Digging around I  found these nuggets…

Fat chance of tough love on the obese – Health – NZ Herald News …  Finally, an expert on human nutrition brave enough to tell us what we don’t want to hear …

Cindy here: article is opinionated, totally non-PC – and sensible! It backs up those good old sayings: ‘You are what you eat’ and ‘You reap what you sow’… (here’s my take on this story)

Row erupts over lap-band surgery to combat obesity | The Courier-Mail … OBESITY has become a financial battleground, with heated debate over who will pay for the soaring burden of the overweight on the public purse. This week, the parliamentary report Weighing It Up described obesity as “one of the last bastions of discrimination in our community”. Estimating thousands of morbidly obese people last year cost Australia $58.2 billion, the report urged the Federal Government to recognise obesity as a chronic disease and provide taxpayer-funded treatments – including lapbanding surgery …

Cindy: The numbers may stack up – saving so much on each person who has the operation – but people aren’t numbers. Who’s to say they won’t re-gain the weight?

The Human Condition : Stop Doing Sit-Ups – Why Crunches Don’t Work … Of course, it won’t matter how muscular your torso is if your body fat is too high. The best way to build strong, visible abs isn’t through repeated sit-ups, but by engaging in circuit training that has you working your entire core while you’re burning calories – and to keep yourself disciplined during meals. “If you want to burn your fat mass, make sure you have a combination of weight training and cardiovascular, but 90 percent of good abs is your nutrition …

Cindy: Great – I always hated sit-ups!

Multivitamins linked to younger ‘biological age’: Study

Cindy: Before you rush out to buy some multi-vitamins, read the story. Even the authors say that it could simply be that people who take multivitamin supplements are more healthy anyway.

Why Restaurants Make You Fat – Page 1 – The Daily Beast … Restaurant Syndrome: 1. Eat out. 2. Eat too much. 3. Feel bad. 4. Repeat. The Daily Beast’s Susan B. Roberts on why you do it—and five ways to minimize …

Great story from the USA with some practical tips. But I’m not sure how my family would react if I ‘accidentally’ spilled water on the chips!

Push for nutrition labels on junk food menus | The Courier-Mail … FAST food restaurants could soon be forced to display nutrition labels on menus, as part of the Rudd Government’s crackdown …

Cindy: Hmm… if I was hanging out for a burger and fries I don’t think I’d bother trying to work out which was the healthiest.

Men roasted in the kitchen | The Courier-Mail … ONE in three Australian men barely puts a foot in the kitchen and when he does he tends to be a monotonous cook trying to hog the limelight and demand movie star-like attention. That scathing description has been served up by corporate food producer, Nestle, in a new survey of …

Part 1 of this series was on my last post. It talked about eating plenty of low fat protein (that’s no fatty meat or creamy dairy foods) and a few fish meals a week – preferably not greasy fish and chips. So what’s our next step to healthy skin, hair and nails? Here’s part 2…

3. Muesli – wholegrains

Swapping your croissant and Cornflakes to oats and muesli will boost your intake of essential fats, B vitamins and the potent antioxidant, vitamin E. B vitamins could easily be called the skin vitamins because a deficiency often shows up as itchy, dry skin. Wholegrains have all three parts of the grain – the bran, endosperm and germ. Refined, white flour based foods miss out on the bran and germ which is where all these goodies are.

4. Nuts – nutrition nuggets

Nuts are little nutrition nuggets – packed with essential fats, vitamin E and B vitamins. I was once the dietitian for a heart disease study where people who had had a heart attack were asked to eat 50 grams of peanuts a day for 6 weeks. Two women in particular noticed a huge improvement in their hair and nails. It’s likely that, after years on low fat diets, the peanuts gave these women some much needed essential fats.

5. Kiwifruit

Two hundred years ago British sailors were called ‘limeys’ because they ate limes to prevent scurvy. Before this, many suffered bleeding gums, bruising, wounds that wouldn’t heal, weakness and death due to lack of vitamin C on the long ship voyages. Vitamin C is essential to make collagen, the structural cement of the body. Under the skin, collagen is the fibrous tissue that plumps it up giving support and shape. As skin ages it loses collagen. Eating plenty of kiwifruit, oranges, lemons and grapefruit may not have the same instant ‘plumping out’ effect as a collagen implant but with its vitamin C and hundreds of anti-aging antioxidants it is natural beauty therapy at its best.

When we breathe car fumes, cigarette smoke and lie in the sun harmful oxidation reactions happen in our skin and body. Vitamin C, E and beta carotene are potent anti-oxidants which mop up the harmful by-products of oxidation and slow down damage to the skin. Large doses of vitamins C, E and beta-carotene help protect the skin from sunburn and improve its resilience to things that could irritate it. But sometimes the anti-oxidant activity shifts to harmful pro-oxidant activity. How to prevent this? Skip the pills and eat lots and lots of antioxidant rich fruit and vegetables.

