirely different things. 

So how exactly do those people who say they are going to lose weight actually  do it?  They set goals and map out a plan of action to achieve those goals.  Sounds simple, right?  Well I guess if it were that easy, everyone would be doing it!  Setting goals and a plan of action to get to those goals can be quite a difficult task.

The key to setting weight loss goals is to follow the standard of goal setting.

It needs to be SMART: specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and tangible (have a timeline).   

The next key point in setting goals is that it must be written down somewhere.  If it is not written down, it most likely will not be accomplished.

Example of a goal: I will lose 10 lbs by December 25th, 2009.  (This goal fits into the SMART criteria).  I will lose some weight.  (This goal does not fit into the SMART criteria).

Great, so now I have a goal.  What next?  How will I get there?

Plan:

1) To lose 10 lbs in 8 weeks, I will need to cut down on my caloric intake.  Understanding how many calories you are currently eating and how many you may be burning off with activity will help to determine an optimal number of calories required for weight lose.

2) Create weekly targets for you to hit.  This will give you short term goals which will help give you a sense of accomplishment.  If you hit those targets, reward yourself with a non-food treat. Perhaps a new book you wanted to buy or a hair cut.  If you don’t reach the weekly targets, no reward!

2) Another great way to get to your goal is to tell everyone you know about your plan.  Why?  It puts pressure on you to actually go out and attain those goals!  As well, those around you are more likely to be helpful, especially when it comes to dinner parties or eating out.  If they know your plan, chances are you won’t be having a burger and fries in front of them! (they may tend to eat healthier in support of your goals too)

3) Live each day as it comes and don’t be afraid to change your goals along the way! Things happen, but try not to lose sight of what you want to accomplish.

Healthy eating in Singapore

As a vegetarian/vegan/raw foodie there are a limited number of restaurants to visit in Singapore that cater specifically to my eating plan.  However, I have noticed more and more over the past 5 years than many places are offering a wider range of vegetarian and even vegan dishes.  If you happen to go to a restaurant and don’t see any options available to you, speak to the waiter and ask if the chef would be able to make something up for you.  Many chefs would be more than happy to try something creative with vegetables!  Check out this space next month for a featured restaurant/café.

Are Food Chemicals Making you Fat?!

Most people don’t think about how chemicals in their diets affect their weight or weight loss efforts. But the man-made chemicals you consume on a regular basis can play a big role in whether you’re fat or not - even if those chemicals don’t contain a single calorie.

To understand this, you'll need to know that your liver is your primary detoxification organ. Your liver is also your primary fat-burning organ. Therefore, the more unnatural chemicals you consume on a regular basis, the more time and energy your liver needs to spend detoxifying you. But, the more your liver is consumed with the role of detoxification, the less time and energy it will have for burning fat. It’s really that simple.

For example, we all clearly agree that pesticides are poisons; their primary purpose is to kill living organisms. We know that most non-organic foods are laced with pesticides, and we understand that pesticides don’t magically become non-poisonous inside our bodies. Our bodies see pesticides as poisons too.

How does your body treat a poison? It attempts to detoxify it. This means your body attempts to render the poison harmless, and then removes it from your body, generally through your colon. Your colon is your primary organ used to eliminate toxins from the body, and your liver is the organ most often responsible for rendering poisons harmless.

But what happens when people eat unnatural chemicals in most meals?

Our livers become overwhelmed with the need to detoxify all of those chemicals and poisons, and the poisons start to back up in our blood. The fact that this is happening in just about everyone has been confirmed by several looks inside the average person’s blood.

Your liver will also store toxins and poisons for you that is was unable to render harmless. It does this to keep those poisons out of your bloodstream and from circulating in your body.

But now your liver, in addition to being overwhelmed detoxifying all of the chemicals you’re consuming each day, is also losing its functionality and has become a storage facility for poisons it couldn’t render harmless. Some estimates are that three fourths of the average person’s liver is used to store toxins that the liver was unable to render harmless.

No wonder so many people think losing weight is challenging... Their primary fat burning organ is overwhelmed with another task, and it's become only half functional.

What is the answer? There are a couple of them.

The first is to stop consuming chemicals in your diet on a regular basis. This generally means giving up processed foods, except perhaps on the rare occasion, and eating organic foods as much as possible. Plant-based foods, particularly vegetables, are very liver friendly. If you learn how to prepare them so they’re delicious, it’ll be much easier for you.  (Check out the many raw food cook books at places like Kinokuniya, Popular bookstores and Harris.)

This will prevent many new chemicals from entering your body, and is a tremendous step in the right direction. But what about those poisons already stored in your liver and circulating in your blood? Many people think that simply changing their diet to a more natural, chemical-free diet will address past toxicity, but for many, it isn’t powerful enough.

Liver cleansing is a powerful hundred year old practice that uses coffee enemas to detoxify the liver. The process helps your liver release its stored toxins into your colon for immediate removal. And through the liver, the bloodstream is also cleansed. Using coffee enemas regularly for a specified amount of time, with a natural diet, can make weight loss very easy by getting your prime fat-burning organ back on your side.

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