Keeping fit and healthy requires a varied, balanced diet and there's lots of research and good advice to help inform our choices. Photo / 123rf
If you’re vowing to eat more healthily or simply want ways to incorporate a better balance in your daily diet, this collection of stories offers expert advice to help you on your way.
Intermittent fasting or high protein, which diets are worth it? Read on to find out.
Search for “diet books” on Amazon and there are more than 100,000 results, and the hashtag #WeightLossDiet gets a massive 250 million on TikTok. So where do you start?
“Health professionals recommend that weight-loss plans are based on healthy-eating principles,” says registered dietitian Sian Porter, a spokeswoman and fellow of the British Dietetic Association. “Together with having a healthy relationship with food, this provides a long-term framework and health benefits that go beyond waistlines.”
But it’s important to take a flexible and individual approach, a point made by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence in its weight management guidance.
When you think of exercising for weight-loss, what do you picture? Running? Cycling? Something that gets your heart beating hard and your body sweating heavily? Aerobic exercise has traditionally been associated with slimming down, while weight or resistance training - challenging your body to lift, push or pull its own weight, or barbells, kettlebells or dumbbells - was reserved for bodybuilders who were bulking up.
Tessa Strain, physical activity epidemiologist at the University of Cambridge, says: “Resistance training can also be a really effective way of losing weight.”
In fact, if you are hunting for a long-term exercise regime to keep you trim, a growing body of research suggests that weight training is essential. One Harvard study even found that weight training is a more successful strategy for reducing belly fat in men than either moderate or vigorous aerobic activity.
Calorie restriction and intermittent fasting both increase longevity in animals, ageing experts say. Here’s what that means for you.
If you put a lab mouse on a diet, cutting the animal’s calorie intake by 30% to 40%, it will live, on average, about 30%.
The calorie restriction, as the intervention is technically called, can’t be so extreme that the animal is malnourished, but it should be aggressive enough to trigger some key biological changes.
Scientists first discovered this phenomenon in the 1930s, and over the past 90 years it has been replicated in species ranging from worms to monkeys. The subsequent studies also found that many of the calorie-restricted animals were less likely to develop cancer and other chronic diseases related to ageing.
Fasting is the weight-loss method of choice these days – but is it healthy for you?
Endorsed by celebrities, CEOs and prime ministers, historically, fasting was followed for cultural and religious reasons, but across the world it is gaining popularity as a “bio-hacking” health and weight-loss regime.
Intermittent fasting is free, and part of its appeal is that it is simple to follow. It works by focusing on when you eat, rather than what you eat, within a restricted time window.
So how safe is intermittent fasting, how exactly does it work and is it suitable for you?
Eat a high-protein breakfast, do some low-level exercise immediately after and apparently the weight falls off. But does it really work?
Viral diets have a nasty tendency to combine two of my least favourite things: deprivation and maths. First there was the 5:2 diet (eat normally for five days, fast for two). The 40-30-30 “zone” diet (40% of your calories from carbs, 30% from protein and 30% from fat) and the 16:8 rule (eat within an eight-hour window, fast the rest). Now, it’s all about a new ratio – 30:30:30.
It’s hailed as one of the healthiest diets in the world, fighting heart disease, Type 2 diabetes and certain cancers. Here’s how to do it.
Towards the end of the 1950s, researchers embarked on a mission to find the world’s healthiest diet. The Seven Countries Study, which ran until the early 1980s, looked at the eating habits and lifestyles of over 12,000 middle-aged men living in seven different countries, and their rates of heart disease and mortality.
The countries that consistently came out on top were the Mediterranean ones. The researchers found that those who lived in countries such as Greece and Italy had the lowest rates of heart disease, largely due to what they were eating. The concept of the Mediterranean Diet was born, and since then an exhaustive list of studies has found that as well as protecting our hearts, it can reduce the risk of Type 2 diabetes and certain cancers, increase longevity, boost brain health and support healthy weight loss.
Whether you’ve given it up for good or just want to rein in your intake, here’s how to train yourself to lay off the sugar.
While enjoying sweet treats in moderation is fine, excessive sugar consumption can significantly impact our health.
Sarah Schenker, a registered dietitian and the author of My Sugar-Free Baby and Me, explains: “Over time, too much sugar can lead to a greater accumulation of fat, which can lead to fatty liver disease. It also means the body has to produce more insulin to control your blood sugar levels, which can increase the risk of diabetes.”
“Too much sugar has also been linked to increased blood pressure and chronic inflammation, both of which are linked to heart disease.”
“Nutritional psychiatry” is the study of how food can improve your mood. Here’s everything you need to know…
The old adage, you are what you eat, applies to both our body and mind. “There’s no doubt that food and mood are really closely connected,” says Dr Federica Amati, the head nutritionist for Zoe, the nutrition science company set up by Professor Tim Spector. “For example, we know that food and dietary patterns are really important in helping to prevent mental health disorders, but also in improving their symptoms. We also know they can help with sleep and energy levels, both important markers of mental health.”
There is no silver bullet when it comes to food and brain health according to Sarah Berry, an associate professor in nutritional sciences at King’s College London: “Improving brain health is down to overall dietary patterns, rather than single foods. We need to eat a wide variety of nutritional foods, because a diverse diet contains lots of different chemicals that all work together to improve health.”
When it comes to shifting the pounds experts say that - instead of focusing on what you can’t eat - adding certain foods to your diet is key.
We all have a pretty good idea of the foods we should limit if we want to lose a few kilograms: chocolate, biscuits, cake, chips, pizza -the list goes on. But we don’t give as much thought to the foods we should include in our diet to improve digestion, keep us full and boost metabolism - all of which helps us to reach a healthy weight.
“When it comes to weight loss, find ways to improve your overall health rather than extreme calorie restriction or fad diets,” says Rhiannon Lambert, nutritionist and founder of Rhitrition. “There are many fad diets that offer unsustainable quick fixes, resulting in most dieters putting the weight back on when they come off a diet.
“Instead, introduce more nutritious foods which can lead to sustainable and healthy weight-loss. I always pose the question, ‘What can you add into your diet, rather than take out?’”
Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is no laughing matter. According to the medical research charity Guts UK, it is the most common digestive system disorder, with up to one-third of the UK population experiencing symptoms. It causes stomach cramps and discomfort, diarrhoea, bloating and constipation that come and go and can last for weeks or months at a time.
The exact cause of IBS is not yet known, although research suggests it may be connected to the way the brain and gut communicate. As a result, food moves too fast or too slowly through the digestive system. Experts believe stress, bacterial infections and food intolerances can also cause IBS, and studies indicate some people may have a genetic predisposition to the disorder. It’s also twice as likely to affect women as men.
There is no complete cure for IBS and it’s usually a lifelong problem, but all hope is not lost: with the right diet and lifestyle changes there is a way to control the symptoms.
There is a reason our bodies don’t like us to shed kilos - even when we stick to our calorie goals.
Sometimes, no matter how positive our intentions, losing weight isn’t as smooth a journey as we hope. Perhaps we’ve made great progress in the first few weeks or months, then suddenly, despite sticking to our calorie goals, found the numbers on the scales just aren’t budging any further.
“Weight-loss plateaus are something I see all the time,” says Dr Andrew Jenkinson, a consultant bariatric surgeon at University College London Hospital and the author of How to Eat (and Still Lose Weight). “They can be overcome, but it may require further changes to reset your metabolism.”
Let’s take a look at the science.