6. Orange, yellow, red and dark green fruit and vegetables

According to its sticker, pawpaw is ‘Super-food for the skin’. It’s the beta-carotene, which the body converts to vitamin A, that gives carrots, pumpkin, mango, rockmelon, spinach and broccoli their healthy skin image. If you have dry hair and skin, check whether you are eating enough coloured fruit and vegetables and other vitamin A rich foods – liver, oily fish, full fat dairy foods and egg yolk.

Large doses of beta-carotene help protect skin from sunburn and improve its resilience, especially when taken with other carotenoids like lycopene (found in tomatoes and watermelon. So perhaps the answer is carrot and watermelon juice although if you over-do it you may find your palms and eye-whites going a bit yellow from all that beta-carotene!

Dermatologists often use high doses of vitamin A to treat acne but this needs medical supervision as it can damage the liver and cause birth defects.

7. Skins and strings

Skin, hair and nail supplements often contain silica or the herb horsetail which contains silicon. Silica is part of collagen which gives strength to the skin, hair and nails. Wholegrains, oats, citrus fruit and the stringy bits of mango, celery, asparagus, rhubarb and cucumber skin all contain silicon.

8. Water and tea – fluids and flavonoids

Both carotenoids and flavonoids help protect skin against UV damage and can improve skin hydration. For well hydrated skin, hair and nails, drink plenty of water. And give yourself a daily flavonol dose with a few cups of black, green or white tea and, depending on your mood, a glass of red wine, a cup of hot cocoa or a few squares of dark chocolate.

A healthy diet, regular exercise and good thoughts will keep you looking ‘great for your age’ despite the inevitable wrinkles and saggy bits. Let’s leave the final word on beauty to Roald Dahl from his book “The Twits: “A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly. You can have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth and a double chin and stick-out teeth, but if you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.”

Original article written by me (Cindy). Reproduced with permission of Healthy Food Guide magazine www.healthyfood.co.nz

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Glossy hair, strong nails and glowing skin are all signs of a great beauty regime – or is it a great diet? Food contains lots of beauty nutrients which people have used for thousands of years. Today we can wash our hair and moisturise our skin with honey, rosemary, rosehip, avocado or olives, to name a few. A French woman I know attributes her beautiful skin to the olive oil she rubs on her face and hands while cooking.

We can use all these super-foods on the outside but what about the inside? There’s no magic food that will keep us looking forever young but our diet (plus lifestyle and attitude) does affect how your skin looks and ages.

Take these eight food steps to healthy skin, hair and nails. In part 1, I discuss protein and seafood; look for the other six steps in Part 2.

1. Protein – the building blocks

Skin, hair and nails are mostly protein. These proteins – keratin, collagen and elastin – ward off wrinkles and provide strength and elasticity. Most of us eat plenty of protein from meat, chicken, fish, legumes, eggs and dairy foods. But remember the movie ‘The Devil Wears Prada’? Miranda Priestly’s assistant is desperately trying to lose weight and proudly describes her new diet: “Well I don’t eat anything and when I feel like I’m about to faint I eat a cube of cheese!” Chances are she was seriously low on protein and eventually her skin, hair and nails, the parts of the body she most wants to look perfect, will suffer.

If protein is so important, is more better? With serious burns or wounds, the body needs extra protein to repair the damage. And athletes in heavy training have higher protein requirements. But huge steaks and protein shakes don’t build bigger muscles or better skin. If we eat more protein than we need, our body converts it to fat and stores it – usually where we don’t want it!

2. Seafood – essential fat

Our body needs fat. Not the greasy pastry and pie type but the essential omega-3 and omega-6 fats. If you have a dry, itchy scalp or skin you may not be eating enough of these essential fats. They are called ‘essential’ because the body can’t make them – you have to eat them.

Both these fats produce hormone-like substances called prostaglandins which then change into other substances that have immune and inflammatory effects. Omega-3 fats suppress inflammation, immune responses and blood clotting. Omega 6 fats are also essential for healthy skin, but too much causes inflammation and allergic responses. For healthy skin we need a balance of both types of fat. Eating some fish each week, especially oily fish such as salmon, sardines and tuna, increases omega-3’s to give you a good balance.

If you can’t eat fish, try flaxseed. Flaxseed (linseed) oil is a rich source of alpha-linolenic acid – an omega-3 fat which converts, not very efficiently, to EPA and DHA (the best types of omega-3 fats). It’s not as potent as fish oil but if you eat enough of it, it will have the same blood thinning effect as fish oil.

What about fish oil tablets? When I took them regularly I noticed how if I had a cut or scratch it would bleed a lot longer so a word of caution about taking fish oil supplements: if on any type of blood thinning medication such as aspirin. It’s like a double blood thinning effect. If you do take fish oil supplements make sure you stop them at least a week before any surgery or dental treatment where you may bleed.

Studies using large doses (3-4 grams) of fish oil found it improved dermatitis and psoriasis in some, but not all, people. It also helped protect skin against sunburn but was not as effective as sunscreen. What’s interesting is that with these mega-doses of fish oil the higher amounts of omega-3 fats in the skin were prone to oxidation – just like oil going rancid when exposed to light. Therefore, rather than mega-dosing on fish oil tablets, eat a few fish and vegetable meals each week – fish for the fat and vegetables for antioxidants.

Fish is fantastic but there’s no need to give up your steak. In fact if you have spoon shaped nails, you may be iron-deficient– and red meat may be just what your body is missing.

Part 2 of this series is to follow on my next post…

Info and related articles:

• Kids Don’t Get Enough Omega-3 (blisstree.com)
• Omega-3 fatty acids, low glycemic index diet protects against age-related macular degeneration (eye.taragana.net)
• Eating fish, nuts and olive oil may be good for your eyes (eye.taragana.net)
• Omega-3 centre  Australia

My parents came to stay a few weeks ago, bearing bags of kiwifruit from their orchard. “We’ve got so much!” my mum exclaimed as she dumped three or four bulging bags in the front hall. “The fruit shops at home are giving them away.” Her face became more serious, “And the pack house want to pay us to mulch our kiwifruit into the ground. There’s so much around that it’s cheaper to mulch the poorer quality fruit than pick and pack it. They say the orchard manager hasn’t been doing his job properly and the kiwifruit just don’t last well for export. A week later a fierce hail-storm decimated heaps of kiwfruit orchards around Tauranga and Te Puke – an economic disaster for those poor orchardists. Mum phoned me: “They have lost so many orchards that now they want our fruit”.” It was a bitter-sweet moment.

Kiwifruit has been in my mouth and on my mind a lot lately. Green and gold varieties fill my fruit bowl and every day we eat them with breakfast, as snacks, in the lunch-box, and after dinner. Most children I know prefer the gold variety. It has less of that puckered mouth zing to it and they love its sweet flavour and bright colour. If any Kiwi family isn’t eating kiwifruit at the moment they are missing out on a cheap and incredibly healthy food. And because now is kiwifruit season it’s most likely that we are getting the optimum amounts of all the nutritional goodies they contain.

Kiwifruit is one of the most nutrient dense fruits around. That’s why it’s been called a ‘super-fruit’. It’s packed with vitamin C, and the gold ones are also rich in vitamin E. But that’s not all: it has plenty of other phyto (plant) chemicals, especially carotenoids which cause the gorgeous green and gold colours and protect our precious DNA from damaging oxidation.

As kiwifruit ripen, their cell walls (that’s the fibre) swell to three or four times their unripe size. It’s sort of like a sponge full of water and it’s sure to help swish things through. In 2002 around 40 people aged over 60 ate two or three green kiwifruit a day for three weeks to see if it would reduce constipation – a common problem in older people. The study really just confirmed what anyone who’s pigged out on kiwifruit knows: you end up on the toilet and there is definitely no straining!

Both green and gold have plenty of fibre but the green also has an enzyme that stimulates gut motility. Leave some green kiwifruit on your steak for a while and it will soon be as though you had clobbered it with a meat mallet! It’s the same enzyme: it tenderises meat and it gently gets your gut moving.

Green kiwifruit also have lots of fructo-oligosaccharides – called FOS’s for short. These act as a pre-biotic which means they are food for the good bugs already in your gut. It’s sort of like ‘grow-your-own’ bacteria!

I recently chatted to Vital Foods – a New Zealand company that has worked out how to put pure kiwifruit pulp into a pill. It’s sold in chemists as a supplement for gut health, and the studies they have conducted on it have had good results. They have even managed to extract the oil from kiwifruit seeds. Just like flaxseed oil, it’s rich in alpha-linolenic acid which converts to omega-3 fats in the body. Vital Foods say that kiwifruit oil is 65% ALA compared with flaxseed oil’s 55% but there’s just one problem – they can only produce a small amount.

So if you don’t like kiwifruit or think you need a concentrated dose of it, you can try the supplement – Phloe (Info and Reuters 2008 press release here).

Me? I’m off to the fruit shop – Bye!

LINK: http://www.phloe.co.nz/

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